Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Vanishing Points by VANISHING POINTS. Throughout this Australian writer's harsh-to-playfully satiric novels (Hunting the Wild Pineapple, 1991, etc.), the massive idiocy of institutionalized greed--an individual's or a country's--is dismembered sinew-by-socket. Here, in two novellas, two solitary ones observe Evil on the march, and both have moments of smashing revenge. Both ex-academic Mac Hope, divorced and over the middle-age hill (in ""The Genteel Poverty Bus Company""), and Julie Truscott (in ""Investing the Weather""), married to the awful Clifford, find their evil encapsulated in one nasty, crude, and cruel personage, the scourge of civilized values and of the purity of the natural world--the Developer. In this case, Clifford. It is Clifford who is ""turning into a plastic Disneyworld"" pristine islands like the one opposite Mac's hermitage where Mac courts solitude and peace. When Mac blasts music (Wagner or Bartok are good choices) across the water at three in the morning--sometimes to slap hack at the Club Med-type of disco beat--the battle is on. Mac will lose his own island, of course, while he still muses on the nature of solitude and his earlier search with lonely others in his bus-tour days--and in spite of help from another lonely isolate, a kind of young scholar gypsy who leaves before Mac heads for ""the void."" Meanwhile, Clifford's wife, Julie, hands philandering Clifford a blow when she simply leaves the house and three kids to him and takes on a journalist's job. But rankling cruelties and loss of the kids bring her to despair--and eventually to a small mission run by three saintly nuns in a pure and quiet semiwilderness. Then comes Clifford, resort plans in his pocket. Clifford's end is quite horrible--and satisfying. A bit like the wickedly fun and satiric Fay Weldon. Sometimes cerebrally overengaged in style, but always fresh and inventive. Vanishing Points. In The Genteel Poverty Bus Company, a lone man foils the capitalistic efforts of a developer-magnate, and the same developer's wife leaves her fat-cat husband for a mission at Bukki Bay in Inventing the Weather. From Kirkus Reviews: Throughout this Australian writer's harsh-to-playfully satiric novels (Hunting the Wild Pineapple, 1991, etc.), the massive idiocy of institutionalized greed--an individual's or a country's--is dismembered sinew-by-socket. Here, in two novellas, two solitary ones observe Evil on the march, and both have moments of smashing revenge. Both ex-academic Mac Hope, divorced and over the middle-age hill (in ``The Genteel Poverty Bus Company''), and Julie Truscott (in ``Investing the Weather''), married to the awful Clifford, find their evil encapsulated in one nasty, crude, and cruel personage, the scourge of civilized values and of the purity of the natural world--the Developer. In this case, Clifford. It is Clifford who is ``turning into a plastic Disneyworld'' pristine islands like the one opposite Mac's hermitage where Mac courts solitude and peace. When Mac blasts music (Wagner or Bartok are good choices) across the water at three in the morning--sometimes to slap back at the Club Med-type of disco beat--the battle is on. Mac will lose his own island, of course, while he still muses on the nature of solitude and his earlier search with lonely others in his bus-tour days--and in spite of help from another lonely isolate, a kind of young scholar gypsy who leaves before Mac heads for ``the void.'' Meanwhile, Clifford's wife, Julie, hands philandering Clifford a blow when she simply leaves the house and three kids to him and takes on a journalist's job. But rankling cruelties and loss of the kids bring her to despair--and eventually to a small mission run by three saintly nuns in a pure and quiet semiwilderness. Then comes Clifford, resort plans in his pocket. Clifford's end is quite horrible--and satisfying. A bit like the wickedly fun and satiric Fay Weldon. Sometimes cerebrally overengaged in style, but always fresh and inventive. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. "About this title" may belong to another edition of this title. All books shipped within 24 hours. This is a sole proprietorship, Daniel C. Pope, P.O. Box 370310, West Hartford Conn. 06137, USA. Email: [email protected]. Phone: (860) 232-9930. Media rate shipping is $3.95. Priority rate shipping is $8.95. International priority rate in a box for a two-pound book is approximately $23. Some heavy books might be more to ship overseas. Will overnight express anywhere within USA if you ask first. Vanishing Points. Set in Australia, this story follows the lives of Macintosh Hope, a disenchanted academic, and Julie Truscott, a seemingly ordinary housewife, each fleeing from lives they cannot control. It is a love story about two fellow-travellers who never meet, but whose paths run curiously parallel. Read More. Set in Australia, this story follows the lives of Macintosh Hope, a disenchanted academic, and Julie Truscott, a seemingly ordinary housewife, each fleeing from lives they cannot control. It is a love story about two fellow-travellers who never meet, but whose paths run curiously parallel. Read Less. All Copies ( 21 ) Softcover ( 10 ) Hardcover ( 10 ) Choose Edition ( 4 ) Book Details Seller Sort. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. San Diego, CA, USA. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Very Good Details: ISBN: 039913770X ISBN-13: 9780399137709 Pages: 234 Edition: First American Edition Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 1992 Language: English Alibris ID: 8373833775 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very Good+ in Very Good+ jacket. First Printing. Sml 8vo. Publisher rem. mark letter "P" stamped on bot. end pages, and edges of boards faded, else unmarked VG+/VG+ in clear dust jacket cvr. Australian author, winner of the Patrick White Award for lifetime achievement in literature and multiple winner of Australia's prestigious . ► Contact This Seller. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Fine/Like New Details: ISBN: 039913770X ISBN-13: 9780399137709 Pages: 234 Edition: First Edition, First Printing Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 1992 Language: English Alibris ID: 10336447237 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fine/Fine. 8vo-over 7�"-9�" tall 039913770x Used A Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Negligible wear. ► Contact This Seller. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Very Good Details: ISBN: 039913770X ISBN-13: 9780399137709 Pages: 234 Edition: American edition Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 1992 Language: English Alibris ID: 16651232883 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Brownstown, MI, USA. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Very Good Details: ISBN: 039913770X ISBN-13: 9780399137709 Pages: 234 Edition: American edition Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 1992 Language: English Alibris ID: 16599088163 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Wheatfield, NY, USA. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Fine/Like New Details: ISBN: 039913770X ISBN-13: 9780399137709 Pages: 234 Edition: First U.S Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 1992 Language: English Alibris ID: 11359971482 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fine in Very Good dust jacket. 039913770x. A Good Read ships from Toronto and Niagara Falls, NY-customers outside of North America please allow two to three weeks for delivery.; A few crinkles on edges of d/j, minor surface rubbing.; 8vo-over 7�"-9�" Tall. ► Contact This Seller. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Good Details: ISBN: 039913770X ISBN-13: 9780399137709 Pages: 234 Edition: First American Edition, 1st Printing Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 1992 Language: English Alibris ID: 16468488230 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good in Good + jacket. Mylared A nice reading copy. Pages are clean and bright. Binding is tight. Book and jacket show some shelfwear. Jacket has been mylared for protection. ► Contact This Seller. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Paperback, Very Good Details: ISBN: 1863301860 ISBN-13: 9781863301862 Pages: 234 Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 01/1993 Alibris ID: 16327756816 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very good. Shows some signs of wear from usage. Is no longer bright/shinny. Edge wear from storage and shelving. ► Contact This Seller. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Pleasant View, TN, USA. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Good Details: Pages: 234 Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Alibris ID: 16026116471 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. Fast Handling-Ships next Business Day! ! ! ! ► Contact This Seller. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Saint Louis, MO, USA. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Good Details: ISBN: 039913770X ISBN-13: 9780399137709 Pages: 234 Edition: First Edition Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 1992 Language: English Alibris ID: 10957928934 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very Good in Good jacket. ► Contact This Seller. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. London, UNITED KINGDOM. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Paperback, Good Details: ISBN: 0749396075 ISBN-13: 9780749396077 Pages: 234 Edition: 1st Uk Paperback Ed Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 07/31/1995 Language: English Alibris ID: 16414415842 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. ASTLEY, Thea. Nationality: Australian. Born: Thea Beatrice May Astley in Brisbane, Queensland, 25 August 1925. Education: The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 1943-47, B.A. 1947. Family: Married Edmund John Gregson in 1948; one son. Career: English teacher in Queensland, 1944-48, and in New South Wales, 1948-67; senior tutor, then fellow in English, Macquarie University, Sydney, 1968-85. Lives near Sydney. Awards: Commonwealth Literary Fund fellowship, 1961, 1964; Miles Franklin award, 1963, 1966, 1973; Moomba award, 1965; Age Book of the Year award, 1975; Patrick White award, 1989; Age Book of the Year award, 1996. Agent: Elise Goodman, Goodman Associates, 500 West End Avenue, New York, New York 10024, U.S.A. Publications. Novels. Girl with a Monkey. Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1958; New York, Penguin, 1987. A Descant for Gossips. Sydney and London, Angus and Robertson, 1960. The Well-Dressed Explorer. Sydney and London, Angus and Robertson, 1962; New York, Penguin, 1988. . Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1965; London, Angus and Robertson, 1966; New York, Evans, 1967. A Boat Load of Home Folk. Sydney and London, Angus and Robertson, 1968; New York, Penguin, 1983. . Sydney and London, Angus and Robertson, 1972; in Two by Astley , New York, Putnam, 1988. . Melbourne, Nelson, 1974; in Two by Astley , NewYork, Putnam, 1988. An Item from the Late News. St. Lucia, University of QueenslandPress, 1982; New York, Penguin, 1984. . Ringwood, Victoria, Penguin, 1985; New York, Viking, 1986. It's Raining in Mango: Pictures from a Family Album. New York, Putnam, 1987; London, Viking, 1988. Two by Astley [includes A Kindness Cup ]. New York, Putnam, 1988. . New York, Putnam, 1990. . New York, Putnam, 1994; London, Secker and Warburg, 1995. The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow. New York, Viking, 1996. : A Book for the World's Last Reader. Ringwood, Victoria, Australia, Viking, 1999. Short Stories. Hunting the Wild Pineapple. Melbourne, Nelson, 1979; New York, Putnam, 1991. Vanishing Points. New York, Putnam, 1992; London, Minerva, 1995. Collected Stories. St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia, University of. Queensland Press, 1997. Uncollected Short Stories. "Cubby," in Coast to Coast. Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1961. "The Scenery Never Changes," in Coast to Coast. Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1963. "Journey to Olympus," in Coast to Coast. Sydney, Angus andRobertson, 1965. "Seeing Mrs. Landers," in Festival and Other Stories , edited byBrian Buckley and Jim Hamilton. Melbourne, Wren, 1974; Newton Abbot, Devon, David and Charles, 1975. Contributor, Amnesty , edited by Dee Mitchell. Port Melbourne, Victoria, Minerva, 1993. Other. Editor, Coast to Coast 1969-1970. Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1971. Thea Astley comments: (1972) My main interest (and has been through my five published and current unpublished novels) is the misfit. Not the spectacular outsider, but the seedy little non-grandiose non-fitter who lives in his own mini-hell. Years ago I was impressed at eighteen or so by Diary of a Nobody , delighted by the quality Grossmith gave to the non-achiever and the sympathy which he dealt out. My five published novels have always been, despite the failure of reviewers to see it, a plea for charity — in the Pauline sense, of course — to be accorded to those not ruthless enough or grand enough to be gigantic tragic figures, but which, in their own way, record the same via crucis. Thea Astley is one of the most widely respected novelists in Australia, despite the fact that she has never received the kind of sustained critical attention that has been given to some of the country's newer female writers. Born in Queensland into a Catholic family, she long ago abandoned the Church but freely acknowledges its influence. Her language is rich in religious terminology and metaphor, yet she tends mostly to see religious life itself as containing tensions that lie immediately beneath its surface and eventually erupt in destructive forms. Politically to the left, her writing is nevertheless marked by formal, cultural, and, in many respects, ethical conservatism. She is also one of Australia's wittiest and shrewdest novelists, and she plots carefully for dramatic effect and exciting finales. Astley's first three novels are apprentice works, though they contain the seeds of many of her later ideas, but with The Slow Natives , which won for her the first of a record four Miles Franklin awards, she established her reputation. In this novel the author chooses not to follow the fate of one or two particular characters, as she did in her early work, but to move freely among a group, switching attention omnisciently from one to another. Almost all the characters suffer from some form of spiritual aridity; in Astley's vision, there often seems nothing between repression, and empty or even corrupt sexuality. At times the novel sounds uncannily like Graham Greene in tone: "we carry our own hells within," a priest tells another character, and a moment later he uses the exact term from Greene: "They'll think I'm a whisky priest." A Boat Load of Home Folk takes up several of the same themes but looks back also to the early A Descant for Gossips in its concentration on the torments of adolescence. It is peopled by as sorry and defeated a lot as the previous novel and in fact, several of the peripheral characters reappear and play a more central role. Again, sexual repression, but more generally an inability to love, lies at the heart of the problem with most of the characters. As Father Lake puts it, "God save me, God save me … from a lack of love." The novel is also noteworthy for a magnificently climactic cyclone as well as for the blossoming of a comic talent which had been present earlier but here achieves an anarchic, even surreal quality. The Acolyte is Astley's own favorite among her novels. Like several other Australian novels — Patrick White's The Vivisector , for example — it takes up the notion of the artist as a destroyer of human lives, feeding off the flesh of lesser mortals in the service of his sacred art. Unlike White, however, Astley is interested less in the artist figure himself than in the mortals who are helplessly attracted to him and allow themselves to become his sacrificial