Four Christopher Priest Novels

After owning a copy for over 3 years, and meeting the author 3 times, I have finally got round to reading The Prestige (1995). It is the fourth Priest novel I have read, following The Affirmation (1981), Inverted World (1974), and Fugue for a Darkening Island (1972) - I read these three way back in 2012, so they are not quite fresh in my mind.

Fake cover, featuring Escher's Drawing Hands

The Affirmation was my first Priest novel, and it remains my favourite. Drawing Hands by M.C. Escher would be a perfect cover image for this novel which contains two parallel stories: one set in 'our' world, the other set in a 'fictional' world. Both protagonists attempt, for differing reasons, to write autobiographies, but end up retelling their life stories in a fictional setting. The two autobiographies/fantasies blend in to each other, and the reader is left wondering which world is supposed to be 'real'. It's a very clever, very artistic mindfuck of a novel. Priest describes it as his 'key' novel: when his writing became obviously unique, Priestian, with its unreliable narrator(s) and narrative shocks.

'This is the book CP regards as his ‘key’ novel: all the novels before it lead towards The Affirmation, none of the ones that follow could have been written without it. It is deceptive in form, not only in the way the protagonist’s story is told, but also in the way it is presented.' (source)

Inverted World is the best of Priest's pre-Affirmation novels, when his work still resembled traditional SF, and has one of the most famous opening lines in all SF:

'I had reached the age of six hundred and fifty miles.'

The characters of Inverted World live in an ever-moving city, fleeing from a destructive gravitational field. In front of the city engineers are constantly placing railway tracks; behind, the old tracks are being pulled up. The protagonist, Helward Mann, comes of age and joins one of city's guilds. Through him we learn about the city and the wider world. Some of the imagery of Inverted World is quite trippy and psychedelic. I remember the second half not being as satisfying as the first, but it is still a very good book and certainly worth reading.

Fugue for a Darkening Island is one of Priest's lesser known works. Events since its publication have made the work appear more sinister than was intended. When first published it received praise for being progressive and anti-racist, but when re-released and re-reviewed a few decades later the same magazines considered it very backwards and racist. The description on Wikipedia certainly makes it sounds like a Daily Mail nightmare:

'First published in 1972, it deals with a man's struggle to protect his family and himself in a near future England ravaged by civil war brought about by the failings of a Conservative government and a massive influx of African refugees.'

Fugue focuses on the changes to the protagonist's character over the course of the disaster by telling the story achronologically. The narrative jumps around between time periods to show us the different 'versions' of the character, contrasting their different perspectives. This novel does not compare well against the other Priest novels I've read: it's a very early work, his second novel, from when he was just starting out as a writer.

And then we come, over 3 years later, to The Prestige, which was made into a film by Christopher Nolan and is therefore Priest's most famous novel.

(Spoiler for the movie ahead)

The action takes place in two time periods: the majority of the book tells the story of a rivalry between two Victorian stage magicians, while the frame-story, narrated by the magicians' grandchildren, explores the legacy of the feud to the present day. This novel is obsessed with doubles, and the very structure of the novel reflects this: each time period gets two narrators, each telling their side of the story.

The book is very different to the movie, which builds up to a Big Reveal where the magicians explain their secrets to each other. A magician never reveals his secrets: there is no Big Reveal in the book. 

I'm getting tired, and feel if I write any more about The Prestige I may spoil some of the differences between the book and the movie, or spoil too much of the movie, so I'm going to leave it there. It's a very well constructed novel, still packed with surprises for those who have seen Nolan's adaptation. 

I own copies of 3 more Priest books, which I've already owned for over 3 years: The Dream Archipelago (1999), The Separation (2002), and The Islanders (2011). I wonder how long before get round to reading these.