Soft! - Softcover

Thomson, Rupert

3.44

632 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375702202 ISBN 13: 9780375702204

Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2000

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Former bouncer Barker Dodds wants nothing more than to flee his violent past in his native Plymouth for an uncertain new existence as a barber in London's colorful East End. Waif-like Glade Spencer drifts through life as a waitress at a fashionable Soho restaurant, a devoted daughter to her estranged, caravan-dwelling father, and a long-distance girlfriend to an unpredictable American lawyer. And ambitious soft drink branch manager Jimmy Lyle is eager to please his new American boss with a revolutionary marketing strategy for Soft!, one that promises to make the new orange-colored beverage a soda sensation for the twenty-first century.

It is under that effervescent orange glow that these three disparate souls intersect, as each learns "there is nothing soft about the soft drink industry." When unsuspecting "Soft! ambassador" Glade begins to unravel from her subconscious obsession with a product she's never tried, Jimmy's top-secret campaign threatens to spill into the daily papers, and Barker once again finds himself employed as a thug-for-hire. At turns harrowing and darkly humorous, Soft! is a magnificently surreal story, one that New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani calls "Rupert Thomson's most powerful novel yet."

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From the Inside Flap:

"A tight, hypnotic...fast-paced, almost cinematic narrative."--Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times
Former bouncer Barker Dodds wants nothing more than to flee his violent past for a quaint existence as a barber in London. Waif-like Glade Spencer drifts through life as a waitress at a Soho cafe. And ambitious marketing executive Jimmy Lyle, eager to please his new American boss, devises a revolutionary strategy for introducing a new, orange-colored beverage, Soft!, into an already oversaturated market.
In this compulsively readable psychological thriller, these three unlikely souls meet. When leaks start to develop in Lyle's highly original though, illegal strategy, Barker is paid a visit by a friend from his old life, and is soon is presented with an unthinkable dilemma. And the person with whom he now shares a destiny--unbeknownst to her--is Glade. At turns harrowing and darkly humorous, Soft! is a magnificently surreal story, and a social satire of the highest literary order.
"Stimulating and seductive.... A pulp poetic melodrama."--"San Francisco Chronicle
"[A] twisted thriller that will keep you turning the pages until four in the morning."--"Details

About the Author:

Rupert Thomson is the author of four previous novels, three of which—The Five Gates of Hell, Air & Fire, and The Insult—are available in Vintage paperback editions. He lives in London.

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