On the first count, Ben, Martha, Jack and the rest are finally united in an implausible and rather slapdash way. As for balance, a recurrent element of horror, in the form of experiments on humans and animals, never finds a place in the novel other than as a foil to the rest of the, largely quotidian, goings-on. At the other extreme of horror, sentimentality also mars the work. If exuding bile is the risk a Martin Amis runs in writing of our post-industrial times, Tim Pears sometimes gets stuck in a surfeit of syrup. One chapter, The Winker , is a devastating vignette of the full spin-cycle of a modern electoral campaign.
Pears also has a great eye for illuminating certain signs of our times.
Perhaps the flaws of the novel demonstrate the difficulties of writing of our lost, modern selves with unaffected sympathy. Pears' Revolution is timely but not the literary revolution that it could be. The Age Company Ltd 2000. Any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.