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Seven Types Of Ambiguity
by Elliot Perlman


8.7

based on 14 reviews
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based on 7 votes
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Official Publisher Site

The Australian author's literary thriller, which revolves around an out-of-work schoolteacher obsessed with a former lover, is told from seven different points of view.

Riverhead, 640 pages
12/16/2004
$27.95

ISBN: 157322281X

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Booklist Donna Seaman

Perlman succeeds in illuminating the ambiguity inherent in lust, personal relationships, psychiatry, and the law by having each of his afflicted characters recount his or her version of the confounding betrayals, rapes, maladies, accidents, desperate measures, courtroom machinations, and deaths that transpire over the course of this smart and edgy novel. [1 Nov 2004, p.443]

Kirkus Reviews

Long enough to tell everything that needs to be told, but never ponderous and never overdone. George Eliot down under.

Library Journal Marc Kloszewski

Despite its long-windedness and dangerous flirtation with cliche (e.g., the successful father who spoils his child but doesn't understand him), the novel works, and, for many readers, it will work in spades. [15 Oct 2004, p.55]

Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese

Perlman doesn't fix his characters: Instead, he provides a shifting body of rich, ambiguous evidence that forces us to continually assess and reassess, much as we do in life.

Boston Globe Barbara Fisher

A novel with just the right amount of meaning, intelligence, and beauty. [9 Jan 2005, p.F7]

Publishers Weekly

The novel, as big and juicy as it is, may not offer sufficient closure.

The New York Times Book Review Daphne Merkin

Be prepared to give it time. Be prepared to skim when you come to a particularly annoying digression. But most of all be prepared to stay with it for the long haul. It's worth it.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

A big, bulky, irate book that, to borrow the parlance of the management consultant, might have been doubly effective at half the weight. Still, Seven Types of Ambiguity amply rewards as well as frustrates the indulgent reader's patience.

Washington Post Jeff Turrentine

Like a sprinter in a marathon, he dazzles early on, deftly juggling ideas, characters and points-of-view. But by the time he crosses the finish line, his fatigue is apparent, and the reader is likely to share it.

The Guardian Steven Poole

In this respect the novel delivers, with an outstanding final section, a triumph of the suspenseful withholding of information, and a note-perfect final page. All's well that ends well.

The Independent Michael Bywater

[Perlman] should relax into his true strengths, and to hell with the allusions and the theory - because the people who care about that are not those who will read this humane, puzzling and often empathetic work.

Los Angeles Times Thomas Meaney

But his book's gravest failing is that its architecture ultimately overwhelms its characters.

Sydney Morning Herald Andrew Riemer

The impact of what might have been an incisive vision of our world is dissipated, however, by this novel's excessive length, by its structure and by the almost unrelieved uniformity of voice.

The New York Times Janet Maslin

[Perlman] circles endlessly around the same ideas, events and characters until the repetition becomes more exhausting than illuminating. And he offers long, legal-sounding interrogation sessions that deaden characters instead of bringing them to life.

The average user rating for this book is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Beverley R gave it a9:
I was intrigued by this book and couldn't put it down. Each character's interpretation of the same events was coloured by the emotional baggage which they were unable or unwilling to offload. A brilliant, clever book - even better than this author's Three Dollars which is still one of my favourite books.

Michael A gave it an8:
Ambitious, treating each character with sympathy and grace. A novel that cares, and one that gives real voice to its characters amidst the materialistic world that we live in. Well worth it's length and digressions into literary allusions and precepts.

Bill D gave it a10:
If you enjoy novels, you will, at minimum, enjoy this book. There's a good chance you will love it. It's fascinating, ambitious, thoughtful and written with obvious care and affection. This is one of those books that can spoil you for a while, making it hard to get into another book.

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Seven Types Of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman

Seven Types Of Ambiguity
by Elliot Perlman