176:, praised the novel: "Here he has set himself the task of exploring three lives linked only by fortuitous circumstances while including them in a coherent narrative. It is a juggling act and he doesn’t drop a single ball. Trio is, as I say, a comic novel but one which is rich enough to admit sadness. There is exuberant comedy in, for instance, a ludicrous party given by a falsely-Falstaffian 'Great Actor', but there is also pain, misery, perplexity and grief. Boyd moves from one register to another without striking a false note. His sympathy for his characters is rooted in the recognition that most of us know ourselves imperfectly and seek to keep even this imperfect knowledge from others."
136:, said: "This is a book about the absurd business of film-making, the desperate business of writing a novel and the ludicrous business of acting – and it’s superbly wry and wise and funny and truthful on all three subjects. But, beneath that, it’s really a novel about the correspondences between the inner and the outer lives of human beings: a novel, in other words, about identity" but Docx feels that Boyd "could have taken more risks in this book. I wanted him to deploy his formal talents to scream something, howl something, to weigh in. What was missing was madness, rage, despair, something existentially incandescent – whatever Boyd’s version of that might be."
150:
chance, art and accident, script and improvisation. For every turn of events, the story ingeniously suggests a multitude of other outcomes that might have occurred instead. By sheer luck, two of the titular trio survive close brushes with death, and find redemption. The third doesn’t, but just as easily might have. A sense of the fluky contingency of life lingers disquietingly...It seems churlish to wish — though I did — that the mission had been a touch more dangerous.
164:
there really was something occasionally deadly happening in 1968 despite all the blinding sun and arc lights shining on
Brighton Beach while characters of all sexual persuasions were thrilling to the timeworn pleasure of adultery and the new freedoms afforded by the lifting of inhibitions as well as age-old decency laws. Still, for all its brio, "Trio" hits some serious notes. It has a whiff of the ambivalent Graham Greene about it."
118:
The three characters are intertwined, the main narrative being the shooting in
Brighton of a film produced by Kydd, starring Viklund and directed by Wing's husband. Viklund's ex-husband, a radical bomber then appears, having escaped from prison and demanding money from her. The FBI make contact with
163:
wrote: "in the faraway, louche land of
Brighton ("the Las Vegas of England," as one of the book's characters observes). There, everyone's a writer or director, an actor or photographer, or a bit of each, and the plight of a radical bomber can be played for laughs or pathos or a simple reminder that
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also wanted more danger: "the narrative rapidly generates a prodigious quantity of subplots, each adding its own pressure to the general sense of impending disaster...More than just a clever authorial performance, the structure underpins a sustained preoccupation with the tension between fate and
29:
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Viklund who then flees to Paris in the middle of the film. Kydd finds her and tries her to complete the film. Meanwhile, Wing unsuccessfully attempts to mimic Woolf's suicide and so retreats to a rehab staffed by nuns.
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110:; Talbot Kydd, a closeted film producer; and Anny Viklund, an American actress who is having a secret affair with her co-star.
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102:, UK, in 1968, the trio of Boyd's title follows the lives of: Elfrida Wing, an alcoholic writer interested in the suicide of
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308:"Book review: Trio, by William Boyd"
16:2020 novel authored by William Boyd
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252:Lasdun, James (19 January 2021).
306:Massie, Alan (22 October 2020).
278:Akins, Ellen (26 January 2021).
196:Docx, Edward (24 October 2020).
798:Novels by William Boyd (writer)
565:The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth
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224:Liu, Max (30 October 2020).
94:is a 2020 novel authored by
541:The Destiny of Nathalie 'X'
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808:Novels set in the 1960s
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803:Novels set in Brighton
458:Ordinary Thunderstorms
584:Good and Bad at Games
533:On the Yankee Station
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378:A Good Man in Africa
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813:Viking Press books
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317:. Retrieved
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734:Non-fiction
592:Dutch Girls
576:Screenplays
549:Fascination
161:Ellen Akins
128:Edward Docx
55:Grey Villet
767:Categories
680:Man to Man
648:The Trench
361:Works by
180:References
664:Armadillo
426:Armadillo
145:reviewer
123:Reception
70:Publisher
696:Restless
450:Restless
434:Nat Tate
100:Brighton
62:Language
57:(bottom)
715:Longing
632:Chaplin
108:Rodmell
65:English
753:(2005)
750:Bamboo
745:(1998)
726:(2016)
718:(2013)
699:(2012)
691:(2010)
683:(2005)
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667:(2001)
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568:(2017)
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536:(1981)
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413:(1990)
405:(1987)
397:(1984)
389:(1982)
381:(1981)
370:Novels
36:Author
707:Plays
600:Scoop
130:, in
52:(top)
22:Trio
498:Trio
474:Solo
321:2021
293:2021
265:2021
239:2021
211:2021
114:Plot
91:Trio
153:In
106:in
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200:.
188:^
159:,
354:e
347:t
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143:'
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