BOOK: "Restless", by William Boyd

A young woman teaching foreign students English while working on her doctorate is given a diary written by her mother which reveals that during World War II she was a secret agent.  She was recruited to work for the British in the United States as part of a program to influence the U.S. to enter the war.

The past does not remain so, defying time, in this novel, as payback is sought and won.  I will leave you to the enjoyment of narrative suspense.

What is worth discussing is the ambiguity in Boyd's characters - how human and unlikeable they really are, and then sometimes poignantly appealing.  This is a dimension of spy/thriller novels that  is usually lacking, or only inferred, and it makes for a denser story.

Boyd writes well and that's a pleasure when one who loves this genre must frequently endure quite mediocre writing in the service of enjoying that suspenseful narrative.

What's really puzzling and perhaps annoying, is Boyd's signature style - his novels close with even more ambiguity than the characters possess.  And this is more serious, because it's about the plot unresolving, resolving?  Did it?  No, don't think so, but maybe!

And there's not the play within a play or a shell game like Iwan McEwan spins in SweetTooth.

You get to laugh darkly at the joke on you.


This book was made into a TV show on the BBC starring Charlotte Rampling, who seems most fittingly cast as the mother.  I shall have a look one of these days.