victims. A Kindness Cup and An Item from the Late News are both violent and angry novels. The former is based on an incident that took place at The Leap, Queensland, in the second half of the nineteenth century when a group of blacks were massacred. The small town of The Taws is celebrating the progress it has made over the last two decades and has invited former citizens back for a week of reunion. The question, which is eventually answered in the negative, is whether the town can finally acknowledge the injustices it perpetrated in the past. An Item from the Late News deals once again with a person who has returned to the town years after a series of tragic events in order to expunge her guilt. As in A Kindness Cup the strong characters are evil bullies, while the others exhibit at most a kind of weak tolerance. The novel takes place against the ironical background of Christmas, just as A Kindness Cup uses the New Year. Coming in between these two grimmest of her novels, Hunting the Wild Pineapple is a wonderfully funny, anarchic collection of stories, as if the author feels she can let her hair down in the shorter, more open form of the story in contrast to her meticulously plotted novels. Astley has in fact written quite a lot of short fiction as the publication of her Collected Stories in 1997 revealed. Most of the stories are related by Keith Leverson, whom we left as a young boy at the end of The Slow Natives in hospital with his leg amputated. Now middle-aged, Leverson is "a monopod self- pitier" but also a man who has become accustomed to observing others rather than living himself and his perceptions are shrewd, sardonic, witty. Mostly, the observation is of "this second-rate Eden," Astley's familiar northern Queensland, the area "north of twenty and one hundred and forty- six," and of the drop-outs and hippies who inhabit it. In contrast to the sympathetic way she had treated tortured adolescents in earlier novels, Astley through Leverson views these young people with a sort of benign contempt. Beachmasters breaks new ground in that it is set outside Australia and is quite overtly political. A group of natives on the Pacific island of Kristi, somewhere near to the north of Australia, stage a brief-lived revolt against the English and French powers which govern it. Their bizarre rebellion is described in a quite Conradian way, in terms that are both absurdly farcical on the one hand and profoundly sad on the other. For all the comic elements in the rebellion, Astley's treatment is full of outrage. The sub-title of her eleventh book of fiction, "Pictures from the Family Album," is revealing as to how the novel works. It's Raining in Mango comes complete with a brief family tree and in fourteen episodes takes the history of the Laffey family from the time of the arrival of Cornelius and his wife up to roughly the present and the fourth generation. Ironically juxtaposed against their loosely structured history is that of a line of blacks — "Bidiggi" (known later as Bidgi the Mumbler) born in the 1860s, father of Jackie Mumbler, grandfather of Charley Mumbler and great-grandfather of Billy Mumbler. Although the social concerns that inform all of Astley's work are present in Reaching Tin River they are more muted. The novel deals more directly with the relations between the sexes and is an unusually personal work, the pain internalized rather than directed outwards in the form of moral outrage. It is the story of the quest by Belle for her mother, and perhaps ultimately for herself. Reaching Tin River is an oddly moving novel. If there is a limitation to Astley's writing, it takes the form of a lack of emotional range. She is moved to anger far more often than anything deeper. This novel is quite desolate in parts, as well as being extremely funny in others. There is a wonderful evocation of Astley's favorite hunting ground of northern Queensland and its small towns with their absurd names. Vanishing Points consists of two novellas which implicitly comment on one another. As the title suggests, they are linked by the protagonists' search for a means of escape and retreat from the world as a way of rediscovering meaning in it for themselves. The epigraph to each of the three sections of Astley's short novel Coda concerns itself with newspaper reports of old people being abandoned and left to fend for themselves by their children — granny dumping. In the course of the novella we learn about the life of Kathleen Hackendorf, her marriage, her friend Daisy who is now dead but whom she still sees and speaks to everywhere, and finally the treachery of her daughter and her politician husband. In Astley's later works the female characters rebel and stand up for themselves more and more, as if they have finally worked out that life has been dealing them a bum hand. Kathleen is never more attractive than when she is being rude to people who patronize her. Like A Kindness Cup, The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow is based on a specific historical incident and again it is filled with a sense of outrage at the unjust treatment meted out to black people in Australia. Structurally complex, ranging widely in time and character, the novel takes the same despairing view of black-white relations in Australia as It's Raining in Mango , suggesting the cyclic and repetitive nature of the violence which befalls Aboriginal