James Lasdun

Page Updated: 19/03/02

James Lasdun

The Horned Man

pbk 07 Feb 02

and

Books By James Lasdun

About the Author (Photo by Pia Davis)

Bibliography

British Pbk Original - Jonathan Cape (2002)

The Horned Man
The Horned Man opens with a man losing his place in a book, then deepens into a dark and terrifying tale of a man losing his place in the world.
As Lawrence Miller, an English expatriate in New York, tells the story of what appears to be an elaborate conspiracy to frame him for a series of brutal killings, we descend into a world of subtly deceptive appearances where persecutor and victim continually shift roles, where paranoia assumes an air of calm rationality, and where enlightenment itself casts a darkness in which the most nightmarish acts occur.
The swift, intricate plot entangles Miller, a teacher of Gender Studies, in the lives of a womanising colleague under investigation for sexual harassment, a lonely attorney who has developed an inexplicable passion for Miller, and a shadowy Bulgarian who adapts Kafka for the stage, is prone to acts of explosive violence, and may or may not be sleeping under Miller’s office desk.
As the novel spirals to its shocking conclusion, wend ourselves trapped in Miller’s head as he traverses, in increasing terror, the streets of Manhattan, tracking the lines of human connection across the city and out to the decaying suburbs beyond, in wild pursuit of his pursuers. Written with sinuous grace and intellectual acuity, wound tight with tension and pent-up anxiety, The Horned Man is an extraordinary, unforgettable excursion into the lethal battleground in the contemporary struggle between the forces of desire and the forces of repression.
`James Lasdun seems to be one of the secret gardens of English writing ...when we read him we know what language is for... Lasdun is a poet, and of course, one would expect, on his part, an enlarged attention to prose. It is easy to forget how very ordinary most contemporary prose-writers are... Lasdun’s prose, by contrast, is neither too fancy nor too regular. It is flexible, rich, metaphorical, and lovely... In sentence after sentence, the reader feels Lasdun’s words shaping and then freely donating a world to us, with great flexible artistry.’ James Wood, Guardian
`I found this novel to be a beautifully imagined story, singular in its observations of human life and the shifting realities of ourselves and all that is around us. The Horned Man has the French virtues, clarity and lucidity.’ Paula Fox
`There are hints of Nabokov and Chandler in this superb piece of invention and implosion. Lasdun’s wide-ranging imagination and wit is bounded only by a brevity compared to which Carver seems wordy.’ Dale Peck
`A wonderful first novel from a writer with a poet’s gift for precision. The Horned Man is an elegantly troubling, and often very funny, fable of sexual obsession and urban unease which Lasdun brings to a genuinely startling culmination.’ A.L. Kennedy

About The Author
James Lasdun was born in London and now lives in upstate New York. He has published two collections of short stories and three books of poetry. His story `The Siege’ was adapted by Bernardo Bertolucci for his film Besieged. He co-wrote the screenplay for the film Sunday (based on another of his stories) which won Best Feature and Best Screenplay awards at Sundance, 1997. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry, and currently teaches poetry and fiction workshops at Princeton.

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

The Horned Man (Jonathan Cape Pbk, 2002) Pbk Feb 02