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Seven Types of Ambiguity

By Elliot Perlman

(11)

| Hardcover | 9781573222815

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Book Description

Elliot Perlman has established himself as one of Australia's most perceptive and accomplished novelists with his critically-acclaimed bestselling novels Three Dollars and Seven Types of Ambiguity (which was shortlisted for Australia's top literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award, alongContinue

Critics

'Seven Types of Ambiguity' by Elliot Perlman

At last. A book by an Australian novelist that isn't about convicts or the pioneers or soldiers heading off to the Great War. This one is, in fact, set in modern times - or the economic rationalistic 1990s anyway. What's more it's set in the Australi ... (read full critics)

readingmatters published on Mon, 27 Sep 2010

Unreliable witnesses

Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman Faber £12.99, pp607 It was in autumn 2000, in an edition of Granta called 'Shrinks', that I first came across the Australian novelist, Elliot Perlman. His was the first contribution to a magazine in which th ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

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3 Reviews

2 people find this helpful

This is a very ambitious book. It's good, but I struggled a bit. Every time I put it away it took quite a few pages for me to get into the story again. The same sort of structure as Happenstance, by Carol Shields, so if you enjoyed that one, try Seven Types.

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annemarie said on Jan 29, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Recommended by my fellow INFJs - I'm seeing why.

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Kimm said on Jun 23, 2010 | Add your feedback

Elliot Perlman has established himself as one of Australia's most perceptive and accomplished novelists with his critically-acclaimed bestselling novels Three Dollars and Seven Types of Ambiguity (which was shortlisted for Australia's top literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award, alongside J.M. Coet ... (continue)

Elliot Perlman has established himself as one of Australia's most perceptive and accomplished novelists with his critically-acclaimed bestselling novels Three Dollars and Seven Types of Ambiguity (which was shortlisted for Australia's top literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award, alongside J.M. Coetzee, Peter Carey and Shirley Hazzard), and his short story collection, The Reasons I Won't Be Coming.
Following years of unrequited love, an out-of-work schoolteacher decides to take matters into his own hands, triggering a chain of events that neither he nor his psychiatrist could have anticipated. At once a psychological thriller and a social critique, SEVEN TYPES OF AMBIGUITY is a story of obsessive love in an age of obsessive materialism. It's a story of impulse and paralysis, of empty marriages, lovers and a small boy, gambling and the market, of adult children and their parents, of poetry and prostitution, psychiatry and the law. Brimming with emotional, intellectual and moral dilemmas, this page-turning novel-reminiscent of the richest fiction of the nineteenth century in its labyrinthine complexity-unfolds at a rapid-fire pace to reveal the full extent to which these people have been affected by each other and by the insecure and uncertain times in which they live. Our times, now.

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meganzing said on Jul 3, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback