Customer Reviews
Hollywood Madness - By: Talc Demon, 08 Feb 2008 
Patrick McGrath's Spider weaves a web of intrigue & buried history. The tale starts out promisingly, with the narrator telling his own version of the truth. Set in the dingy domesticity of post-war East-End London, there are some nice touches to the development of Spider's story, although I felt that further development would have made this a much more fulfilling read.
Unfortunately however, McGrath concludes the story rather weakly. His narrator develops a tired version of mental illness, & the loose ends are tied up with a cliched Hollywood psychological twist, that could be predicted a mile off.
A harrowing novel - By: Philippe Horak, 07 Jun 2005 
In "Spider", Mr McGrath tells the harrowing story of a schizophrenic character callled Dennis Cleg. He suffers from halllucinations - visual, auditory & olfactory - & from body delusions, he is physicallly regressed & has ideas of persecution. At the beginning of the novel, set in 1957, he lives in a shabby house along with other tenants, a "cargo of dead souls" as he callls the place, the landlady of which is a matronly figure, Mrs Wilkinson, who terrifies Cleg. As the story unfolds, the reader gets to know the circumstances which brought Cleg to live in this grimy place where "desolation prevails", in an area of London resembling "a clotted web of dark compartments." He feels that he would relish his solitude & memories were he not so easily thrown into turmoil by the latter. His existence is loveless, monotonous & grey as he often drifts further & further into the back parts of his mind where the reader follows him & tries to discern reality from delusion. A man like Cleg constantly lives in isolation, he has no friends, doesn't want any, doesn't like any. How could he, being permanently nagged by the certainty that others can destroy him with just a glance? From early childhood, being seen created in Cleg a deep sense of unease & he recallls imagining being "a coal-black boy who could move through darkness without being seen." Even years later "the misting & blurring of the visible world gave such comfort to the boy, & to the creature I have since become." Another reason for Cleg avoiding people is the frightening prospect of their thoughts invading his mind. "If I'm not careful these thought patterns of theirs crowd out my own, & I can't have that, I can't have other people's thoughts in my head."
Apart from a brilliant psychological portrait of the schizophrenic mind, "Spider" is designed almost like a detective story in which the reader slowly discovers what happened to Cleg in his childhood, the time he spent in a mental institution & the subsequent years at Mrs Wilkinson's house. Highly recommended.
Compellingly Horrific ! - By: R. Pieters, 18 Mar 2004 
I've now read alll of McGraths novels & must admit there's not a dull one. Spider takes you to zones of insanity, horror & depravity, as we enter the mind of deranged ex mental patient Dennis Clegg as he tells us the disturbingly shocking story of his past. As usual McGrath draws you in to his dark bleak fifties setting this time to the depressed East End of London as you trip on a roller coaster nightmare of demonic horror through the darkest of minds as fact is hard to decide from reality. Spider is a story which reads more like sinister poetry & worth reading to get your mind lost in the world of a disturbed schizo's mind.A mind where imps live in the attic, worms & spiders live within him. Forget the film read the book !
An expertly told 'bad trip' - By: Adam Brooks, 24 Feb 2003 This novel draws you through the narrative of the protagonist, as related in his journal, into the mind of a schizophrenic man.
This world is paranoid, agressive & frightening. It is filled with images of decay, betrayal, erotoicism, & nightmarish insect & fiendish figures, such as the 'nightmare hag' which the damp on his bedroom walll & ceiling forms into, or the worm which Spider (aka Dennis Clegg, 'Spider' is the name Dennis gives to his 'true' self) imagines living in his lung.
You are drawn into this world slowly, imperceptibly, & in the narrative truth & illusion interwine. The book does re-pay re-reading. There are insights hidden which will be revealed with the information we gain as the story progresses.
The narrative begins by making it clear that alll is not well in Spiders' world. He is in a house filled with 'dead souls' presided over by a woman who is obviously there in an official care capacity. She has an office in the front of the house, & chides Spider for not being back for lunch, & wearing too many layers of clothes. As he walks, he re-visits some scenes from his childhood, including looming gasometers & a bench by a canal, & contemplates his life. Back in his room, he pieces together his memories in his journal. He fills in the blanks with conjecture.
What this at first gives us is a sad wrenching tale of a young boy & his mother neglected by the alcoholic father. The father is prone to mysterious fits of rage. The mother copes meekly, a saintly figure, forever trying to build bridges, & nutures the boy.
The 'conjecture' comes in as Spider imagines hid father commencing an adulterous relationship. Soon he is dreaming that his mother has been murdered, & the fact that his mother disappears convinces him that his father has killed her, so his mistress 'Hilda' can move in. The boy witnesses his father & lover in bed, & sees the mistress in his mothers clothes, which she distends with her fuller figure, making them 'tarty.'
From this point on it becomes increasingly apparent that conjecture, illusion & reality are knotted & ravelled together. The mother/mistress begins to speak as his mother, & the parents express concern over the boys' behaviour, particularly his assertion that his 'real' mother has been killed. The narrative is playing tricks with us. But what?
As Spider delves deeper into his past, his condition deteriorates. His auditory, olfactory & aural halllucinations escalate. A visiting Doctor conforms that Spider has not been taking his medication. The warden of the house, Mrs Wilkinson, merges in Spiders' mind with the remembered Hilda...
The book is skillfully constructed & beautifully written in a mesmeric poetic language. As a whole it conveys the frighteneing hyper-reality of mental illness. Text-book symptoms are brought to life. The book is unsettling, profound & sad. It is an expertly told 'bad-trip.'
one of the best - By: , 29 Mar 2000 An excellent book. The narrator is a madman who tells his story in a suspenseful & evocative manner. It is not unlike The Butcher Boy or The Wasp Factory. I reread the book at least once a year & always find some new element to appreciate.
