Review: The Collector

The Collector by John Fowles

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Fowles novel, told from the perspective of kidnapper and victim, is a mixed bag. On the one hand, he does an excellent job of painting the picture of someone mentally unstable who gradually, through a combination of inclination and circumstance, spirals out of control. On the other hand, it's clearly longer than it should be, and Miranda isn't nearly as relatable or interesting as I wish she was (although, to be fair, that could also be deliberate--she's not who F thinks she is).

In the beginning, F was mostly just an odd, socially awkward loner. His anxieties and hang-ups would have made him difficult to be around, and would be off-putting to most, but he seems to have been generally harmless, if unpleasant. Once he had money and independence, though, he suddenly found himself with the opportunity to act on impulses that he wasn't fully aware of before. You can see the self deception as the situation grows more out of control, and he misinterprets Miranda's behaviors, or deludes himself about his own intentions and actions. His attempts to convince himself that this will have a happy ending for the two of them are pathetic (deliberately so, one assumes).

Later, the reader has a chance to see things through Miranda's eyes, which is, at times, less interesting, but not fatally so. I think that there's a lot more going on there than some readers give credit for; yes, you're reading about the same events you've already seen, but, obviously, her perspective, as a captive, is radically different than his. The tricks she employs, her attempts to understand and undermine him, her struggle to maintain sanity and come up with an escape plan... I actually found it pretty intriguing. Less so, the frequent diversions into talking about GP--a sort of mentor whom she feels an intellectual (but not physical) attraction towards.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book is the sort of opposite trajectories of their emotional journey. At the start, all she feels is hatred and loathing for her captor, and all he feels is obsession (what he thinks of as love). As the story progresses, she starts to feel pity for him, and really does seem to, at times, want to find a way to help him with his problems, but he begins to resent her.

In particular, some of the later events of the captivity--the fancy dinner, and her attempt to seduce him, are really interesting told from two perspectives. As a turning point in the captivity, I thought it was excellently done--his assumption that this was merely a trick and that she was debasing herself, while she saw this as the ultimate attempt to reach out and connect with him, to force herself to give to him what she thought he wanted (human contact).

So, why only three stars?

To be frank, the book is longer than it should be. The whole "do I love GP or don't I?" bit is so boring. Maybe it's supposed to be to contrast the physical coercion that F employs with the emotional/mental coercion that GP seems to be employing? I don't know, but it didn't work for me. Even beyond that, the book still felt longer than it really needed. The whole thing felt bogged down by it, and where there should have been an incredible tension--will she escape? Won't she? What is he going to do?--it just sort of meanders along. Disappointing.

While this is probably not a particularly accurate portrait of a mentally unstable kidnapper, it has some really interesting moments, and it's an excellent example of unreliable narration being used pretty effectively (unless you really believe that F wouldn't have done anything like this under "normal" circumstances, and that the money really was to blame). Not quite in the same league as Pyscho, despite exploring similar space, but still worth considering.




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