Clear, by Nicola Barker, is an entertaining and often funny book set against a unique publicity stunt - magician David Blaine's 44-day public starvation illusion in London in 2003. Given the bizarre context of the story, the novel explores some unexpected and amusing people and events at its fringe. An interesting aspect of the novel is the male narrator, Adair, who hangs around the event basically to pick up girls. He sort of succeeds at this goal in his pursuit of Aphra, a quirky girl with a special gift of a highly sensitive sense of smell, which she uses in her work at a department store. As it turns out, she has some other secrets. His character is irritating but somewhat rings true - although his characterization is sometimes overdone. The book's style matches his character, with lots of sarcastic asides and pseudo self-reflection. The story does take a poignant turn late in the novel. Overall, the novel is rather light but often entertaining and worth a read for that.
For a review of the book by The Guardian, click here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/sep/18/featuresreviews.guardianreview19
