Death Of The Body
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
"Will appeal to lovers of the wayward novel game as it is played by Lawrence Sterne or Italo Calvino" - Jackie Wullschläger, Financial Times
Professor Harry Butler is obsessed with the Mind/Body problem. Unfortunately, this is not the least of his problems. Harry's wife has turned his study into a sufi shrine where she sits cross-legged and chants for hours on end: "I am not this body..." And Harry doesn't know it yet but the Drug Squad have taken up residence in his kitchen so as to observe the movements of his neighbours and their visitors. Among these visitors, photographed by the drug squad, is one of his oldest friends. And living next door is a woman Harry may have had an encounter with in Singapore.
The University is no escape from these complications on the domestic front: Harry's relationship with a student is causing concern among the Philosophy Department Women's Collective. Some of his colleagues also suspect him of going astray academically.
The story takes place in Auckland, New Zealand. But who is telling the story? Why is he in Europe? Why does he keep moving from one city to another, and why does he seem to require the presence of a certain Uta Haverstrom in order to write it?
The Death of the Body is a delightful blend of wit, intelligence and excitement.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This clever novel contains two layered narratives. Harry Butler, a philosophy professor in Auckland, New Zealand, is cheating on his wife with one of his graduate students; Claire, his wife, has just converted to Sufism. At the same time, a drug squad has taken up residence in Harry's house in order to photograph his neighbors, who are suspected dealers. Members of the Philosophy Department Women's Collective persecute him for both his grammar and his affairs with students; and his flimsy excuse for not leaving his wife is that his sons need him at home to provide stability. But the person recounting these events intrudes progressively on the narrative. He carries a blue folder, apparently containing Butler's story, from London to Milan. In Milan he writes in a cafe, where he meets Uta Haverstrom, wife of the Danish consul, who assists him in his task by asking probing questions about the characters. However, Stead ( Sister Hollywood ) redeems his slightly worn material by having Haverstrom comment on its cliches (``Why were the two radical feminists both short. . . . And why both in overalls with short-cropped hair?'') and attempt to draw parallels between the narrator and his protagonist.
