Pictures at an Exhibition

This book explores issues of identity and responsibility that are universal. Are we the same people we were many years ago? And how much responsibility do we bear for past actions if our core (soul) has changed in some essential way. The issues that Thomas deals with in this book are very similar to those in Philip Roth's "Operation Shylock". However while Roth explicates these issues through the soliliquies of his protagonist, Thomas allows the force of the narrative to carry the reader into the midst of these quanderies. As a result this is a much better book than "Shylock". At the same time this is a fascinating book that keeps the reader interested and questioning throughout.

This novel is stunning. I mean that in both senses of the word. I've read few novels as an adult that have had such powerful effect. A second reading of the novel was a bit more ambivalent, as I felt all of the characters to be so completely contemptible. I don't know whether that lowers my estimation of it, however. What sets Thomas' work apart is his fearless sensuality. Not just of sex, but also dark emotions and compulsions, complex relationships, etc. The lack of inhibition is truly rare, especially by one who can write so well. Some people may be turned off by his treatment of sacrosanct subjects, such as the Holocaust. However, I find his treatment extremely humanistic, in that it doesn't shy away from the various complications on the lives of various individuals. To assume that survivors (of whichever aspect) should hold specific, stereotypical qualities and characteristics is far from humane. More the point is the absolute obviousness of connecting the Holocaust to Freudian psycho-analysis. Thomas does this in several of his novels, and there is enough material to go around for several more. One cannot overlook the fact that Hitler and Freud are quite literally sons of the same place and time. The darkness, psycho-sexual undertones, and power dynamics are intrinsic to our understanding of the early 20th Century. (As an aside, in _Eating Pavlova_, Thomas gives a dying and doped-up Freud dreaming premonitions of the Holocaust, which Freud analyzes as he would any other dream. It is a sensational device which allows an imagined Freudian analysis of what was to come.) However, I would not recommend this book to anyone who is squeamish about sex, violence, or the darker elements of human psychology.