Today Show – Top 10 Summer Reads!
This morning, BLACK OUT was featured on the Today Show as one of the Top 10 summer reads!
The Today Show host saw the cover and said “Oooh, this looks creepy.” (Who could ask for a better reaction). And the wonderful John Searles from Cosmopolitan said ...
I was a big fan of the authorā€™s debut novel, “Beautiful Lies.ā€¯ This time, sheā€™s back with a novel about a woman leading a pretty comfy life in a Florida suburb until some dark memories from her past begin to surface. As she sets out to uncover the truth behind these memories, her world turns upside down. The book is full of twists and turns. A great read for anyone craving some suspense.
Read the Today Show article here.
With the novel “Black Out” Ms Unger has taken the phrase “can’t put down ” to an entirely new level { in actual fact you have to put it down occasionally just to catch your breath }.
Lisa Unger has the unique talent that makes it unable to compare her books, which to me is the hallmark of a great writer. No familiar format, no comfort zones for either the characters or the reader. Impeccable research, as always, by Ms Unger leads the reader to understand that the unthinkable is actually the truth. Black Out challenges many preconceptions we as readers may have about mental illness and its far reaching consequences.
Perhaps “Black Out” is a 2008 Catch-22 ? If you need to be delusional to recognize the delusional then all the characters fit this premise.
The premise of “Black Out” is simple in that a subtitle for the novel could easily be ” Ophelia. Is she fact or Fiction ? ”
This novel has a brilliant multi-layered approach within each chapter with each of the characters taking on their own persona and perception of themselves and moving from points in time seamlessly back and forwards . A technique I’ve never experienced and it works to perfection. As I type these notes I realize that one of the fascinating features of “Black Out” is the difficulty of writing about the characters in the novel without giving some hints as to their role, which would be unfair to say the least.
In summary, “Black Out” is a must read novel and deserves the highest praise and accolades, which it appears to be receiving on a daily basis.
Douglas
P.S. One little anecdote. Two of the characters in “Black Out” are called Ophelia and Marlowe. Now Ophelia is a tragic Shakesperian character but many people think the Shakespeare’s plays were written by a contemporary of his called Marlowe. Or were Marlowe and Shakespeare one and the same? Just like “Black Out”, nothing is ever what it seems to be and seemingly irrelevant anecdotes are anything but irrelevant.