AMERICAN novelist Amor Towles once asked "What can a first impression tell us about anyone? He used his deep insight to answer: "Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli."
Can we extrapolate and ask what the opening chapters of a book can tell us of the complete work.
Or of the writer's soul?
In my "first impression" of Nucleus I advanced the premise that author Rory Clements, on the evidence of his opening chapters, would use Nucleus to embrace the complexity of America's Manhattan Project and provide a novel that would explore the frenetic chase for atomic weaponry.
The pursuit of nuclear fission is germane to the plot of Mr Clement's novel, yet it remains always on the periphery.
Instead we delve into the world of prewar espionage, a gripping spy tale that covers the continents.
It is an even-paced narrative that interweaves the tragic poignancy of the Jewish children on their train ride from Nazi brutality; the noble courage and work of the Quakers who helped facilitate this - and on to genteel Britain; the scholastic corridors of Cambridge academia and the playing fields of the landed elite
It is all so English.
And I loved it.
This is the follow-up to Mr Clement's Corpus which introduced the professor spy catcher Tom Wilde.
The opener is worth the read, if only as a character setter.
In Nucleus we have Biggles-like flying antics and motorcycle manoeuvring to lighten the darker mood of espionage and murder.
The sexual frivolity does not detract the reader but seems improbable or inappropriate in the murkier world of IRA bombers and the scholastic al la Cambridge dons.
It is a curious imbroglio of pre-war espionage and romanticism, a sort of boater-hatted Bond, more 006 than 7.
The plot finally plays itself out, rather like the unraveling of a ball of wool than the taught snapping of a band.
But this is a woollen ball of the finest quality
Can we extrapolate and ask what the opening chapters of a book can tell us of the complete work.
Or of the writer's soul?
In my "first impression" of Nucleus I advanced the premise that author Rory Clements, on the evidence of his opening chapters, would use Nucleus to embrace the complexity of America's Manhattan Project and provide a novel that would explore the frenetic chase for atomic weaponry.
The pursuit of nuclear fission is germane to the plot of Mr Clement's novel, yet it remains always on the periphery.
Instead we delve into the world of prewar espionage, a gripping spy tale that covers the continents.
It is an even-paced narrative that interweaves the tragic poignancy of the Jewish children on their train ride from Nazi brutality; the noble courage and work of the Quakers who helped facilitate this - and on to genteel Britain; the scholastic corridors of Cambridge academia and the playing fields of the landed elite
It is all so English.
And I loved it.
This is the follow-up to Mr Clement's Corpus which introduced the professor spy catcher Tom Wilde.
The opener is worth the read, if only as a character setter.
In Nucleus we have Biggles-like flying antics and motorcycle manoeuvring to lighten the darker mood of espionage and murder.
The sexual frivolity does not detract the reader but seems improbable or inappropriate in the murkier world of IRA bombers and the scholastic al la Cambridge dons.
It is a curious imbroglio of pre-war espionage and romanticism, a sort of boater-hatted Bond, more 006 than 7.
The plot finally plays itself out, rather like the unraveling of a ball of wool than the taught snapping of a band.
But this is a woollen ball of the finest quality