The Flesheaters

by David Ireland

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0207124051
• ISBN13: 9780207124051
• Release Date: January 1972
• Publisher: Not Avail
• Length: 202 Pages

Customer Reviews

A major Australian writer

I thought when reading "The Flesheaters" that David Ireland's writing was something like that of Bret Easton Ellis ("American Psycho"), or the other way round. There is a dry quality to it, as though the writer is being very sparing of his words and a sort of inflammability in the prose so that you never quite know what's likely to happen next. This sparse writing, although it may use masses of text at the same time, creates a tension which holds the reader in thrall to some extent. I can imagine that not everyone will like it. The end result is a dramatic situation which is rendered imminently plausible by this technique of keeping the reader off guard. I found myself admiring it the more I read. The novel is not an easy one to accept. The proposition involved has one squirming, though at no time did I think of giving the book up. On the contrary, the increasing uneasiness engendered by the plot was being masterfully counterbalanced by the tight control of the writer. At the end, I could only take my hat off to a fine, possibly a great accomplishment. Having read Ireland before with considerable pleasure ("The Glass Canoe," "The Chantic Bird"), "The Flesheaters" confirmed to me that I was in the hands of a first-class Australian author. I must say that was a relief, since there has been quite a bit of published work from Down Under in the last decade or two that has left me utterly cold.