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THE EXECUTOR
by Jesse Kellerman
Sphere, May 2010
480 pages
7.99 GBP
ISBN: 0751540293


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Joseph Giest is a philosophy graduate. From an abusive background and a shattered family, the only stable home he has known is Harvard University. But after not submitting a single chapter of his thesis in six years, his "so-called-tutor" expels him. Thrown out of his lodgings, he moves in with his girlfriend, but she too eventually evicts him, and reduced to sleeping on his best friend's couch, he answers an advert in a student newspaper placed by an elderly lady requesting a 'conversationalist'.

Alma Spielmann is in her seventies and is suffering from trigeminal neuralgia. Despite the age difference, they strike up a close, intimate platonic friendship, sharing a love of Continental philosophers and conversations without conclusions. Eventually, with his accommodation situation desperate, she offers him the spare room in her large house. For a time his life settles into a routine and he's happier than he's ever been, having found a perfect companion. But Alma's delinquent nephew Eric shows up asking for money and making suggestions of euthanasia, and Joseph starts to feel that his contented life is falling apart. And when Joseph has to return home for a memorial service on the anniversary of his brother's death, his worst fears are realised.

So engaging are Kellerman's characters, that when Eric shows up and Joseph's life starts to crumble, there's a real sense of personal loss which underlies the horrors of subsequent events, Joseph's ever-worsening answering actions and the inevitable consequences, forcing readers to continuously question where their sympathy lies.

This novel is a skilfully crafted dream's descent into nightmare. Kellerman is careful in the building of the characters and unhurried in the setting of the story. When the narrative starts to speed up towards its fatalistic conclusion, the reader is left with the idea that such a terrible reversal of luck could happen to anyone. The story questions the idea of Free Will, suggesting that as so little of our lives is actually under our own control, free will is only available to certain people under certain circumstances. This might seem like a grand statement, but all Kellerman does is ask the question and leaves it to the reader to decide the answer.

This is a brilliant novel, beautifully written and expertly executed.

Madeleine Marsh is an aspiring writer who lives in the South West. She helps run sci-fi conventions and loves modern cinema.

Reviewed by Madeleine Marsh, March 2011

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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