The Prison of Perspective

by Rudolph Bader

Published February 2010

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A chance encounter, a road accident, an air crash, a hold-up at a bank:
How do such events connect people?
How do people see the situations from their different perspectives?

He wishes he could interpret what he feels through a better medium than the language of his thoughts. Artists can do that. And some great artists have tried to transcend the limitations of their own medium.

That's how one of the protagonists feels about his view of reality.

Three narrative strands follow the lives of three individuals – Peter, Cathy and Ivan – through the second half of the 20th century, from post-war austerity and mediocrity in the 1950s and 1960s to the fast-moving life-style of the present decade, whereby the plot is embedded in real events of the period. The three biographies intersect at crucial points, which reveals their internal landscapes and the different ways of understanding reality. Things are not always what they seem, and we do not always know the whole truth.

Playing with various time-levels, this novel of the mind deals primarily with potential fallacies of perception, sexual awakening, emotional exploitation and the proximity of death.

How do we store the memorable events in our lives?

And how do we cope with these memories as we grow older?

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

The novel is superbly well-balanced, weaving its story and characters with charming lightness and intellectual depth. It offers the well-ripened fruit of alert intellectual and artistic practice/creativity.
Professor Dr Norbert Platz, University of Trier

An intricately structured novel whose skilful shifts of perspective challenge the reader to unravel the interlocking histories of characters grappling with the impermanence of human relationships and the unpredictable interventions of violence and passion in human life.
Professor Dr Geoffrey V Davis, University of Aachen

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rudolph Bader was born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1948. At university he read English and German literatures and linguistics as well as Islamic studies and near eastern languages. He has lived and worked as a researcher and university professor in many countries including Germany, Switzerland, Canada and Australia. Under his German name he published widely in the field of postcolonial literatures, he translated Shakespeare, worked as a book reviewer and a theatre director, and he has always been very active in teacher training and in various intercultural projects.

The Prison of Perspective is Rudolph Bader's first novel. He is already busy writing his second novel. Today, he lives in Sussex and in Switzerland.

 

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