Sparrow Nights

From Booklist Canadian Novelist Gilmour Has Been Widely Praised For His Previous Work, Which Includes How Boys See Girls (1991) And Lost Between Houses (1999). His Current Novel Features Another Of His Continually Intoxicated, Terminally Adolescent Middleaged Narrators. Selfdestructive French Literature Professor Darius Halloway Is In An Emotional Tailspin. His Lascivious, Much Younger Girlfriend Has Just Broken Up With Him. Wracked By Hangovers, Insomnia, And Depression, He Starts Taking Antidepressants, But They Don'T Seem To Work. Bothered By The Yapping Of His Neighbors' Dogs, He Concocts An Elaborate Scheme Of Revenge That Culminates In Their Death By Poison. He Begins Frequenting Massage Parlors, Even Inviting One Of The Masseuses To His Home, Where She Proceeds To Steal Him Blind. Things Only Get Worse From There. Gilmour Is A Fine Writer With A Sardonic Sense Of Humor, But Black Comedy Is Difficult To Pull Off And, Depending On One'S Own Sense Of Humor, This Novel Could Provoke More Grimaces Than Laughs. David Gates (Jernigan, 1991; And Preston Falls, 1998) Works The Same Territory To Better Effect. Joanne Wilkinsoncopyright American Library Association. All Rights Reserved Product Description Everyone Would Agree That Darius Halloway Was The Most Civilized Of Men, A Professor Of French Literature; A Connoisseur Of Ideas, Beautiful Women, And Fine Wine; A Perfect Guest At Life'S Dinner Party. Darius Himself Would Have Especially Agreed Until Emma, Waifish And Insatiable Emma, Leaves Her Empty Clothes Hangers Rattling In His Closet And Walks Out The Door.For A Little While, It'S Not So Bad. He'S In Shock. He Thinks She Will Come Back. Other Women Find His Melancholy Quite Compelling, And There Are Compensations To Be Had. But Then The Sparrows Of Insomnia Start Picking At The Inside Of His Skull. Life'S Little Aggravating Moments Suddenly Seem To Require Him To Seek Direct Retaliation. Soon, All His Smoothness And Cleverness Are Directed Toward Wreaking The Most Elaborate Revengeuntil There He Is, In The Most Damning Of Situations, With His Nerves On Fire And His Heart In His Throat. From Publishers Weekly The Whack, Whack, Whack Of The Flapping Flag On His Neighbor'S Property Keeps Middleaged College Academic Darius Halloway Awake At Night. So He Sneaks Out In Darkness And Cuts The Flag'S Rope. When Another Neighbor'S Dogs Disturb His Concentration, Darius Poisons Them, And When, At A Resort Hotel, He'S Bothered By The Noise Of A Neighbor'S Air Conditioner, He Climbs A Ladder And Stuffs A Gluesoaked Sock Into The Machine'S Works. Selfabsorbed, Prone To Paranoia And Obsession, Enamored Of Young Women And Fine Wine, Darius Is The Brilliantly Constructed Protagonist And Coolly Lucid Narrator Of This New, Excellent Novel From Canadian Writer Gilmour (Lost Between Houses). Darius'S Extreme Responses To Life Condense Into His Erotic Longing For Emma Carpenter, A Young, Equally Impulsive Graduate Student Whom He Carries On With For A Few Years Before She Dumps Him. The Ditching Spins Darius Into A Wallow Of Selfpity, Which He Alleviates Momentarily Via A Visit To A Massage Parlor, Where He Meets A Black Woman Named Passion, Whom He Invites To His House. When Passion Takes Him Up On The Offer, She Robs Him; When He Later Confronts Her, He'S Beaten By Her Pimp. The Next Day, The Pimp Comes Calling And Darius Shoots Him Dead, Then Hacks Up The Body And Burns It In His Furnace All This Perfectly Justifiable To This Unbearably Pretentious Professor Of French Lit, Who, Moments After Disposing Of The Body, Savors Hearing The Opening, Almost Inquisitive Notes Of The Concierto De Aranjuez. Like Jerzy Kosinski, Gilmour Is Able To Carry Readers Deep Into The Mind Of A Selfrationalizing Madman; It'S An Exhilarating Journey, Expertly Observed And Quite Disturbing. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal This Is The Story Of One Man'S Descent Into Obsession.