people, even though some characters such as a Catholic priest attempt to make a stand. Associated with the theme of endemic racism is Astley's increasingly overt preoccupation with feminism, though feminist issues have always been present in some form or other in her novels. Drylands confirms the direction in which most of Astley's recent work has been going. Its eloquent subtitle is "a book for the world's last reader" and in its account of three generations Astley is able to pour all her dislike of what she believes contemporary Australia and especially contemporary Australian males have become. She deplores her society's racism, its sexism, the decline of country towns and country values, its lack of interest in culture, the illiteracy of its youth and especially their preference for loud, mindless rock over classical music. None of these concerns is new in her work but never has she written so stridently and despairingly, if with ferocious energy, about them. Despite her increasing pessimism, however, Astley's later writing has lost none of its wit, sharp-eyed observation, and relish in the absurdities of egotism. Her body of work is unmatched by that of any contemporary Australian novelist except perhaps Thomas Keneally. ISBN 13: 9780855614782. Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Sun Damage to edge of Pages. No.1 BESTSELLERS - great prices, friendly customer service � " all orders are dispatched next working day. Seller Inventory # mon0000551155. 2. Vanishing Points. Book Description Hardcover. 1st Edition. Large octavo size [16x24cm approx]. Very Good condition in Very Good Dustjacket. DJ protected in purpose-made plastic sleeve. A nice copy. 234 pages. Seller Inventory # 192939. 3. Vanishing Points. Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. Kirstin Headlam -- Cover Art (illustrator). First Edition. 234 pages. Black coloured boards with white writing on spine. Rubbing to the bottom on book edges and browning of the paper edges. Internal pages have become quite brown. Illustrated dust wrapper, by Kirstin Headlam, with purple, yellow and blue writing on the front panel and white on spine. Author photograph on rear dust wrapper panel. Some creasing to the top and bottom dust wrapper edges and the back panel has a few handling marks. Two novellas about two very different women but with one man in common. One women's husband, the other her nemesis. This is the first Australian edition. Size: 8vo - over 7�" - 9�" tall. Please refer to accompanying picture (s). Illustrator: Kirstin Headlam -- Cover Art . Quantity Available: 1. Category: Literature & Literary; Fiction -- Australian; ISBN: 0855614781. ISBN/EAN: 9780855614782. Inventory No: 0103663. Seller Inventory # 0103663. 4. Vanishing Points. Book Description Stiffened Card. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket. First Edition. 234 pp, Plain white stiffened card binding with a bookplate pasted onto the front board. from Rigby Heinemann with the "Rigby" crossed out, and "William "handwritten in its place, and the word Australia suffixed. The bookplate declares * SPECIAL ADVANCE PROOF *, and the title etc are hand written on the spine. Size: 8vo - over 7�" - 9�" tall. Please refer to accompanying picture (s). Quantity Available: 1. Category: Fiction; ISBN: 0855614781. ISBN/EAN: 9780855614782. Inventory No: 0208424. Seller Inventory # 0208424. 5. Vanishing Points. Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Hardcover. 234 pages. *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Heinemann, Australia, 1992. First Edition. *** CONDITION: Good book with Very Good dust jacket . Edges of boards have moderate wear. Dust jacket has superficial rubbing. Edges of dust jacket have moderate bumping. Edges of pages are considerably browned. Pages are reasonably tanned. *** Quantity Available: 1. Category: Fiction; General; ISBN: 0855614781. ISBN/EAN: 9780855614782. Inventory No: 20010016. The photo of this book is of the actual book for sale. Seller Inventory # 20010016. 6. Vanishing Points. Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. 234pp. Age toned text block and browned edges otherwise Fine in like Dustjacket.(BH). Seller Inventory # ABE-1582004069035. 7. Vanishing Points - 2 Novellas. Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. 'Australia's most important contemporary novelist.' Triple Winner of the Miles Franklin Award. "Julie Truscot, a seemingly ordinary housewife, and MacIntosh Hope, a disenchanted academic each flee from lives they cannot control. The balance of their flight is destroyed by Clifford Truscot - Julie's real estate husband and the rapacious developer of Mac's neighbouring island." Light sunning at edges o/w tight and clean. Seller Inventory # 003230. 8. Vanishing Points. Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. 234p. Original black boards, white lettering to spine. Light tanning to page margins else a superb first printing. Consists of two linked novellas, 'The Genteel Poverty Bus Company' and 'Inventing the Weather'. Seller Inventory # 8498. 9. Vanishing Points. Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. 234p. Original black boards, white lettering to spine. An immaculate first printing signed by Astley on the title page. Consists of two linked novellas, 'The Genteel Poverty Bus Company' and 'Inventing the Weather'. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 17021.