A Terrible Freedom

Download or read book A Terrible Freedom written by Eric Linklater and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1966, Eric Linklater's brilliant novel tells the story of a double existence. Evan Gaffikin, sixtyish, grumpy and bored with his dull commercial success, discovers and develops his power to dream: to dream in such depth and in such glowing reality that he is able to escape his extraordinary existence. We learn of his double life as scenes from Gaffikin's real life alternate with his surrealistic, vivid, and often hilariously bawdy forays into the world of unreality. As his dream-world and its remarkable characters, gradually get the upper hand, the tension of the novel rises and the climactic sequence - in a yacht off the Hebrides - is mysterious and exciting. A Terrible Freedom could, perhaps, be described as an idiosyncratic venture into the realm of science fiction; but it may be preferable to see it as a conventional novel built with classical composure of unconventional material. Either way it is a tour de force of imagination and narrative skills.