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Title: a neglected masterpiece
Review: It's hard to say where this novel comes from; Paliser's other works are overlong, mannered, deliberately artificial. The writing here is as natural as breathing, the narrative voice as quietly devastating as the voice of our own conscience. A young man in a cold, unnamed foreign city works feverishly at an unspecified technical job. As things fall apart for him at work he embarks on a doomed affair with a disturbed artist. It's all over in little more than a hundred pages; the impact lasts a lifetime. This is one of the few convincing love stories ever written as well as a chilling indictment of a frenetic, work-driven, utterly alienating society. The Sensationist is an unrepeatable masterpiece and one of the best novels I've ever read.
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