Book reviews: Indigo, by Graham Joyce

By admin · Friday, January 15th, 2010

“I’m not one of these writers where you get a very similar book each time. People have observed (or complained, I’m not sure which) that when they crack open a Graham Joyce book, they’re never sure what they’re going to get. That is because I don’t know either.” (Graham Joyce)

Graham Joyce, who lives in Leicester, grew up in an in English mining village near Coventry, and was living on the Greek Island of Lesbos when he sold his first novel, Dreamside, which was published in 1992. Since then he has written four works which won the British Fantasy Society August Derleth Award for best novel of the year. Clearly, this is an author to watch. His dark fantasies range through psychological, metaphysical and supernatural realms in a variety of settings.

Indigo poses intriguing questions about perception. Is indigo really a color, as artists say and scientist deny? Is invisibility a possibility?

Former British bobby Jack Chambers travels from London to Chicago to execute the estate of his estranged father Tim, more for personal reasons than financial. He is not the primary inheritor, and will receive his executor’s fee only if he carries out his father’s instructions to the letter. These include the task of publishing and distributing a manuscript entitled Invisibility: A Manual of Light, with an initial print run of 200,000 copies.

According to the late Tim Chambers, learning to see the color indigo is the key to being hidden in plain sight, and opens new doors to perception. The story of Jack’s quest is interspersed with excerpts from his father’s manual.

Jack renews his acquaintance with his half-sister Louise, who has matured considerable since he last saw her at age eleven. Fighting his growing sexual attraction, he asks her to fly Rome with him to help sell one of his father’s apartments and find artist Natalie Shearer, heiress to the bulk of the estate. Once he finds Natalie, he discovers that this dangerous beauty is a former lover of his father’s and a member of his inner circle of the cult of indigo. Jack embarks on a surreal affair with her as he follows the rituals in the manuscript. His world opens to new vistas and disturbing insights. Is this manuscript a journey into insanity, or is his father attempting to pass the torch of knowledge? The plot twists hold plenty of surprises.

Is Indigo fantasy, or a literary thriller, or a bit of both? This gender-bender has an unusual premise, untold mysteries, sophisticated insight into human behavior and sexuality, and a unique voice.

http://www.locusmag.com/2002/I ssue05/Joyce.html

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http://www.grahamjoyce.net/

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