Seven Types of Ambiguity

By Elliot Perlman

Book Overview

Seven Types of Ambiguity is a psychological thriller and a literary adventure of breathtaking scope. Celebrated as a novelist in the tradition of Jonathan Franzen and Philip Roth, Elliot Perlman writes of impulse and paralysis, empty marriages, lovers, gambling, and the stock market; of adult children and their parents; of poetry and prostitution, psychiatry and the law. Comic, poetic, and full of satiric insight, Seven Types of Ambiguity is, above all, a deeply romantic novel that speaks with unforgettable force about the redemptive power of love. The story is told in seven parts, by six different narrators, whose lives are entangled in unexpected ways. Following years of unrequited love, an out-of-work schoolteacher decides to take matters into his own hands, triggering a chain of events that neither he nor his psychiatrist could have anticipated. Brimming with emotional, intellectual, and moral dilemmas, this novel-reminiscent of the richest fiction of the nineteenth century in its labyrinthine complexity-unfolds at a rapid-fire pace to reveal the full extent to which these people have been affected by one another and by the insecure and uncertain times in which they live. Our times, now.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594481431
• ISBN13: 9781594481437
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Intelligent

Very unusual and original story line from an exceptional talent. Would highly recommend to those who enjoy intelligent and thought provoking story lines.

A very thought provoking book

I read this book months ago, and I still think about its message every day. It is very difficult to catogorize as evidenced by the other book reviews. It is a love story, social commentary, extremely political novel that requires concentration when reading. Only one person has given this book a bad review, and he has a good point. The different chapters that are different points of view are in the same writing style...

Original, thought provoking, A+

The book is written from the perspective of seven different parties who were all somehow involved in an incident that impacted each of their lives fairly drastically. The unexpected pleasure of this book is that we get to know the characters and their thoughts and actions not only through their own perspective and section in the book, but through each of the other characters and their thoughts. Here is a beautiful female...

Bound Brilliance

I think the last time I was so impressed with a novel was when I read David Mitchell's "Ghostwritten". This was published at the very end of 2004 and for me it's the best of last year and probably this year as well. Billed as "an epic novel about obsessive love in an age of obsessive materialsim", the basic thrust of the story is about a man who never having gotten over a woman who left him ten years before, kidnaps her son...

No Ambiguity: This Is A Masterpiece

Every now and then, a novel comes along that is so masterful, so breathtaking in scope, that everything you read afterwards pales in comparison. This is such a book. The author employs seven narrators, all of whom ultimately impact each others' lives. Each character is fleshed out so that the reader knows him or her through and through...right down to interior thoughts. One can only imagine the research Mr. Perlman had...