Shadowlife

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In an unnamed European state in the indefinite but not distant future, a talented ``CIB'' agent (``Central Institute for Biographics'') turns renegade and commits serious violations of protocol. One view of the evidence presents Felix Seyner at the point of resigning, transmitting a lengthy letter that attempts by flattery, cajolery and blackmail to resume an amour with a girlfriend from his leftist student days--and her unfavorable reply. The official investigation has it otherwise; the ``girlfriend'' is Felix's alter ego, Felix may be a murderer, and his record of false trails and ingenious ``hacking'' into CIB's archives may have compromised the institute's integrity. Within this deft Orwellian improvisation on a theme, little can be stated with absolute confidence. What is this CIB: an innocent purveyor of entertainment and social research, or--as is darkly hinted--an organization dedicated to pre-empting the arts and letters and whatever else is left of open society? This fine modernist (and mischievous) novel probes potential directions for state social control as well as the nature and moral position of fiction. Grzimek also is the author of Heartstop. (Mar.)

Library Journal

Felix Seyner is an ace interviewer for the Central Institute for Biographics, a quasi-secret agency that published `` true biographies as actually told.'' A subject commits suicide (or is she killed?) during an interview, jolting the bland bureaucrat Seyner from his hollow and routine existence and setting a bizarre series of events into play. Grzimek creates a fascinating antihero, a cog who has lost his place in a highly conformist, technocratic, and eerily familiar social machine. A sinister mood and a sense of impending violence lurk between the lines as in his earlier book of short stories, Heartstop (New Directions, 1984), but Shadowlife employs a more innovative form consisting of a long letter from Seyner, a reply by the mysterious Felicitas, a report of the investigation, and an ``Editor's Note.'' This is a dark and challenging but entertaining psycho-thriller almost certain to provoke strong but diverse reactions. Recommended for public and academic libraries.-- Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. at Chico