The Edge of Pleasure Review

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The Edge of Pleasure ReviewIn the first careless years of artistic triumph, Gilver Memmer makes his fortune, much-feted by a thirsty London art world that idolizes youth, beauty and artistic temperament. His hubris unchecked, the handsome Gilver acts accordingly, cutting a swath through the ladies, talent and wealth powerful aphrodisiacs: "This early connection between artistic skill and the granting of sexual favors was not lost on him." His reputation is secure, although he is "too compliant in facile skill and ubiquitous popularity to do more than walk his talent on a slack rein". Preparing to stun America in a New York showing, an assistant's fluke precipitates a disaster, but in London this fiasco only adds to the artist's cache. Gilver is deeply concerned, but throws himself into a flurry of social activities. Suddenly a decade has passed and Memmer hasn't painted, gliding along on his social skills. Eventually, the accumulated wealth is gone, Gilver facing a far different future, his luxurious accoutrements and sartorial indulgences of little use without the means to support his lifestyle.
At one last party for his friends, a fire erupts, destroying everything but the clothes on his back and a few pieces of furniture. Gilver goes to ground, moving to a shabby loft where he daily drinks himself into a stupor, sliding into alcoholism and a blur of one-night stands, "the momentary oblivion of an indifferent embrace". Shocked by the changes that accompany his fall, Gilver is deeply disturbed by the gray hairs, the loose flesh, myriad physical betrayals, trapped in a cycle of dissipation. As with any true genius, Gilver's gifts come with a price tag, his chaotic personal life feeding a natural self-destruction, obliterating his redemption, his work. Into this depressing scene comes Alice, whom Gilver meets while making a pathetic attempt to render his flat livable. She sparks the artist's long-dormant creativity, although between inebriation and a paralyzing fear of failure, Gilver cannot reach out to Alice in a meaningful way (although he had he at hello). The past collides with the future as another woman enters his world, the edgy, vitriolic Juliette, who has long nurtured a particular interest in the artist.
Stockley prods the vulnerable underbelly of Gilver's creativity without reservation, at the same time exposing a core of untapped emotion that is obscured by years of drunkenness and emotional cowardice, his genius nearly destroyed by an untamed ego born of the praise of the London glitterati and the immaturity of self-gratification. For Gilver, Alice is a fortuitous accident, a promise barely recognizable to the downward-spiraling artist. The egocentric Gilver is redeemed, not by his own actions but the intervention of a new friend, an old friend and an enigmatic enemy who bears the seeds of his destruction. Exhibiting the brilliant prose and clever plotting of A Factory of Cunning, Shockley has written a stylish novel that skims the razor's edge of the dark side of humanity, the subtleties of life vs. art, the yin and yang of creativity and ego, genius fused with angst and the healing touch of compassion. Luan Gaines/ 2006.The Edge of Pleasure Overview

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