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The Tesseract
Average Customer Rating:   
List Price:
$14.00
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$11.20
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Manufacturer: Riverhead Trade
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781573227742
ISBN: 1573227749
Label: Riverhead Trade
Manufacturer: Riverhead Trade
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2000-01-01
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Release Date: 2000-01-10
Studio: Riverhead Trade
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Editorial Reviews:
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One of the most acclaimed thrillers of the year...
The "extraordinary"* national bestseller by the award-winning author of The Beach.
"Riveting...The Tesseract offers myriad secret pleasures beyond its seemingly plot-driven narrative of intrigue in the streets of Manila."-San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
"The Tesseract has the traits of a thriller, but it's also a love story, a character study, a portrait of life among Manila's street kids, even an experiment in narration...a feverish, affecting, altogether captivating story....What really makes The Tesseract so gripping is the author's dazzling performance as a storyteller-not the bloody climaxes per se but the innovative techniques and deft changes of pace with which they are related. This is one of those rare novels that can be read for thrills but also taken apart and examined the way a jeweler does a fine watch. Garland also lavishes his characters with quirks that ring true, outbursts of human oddity that transform a moment that most authors would rush past into something memorable...all but flawless, a tour de force of brilliant narration and psychological acuity."-i>The Washington Post
"Virtuosic...cinematic, poetic, terrifyingly precise."-The New York Times Book Review
"Bristles with suspense...mature, intelligent, and rewarding."-People
"[A] swift psychological thriller...beautifully rendered."-Spin
"Powerful, exotic...unfold[s] like a corrupt and mysterious flower."-J.G. Ballard
"Thoroughly assured...violently entertaining."-Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
"A steam engine of a narrative."-Newsweek
"Reminiscent of Graham Greene."-The New Yorker
"Delivers tremendous speed and style."-Dallas Morning News
"A dangerously hot novel."-The Christian Science Monitor
"Inventive and compelling."-Los Angeles Times
"A dashing tour de force."-St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Richly emotional."-Harper's Bazaar
"[A] page-turner."-Time Out New York
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Unnecessarily complicated
Comment: Three separate lines of story that finally come together at the end.
Too many time shifts, too many characters, too much moving about. Written in an unnecessarily complicated way, one which leaves the reader wondering where all the bits are going to come together and what the relevance of them is, and whether getting to the end is going to be worth the effort.
The end didn't justify the means, frankly. Although I gave this four stars, Garland would have done well to stick to the straightforward narrative style he used in The Beach rather than trying this more complicated method of telling a tale. It leaves the reader annoyed and unsatisfied for most of book. The chase breaks off, then we have two other sets of life stories intervening, and the purpose of doing that isn't clear until the end.
NB We never find out whether the meeting in the hotel room was to have been just that, a mere meeting, rather than an assassination of Sean (so we don't know whether Sean overreacted in opening fire or not). That bit of information would have been useful to receive.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Tesseract - Alex Garland
Comment: Writing Style - 3/5
Characters - 2
Storyline - 3
Resonance - 2
The Not-Too-Revealing Synopsis:
The Philippines, the racketeering scene, a misunderstanding and a bunch of people who are tangentially involved.
The Review:
Garland is at his best when he deals with the sarcastic, insightful, Generation-X transient Westerner traveling abroad. It is a pleasure to be introduced to the afore mentioned character in the beginning of the book and even more enjoyable to witness him in a mischievous quandary so fantastically twisted that it can be called no less than wicked. The remaining flashbacks and cutouts of the Philipino characters fall flat. They do not fit Garland's style and as with everything else I've read of Garland's, the quality of the writing reflects the quality of the characters. The concept of the tesseract is something thrown in almost desperately, as if a mindbending novelty could bring everything together. But the tesseract is little more than a mention and while the reader is free to expound on it, Garland did not. The Tesseract reads like a short story idea that a publisher pressured an author to work out into some minimum page length before it could go to printing. I do not recommend this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: My favorite book
Comment: I don't even know where to start reviewing this book. It is one of the best books I've ever read, I enjoyed it very much. It represents a major step forward for Alex Garland as an author. His first book, "The Beach", was full of bravado and energy, as well as some genuine insight, but this one is much deeper and more poignant. His storytelling ability is superb, and it's just a shame that he got away from novels and started writing screenplays (as good as they are). All I can say is, you owe it to yourself to read this book. You won't regret it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding book!!!
Comment: This book is a whirlwind character driven effort that really deserves critical acclaim. Garland paints a vivid picture with prose that's precise and never excessive. He imbues his characters with a level of depth and just enough random touches that you feel you know them one paragraph in. I loved how the story came together and I was thoroughly impressed with the author's range and depth -- this poignant story will make your head spin. Don't miss it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not his best work
Comment: Alex Garland is an experimental author, whose willingness to take risks has paid off in some outstanding books. (Beach, his take on utopia is one) Unfortunately, for most lay readers, the Tesseract isn't one.
By definition, a Tesseract is a mathematical construct with connective properties beyond the description of an Amazon review. The book is written in such an interwoven style. As a technical (and artistic) achievement, this is both unique and novel. As a readable thriller, not so much.
Perhaps the lasting impact of the book is it predates the Montage style movies (21 Grams, Crash, City of God) who try weaving less "mathematically perfect" stories toghether. Again, this is a successful artistic vision, but the readability of the novel suffers. It's not one the average reader will find gripping.
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