Publisher's Weekly
An English computer programmer is drawn into an obsessive, erotic affair in this emotionless novel. (Sept.)

Library Journal
What does a writer do for an encore when his first book, The Quincunx ( LJ 12/89), was an epic re-creation of a 19th-century English novel? Palliser returns with a slim volume that owes more to Kafka than Dickens. The titular sensationist is a modern everyman named David who takes an unspecified job in a nameless city. He relieves the emptiness of his life with episodes of furtive sex and drug-induced euphoria until he meets Lucy, a mercurial artist with a young daughter. Passion and cruelty mingle as they strive for an unachievable intimacy, their relationship and lives ultimately unraveling when David loses his job due to a ''system failure'' and Lucy's destructiveness turns tragic. Told in a fragmented style that echoes its theme, this novel convincingly explores system failures of the personal and social varieties. Recommended.-- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.