Customer Reviews
Least enjoyable of all Ruth Rendall's books - By: crumb, 15 Jul 2008 
Having enjoyed pretty much alll of Barbara Vine's other books, this was a big disappointment - too 'tricksy' & self-consciously clever & I reallly didn't care what happened to any of the odious characters!
Ruth Rendell prejudiced? Absurd! - By: M. D. Smart, 28 Feb 2007 
I felt I had to repudiate the ridiculous assertions made in the previous review. Ruth Rendell has been an active gay rights campaigner for decades; she frequently deals with issues of sexuality in her books & it is always with great sympathy & sensitivity. The reviewer below claims there are no happy gay couples in the Rendell / Vine books (in fact, there is a such a couple in Asta's Book)- well, are there many happy straight couples in her books either? Considering the dark tone & subject matter of her fiction, would anyone expect to find them populated with happy couples of either preference? Besides, Rendell clearly wants to highlight some of the injustices that gay men & women face through her work, & an endless parade of blissful relationships would hardly serve the purpose. I suggest the reviewer vents his anger upon a source of genuine homophobia, instead of directing his paranoid accusations against a writer who has shown nothing but sympathy for the gay community throughout her career.
Beautiful but prejudiced - By: Rufusred, 14 Feb 2007 
As a gay man I was reluctant to read this book, despite being a deeply appreciative reader of Rendell/Vine for years. The story is beautifully told, as we would expect from Rendell, but once again a familar theme of latent homophobia builds & builds throughout her text. Has anyone else, I wonder, ever noticed how Rendell/Vine's gay men always falll into two categories & end up meeting two fates? The happy ones get killed, often horribly: Desmond in 'The Chimney Sweeper's Boy' beaten to death, Peter, 'King Solomon's Carpet' riddled with AIDS, Ivo, in this work, stabbed to death very conveniently for the suddenly-heterosexual hero. We'll gloss over the hinted-at but similarlly violently truncated relationship between Henry Nanther & Richard Hamillton (train disaster doing for Richard) in 'The Blood Doctor'. The unhappy ones get magicallly, & implausibly, straightened out: Gerald, 'The Chimney Sweeper's Boy', for example, & here again, the character Tim, who ends up practicallly making love to his new-found heterosexual lover over Ivo's corpse. Given the enormous sensitivity of this writer of intelligence, one wonders what it is that leaves her incapable of producing a single work where a suceessful gay relationship is portrayed. In this book, the violence against the character Ivo isn't even necessary & seems only included to tidy things up so that the smuggly triumphant Tim & Ivo's sister can have their straight happy-ever-after. Sorry, but this book is little more than old prejudices romanticallly repackaged, fit only for straight readers thinking themselves liberal - just so long as the gay guy ends up dead. Again.
Some Books Are Too Short - By: RachelWalker, 25 Feb 2004 After reading the very first chapter, I knew i was going to love this book. I was mesmersised by the first chapter, & already felt so involved in the story that it was unbelieveable. I've long been aware of Rendell's genius, but this was a shock even for me.
The story actuallly moves pretty slowly, but the suspense & tension is just unbearable. You know very well that cataclysmic events are going to occur, but of how & when you know nothing. The sense of wonderment you feel at Rendell (in any of her incarnations) is simply awe-inspiring. You read & read & read, completely unable to tear your eyes from the story, even though its moving with a slow pace. Its thrilling, suspenseful & beautifully tense. And I loved it.
The plot is simple - a telling of how a gay love-affair leads to the chill Pacific north, & fromt hence to murder - but very strong. There are good, strong, simple, sensible, realistic twists. They turn the story once or twice, adding just the right amoung of freshness & surprise.
The characters are superbly well drawn & believeable. & quite likeable, despite their flaws. The completely unsettling thing about Rendell's books are the fact that, in this case at least, the people seem quite, quite normal. Tim is just a normal young man, struggling with his identity & sexuality, experiencing the world for what it reallly is. He's nothing special. Has no psychological abnormalities, is not in any damaged And yet he is driven to murder. This novel is a bravura display of how circumstances can drive people to commit horrible deeds. Quite sane, normal people, slowly taken hold of.
This is a wonderful book. A masterpiece. The writing is just first class, cold, icy, gripping, & the descriptions of the places in which this novel are set are simply stunning. I have never been to Alaska (in particular) but through her descriptions i found myself transported there. And now, my window to it is closed, I want to visit it. It's a desire that should pass in a few days, but it's a powerful thing to feel simply after reading a book. No Night is Too Long is a dark, icy wasteland of a novel; an erotic & disturbing slice of Rendell's dangeorus world.
I would reccomend this to everyone. I have in the past held of reading Barbara Vine, because i assumed that they would be something very different. So different as to need publishing under a different name. My, though, was I wrong. After alll, a Rendell by any other name is still a Rendell. These books still contain the intensity of subtle plot, great characters, good twists, & alll the things I expect from Rendell. It has been months since i've read anything new by her, & now i have discovered this new rich casket of wonders, my future in reading looks very bright indeed.
The best book I've ever read... - By: , 07 Feb 2003 I usuallly stick to one particular genre but after last years new years resolution to read a wider range I encountered this brilliant book, & what a great thing too.
The book honestly is the best book I've ever read. It is fantasticallly written & is a credit to Ruth Rendell (Barbara Vine).
The story is about Tim & his love life as he ventures from his love for a university student to a professor & finds his sexuality. However, the true love is across the Atlantic living in canada.
The story is gripping & I didn't want to put it down. I can not describe how fantastic this book was. I'd recommend it to anyone. The only bad point to the book is that I knew I'd reach the end.
