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In COLLECTORS Paul Griner weaves together a suspenseful thriller with a meditation on
collecting --- and the results are oddly affecting. Not all that much happens in the
course of the novel: The protagonist, Jean Duprez, meets Steven Cain; they then go on two
dates that both end strangely. In the spaces between these encounters, we learn about
Jean, her mysterious past, and her penchant for collecting pens. After an afternoon of pen
shopping, Jean has an encounter with a woman selling sugar-cube dog sculptures and
remarks, "Every vendor has a perfect buyer, someone out their waiting to find her...
Her day would come, someone would seek her out and surprise her with the strength of his
interest, but if she did not wait for it, she would not do well." This is a
philosophy that applies not only to her pen collection, but also to her relationship with
Steven --- which has disturbing implications.
Griner's fascination with collecting holds the reader's interest because the particular
collectors he examines are strange (Steven is a collector too --- of binoculars). Both
have mysterious pasts, both exhibit antisocial behavior, both aren't particularly likable.
These are strange people in an even stranger situation, which makes this a strange novel
to read. But for all that Jean and Steven have in common, Griner handles the
characterizations of each of them very differently. It's not just that we see more of Jean
because she's the protagonist --- we have access to her thoughts, we know how she feels
when she first meets Steven, how she feels waiting for his phone calls, how she feels
after their first, spectacularly chilling date. Steven is more of a mystery. Any
impressions we may have of his character come through his brief conversations with Jean,
or Jean's mental impressions of him.
Griner builds a great deal of suspense with this approach to characterization. Even though
we take Jean for a bright, successful, intelligent woman, her response to Steven's creepy
behavior is just plain irrational --- even though we have access to her rationalizations
of his creepiness. It's like a scene in a horror movie where a naive young coed enters an
abandoned house and the killer is inside. The audience yells because they have information
that that young coed doesn't have --- they hear ominous music, they see a camera shot of
the killer in the closet, gleaming knife in hand. In THE COLLECTORS, Jean has as much
information as the reader has, everyone is on equal footing; but Jean, not a dippy coed
but a bright professional woman, hears the ominous music, deconstructs it, and decides not
to make much of its significance. She knows as much as the reader that Steven is terribly
odd but she is compelled to return to him, to long for him. It's simply maddening. But
then again, it's not wholly inexplicable. Lust and attraction distort reality, they can
make people weak. It's hard to watch a seemingly strong, self-possessed person crumble
under the weight of these emotions.
THE COLLECTORS is a satisfying, well-paced first novel that makes an excellent choice for
fans of literary fiction and thrillers alike. For all its strangeness, it's an undeniably
suspenseful story that will leave you breathless by novel's end.
--- Reviewed by Rachel Kempster
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