RARA-AVIS: EYE OF THE BEHOLDER, Marc Behm

From: Robison Michael R CNIN ( Robison_M@crane.navy.mil)
Date: 23 Jun 2003


Just finished this one. There wasn't a lot there, but what there was I liked. There were hints, beyond daydreams and admitted gaps of cognizance, that the Eye was an unreliable narrator, but in the end I couldn't tell you what actually happened and what was fantasy in the Eye's mind.

The novel is referred to as surreal. Is this because the events in the book are somewhat hard to believe? Is it because of the fre- quent fantasies of the Eye? I would have a hard time tagging the book surreal for either of these reasons.

The sad sense of loss, a woman missing her father and a man missing his daughter, is well done for such a hardboiled work. It borders on but in the end avoids the melodramatic excess of Woolrich. I found the slow disintegration of the woman, her mixed-up recognition of the Eye's presence, and the Eye's overpowering obsession with her to be intense and moving.

miker

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