The Imagination Thief

An intriguing book that addresses many big issues (love, sex, death, power, the nature and reliability of human memory, history, culture, human potential, the constraints of 21st century society, and more) within an unusual structure of mini-chapters punctuated by audio and video clips.The contrasting settings of busy, businesslike Manhattan and the ghost town of a nearby decaying seaside resort are only the backdrop to huge flights of fancy into the minds of the characters, explored by the newly psychic hero Jaymi. As he delves into their memories, sights and sounds from all over the world - real and imagined - spill forth, from war-torn Vietnam to idyllic classical gardens, beneath the oceans and into outer space. All of these experiences are described with a larger-than-life intensity that put me strangely in mind of Coleridge's Kublai Khan - and occasionally its drug-induced origins too!It's not an easy or comfortable read, particularly when closely examining mental and physical cruelty and violence between some of the characters. I read with a constant sense of foreboding. However even the most shocking passages are underpinned by the compassion, pity and tenderness of the narrator for all but the most brutal characters. There's also some very welcome, very British understated humour to offset some of the horror. The brevity of the "mini-chapters" was well-judged - I felt I needed to come up for air after some of the short episodes, and to assimilate the latest action before moving on.The immediacy of the story is more keenly felt because it is written in the present tense - always more demanding on the reader, I find, and even more so in this case because although most is in the first person, there are also many second-person narratives, where Jaymi is reading the minds of other characters and addressing them: "You move closer..." That the author is able to keep the reader not only engaged but tantalised by this difficult mode of storytelling indicates the power of his prose.Though it's very much a modern book, with the constraints of modern life as one of its themes, there are touches of the classic about it too, reminding this reader of Johnson's Rasselas (at risk of sounding pretentious and also doubting my own memory, as it's about 30 years since I read that book!) Jaymi is really in many ways an innocent abroad, though he thinks he is so knowing. He may be able to read people's minds in details, but some of the simplest conclusions pass him by.As I turned the pages, I found myself puzzling how on earth this intense tale would end. Without spoiling the plot, I can say I found the conclusion surprising, redemptive and satisfying.My Kindle wasn't able to cope with the audio and video files, and the prose was compelling enough to make me want to skip those and get on with the story, but it was an interesting idea to include them - more evidence of the author's prodigious creativity. So, here we have not so much an imagination thief, but, to the reader, an imagination expander. Great stuff - thank you, Rohan Quine.

On the eve of a major career development, securities executive Jaymi Peek has an epiphany in his New York skyscraper that grants him a kind of multi-functional second sight. Able to read people’s minds, influence their desires and read their histories, his first act is to overwhelm a media mogul in order to use the man’s network to broadcast a message that will liberate the imaginations of everyone who views it. Jaymi’s noble ambition is to inspire people around the world to move beyond the narrow existential confines they have imposed upon themselves and then… Well, he isn’t sure what will happen next; a dynamic that renders him thrillingly amoral and makes this ambitious and unusual novel wholly unpredictable.Holed up in a secret recording studio in a run-down seaside town outside New York, Jaymi and his best friend Alaia, a singer whose voice will counterpoint Jaymi’s world-changing broadcast, become embroiled in the relationships, politics and power play of the extraordinary locals. Jaymi’s new power is balanced by an increasing emotional distance from everyone around him, which is perhaps what prevents him abusing it. Instead, he finds he can explore not only the real memories of his new friends but their fantasies as well.These sequences are incredibly powerful, richly poetic and unique. Rohan Quine is a very insightful writer, with an understanding and empathy that anchor these hyper-eroticised, often surreal flights in a comprehensible reality. There is, if anything, an embarrassment of riches here but that’s a minor consideration. As a reader, you wonder what Jaymi would make of you, whether he would find you as interesting as the terrifying but beguiling gangster Lucan or his demented lover, Angel.Angel, out of his mind on drugs, female hormones and desire that seems to claw out of the page at you, is the exact opposite of the coolly aloof Jaymi, which is possibly why Angel is my favourite character. Too alien to be the protagonist, he nonetheless seems to drive a lot of the narrative as he seeks relief from an abusive but scarily compelling relationship whose depiction captures a rare sense of obsessive lust.The freewheeling structure allows the author to dip in and out of different narratives and styles, worlds and fantasies. It also enables him to explore multiple genres, often within the same sequence. For example, Jaymi’s ‘gift’, if that’s what it is, may either be from a magic flame in China or it may be of extra-terrestrial origin. That neither is categorically confirmed in no way detracts from the sense that anything can and does happen.Despite the original structure, however, events do build to a tragic climax whose only predictability is that it is fittingly strange. I often like to mention other similar books as a ‘way in’ for review readers but there is nothing else like this novel and that is my best recommendation.

A good read, albeit perhaps a little indulgent from time to time. Is that the author whose face keeps popping up? I'm sure he has a career ahead as a model. Good luck to him.