The Standing Pool

The Standing Pool - Adam Thorpe -

Posted by nomita26 on 29 Jun 2008

Adam Thorpe’s new novel could be read as a companion piece to his last, ‘Between Each Breath’. Both take a scalpel to middle-class smugness via an unsettling encounter with foreign cultures,  and both take as their keynote that definitive bourgeois obsession, finding (and deserving?) the perfect house. But while ‘Between Each Breath’ put its protagonist on the rack of midlife impotence and self-delusion, ‘The Standing Pool’ is an altogether lighter work, notwithstanding its unsettling atmosphere and gleefully disconcerting denouement.

His fantasies curl up under the glare of reality: their landlords, the Sandlers – an unrepentantly incorrect Anglo-American couple who specialise in looting antiquities  – are hellbent on finessing their house, and instruct the Mallinsons to supervise on their behalf.

One of the joys of this book is the way Thorpe’s trademark strengths – his  genius for nuance and featherlight touch with character and dialogue – are brought to bear on a tale which constantly threatens to morph into a wildly unhinged thriller. Unexpectedly satisfying.