The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh – book review #1

I didn’t choose The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh. It found me. And I’m glad it did.

I left my office job (actually, home job; thanks, COVID-19) at the end of September last year to become a full-time freelance editor and proofreader. My lovely co-workers gave me, among other perfectly pitched leaving gifts, a three-month book subscription for Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights.

The idea is you answer lots of questions about books and authors you like/don’t like/have read etc, then they send you one book a month based on your preferences. It came beautifully packaged, with the largest, sturdiest bookmark I’ve ever seen.

Nonetheless, I was slightly sceptical. Could they really choose a better book for me than I could choose myself?

Turns out they could.

Could @mrbsemporium really choose a better book for me than I could choose myself? Turns out they could. – review of The Blinds by Adam @sternbergh Share on X

What’s it about?

The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh is a novel set in a small community in rural Texas with only 48 inhabitants. Caesura, otherwise known as The Blinds, is no ordinary place of residence. The townsfolk are criminals, their memories erased as part of an experimental programme. They’re free to leave at any time, but if they do, they’re likely to end up dead, thanks to their forgotten, shady pasts.

Sheriff Calvin Cooper, complete with tin badge, fills the post more as a token gesture than out of a need to keep the peace. That is, until a suicide, then a murder, rock the peace.

With plenty of twists along the way, we follow the fortunes – or not-so fortunes for many – of the Caesura residents, wondering how on earth they will escape the increasingly dangerous stakes.

We follow the fortunes – or not-so fortunes – of the residents, wondering how they'll escape the increasingly dangerous stakes – review of The Blinds by Adam @sternbergh Share on X

One of the key themes of The Blinds is identity. How are people affected when they don’t remember large chunks of their past, their name, why they chose to sign these memories away?

Each resident has a new name to go with their new life. This was a lovely touch. On arrival, they have to pick their mix-and-match new name from two lists. One of US ex-vice presidents, the other a list of movie stars. This results in some entertaining first-name/surname combos.

Why did I like it?

Characters

The residents of The Blinds will stay with you long after you close the book. They all have their ghosts from the past, like most well-written characters in any book. However, they can’t remember them. This doesn’t stop them from being influenced by their pasts, creating an internal tension that externally manifests in unique ways.

Sheriff Cooper may stand for the law in the community, but he isn’t without his own ghosts either.

I found all the characters believable, and strangely likeable for the most part, despite knowing that most of them were criminals of the worst kind. There are exceptions, of course, but even those characters who repelled me were as vivid and well-written as the rest.

Even minor characters are described with such finesse. Take the fifty-something librarian, who has a “meticulously maintained bouffant hairstyle that can’t have been fashionable at any point in her lifetime.” Can you picture her?

Plot

I hate being able to predict what is going to happen in a story. This wasn’t one of those books.

Without giving too much away, you will be surprised more than once by turns in the plot. I found myself wondering on more than one occasion, “What’s going to happen now that we’ve learnt that?”, or “How are they going to get out of this one?”

Writing style

Adam Sternbergh has a way with words, that’s for sure. His vivid depiction of the dusty Texas community and its inhabitants is haunting and real.

I also loved the way he mixed up poetic descriptions and inner thoughts with short, snappy phrases to increase tension, reveal details or to keep the plot moving quickly.

Lines that stuck in my brain

“And fifty, he knows, is the moment in life when you stop looking forward and wondering what kind of person you might become, and start looking backward and wondering how you became the person you are.”

“That’s what happens when you wipe out a big chunk of a person’s memories: Fear breeds in the empty space that’s left behind.”

“The thought of just how inadequate the body’s natural defenses – skull, bone, brain – were in the face of the advanced physics – lead, gun-powder, momentum – of invented death. It all seemed so absurd to him: that a life comprising so many accumulated years could be interrupted with such indifferent swiftness.”

Final thoughts

If you want to read something original, twisty and vivid, you could do far worse than The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh. Have you read it? Let us know in the comments what you thought.

Oh, and Adam Sternbergh’s website has the most original front page I’ve ever seen. See what happens when you hit ‘Exit’.

Want your own copy?

The Blinds on bookshop.org.uk (UK)

The Blinds on bookshop.org (US)

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