Mary Stewart: Four Complete Novels (Touch Not the Cat, This Rough Magic, The Gabriel Hounds & My Brother Michael)

Customer Reviews:

A fine exhibition of the work of Mary Stewart.......2000-03-31

This compilation is a true example of the fine work of Mary Stewart. She is a master craftsmen in the field of literature, her books are interesting and enjoyable to read. The fine exhibition of her work is praiseworthy. Although now out of print, it is quite worth the wait if you buy this book through Amazon.com. My reccommedation: seek this book out!

Average customer rating:

Illuminating read for travel to Kyrgyzstan
A big disappointment
Rosenberg leaves the reading wanting...
An aweful read in just about every aspect
cliched; rings true; direct and to the point

This is Not Civilization: A Novel
Robert Rosenberg
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0618386017

Book Description

With captivating insight, realism, and humor, this stunning debut novel tells the parallel stories of two native villages, each facing cultural extinction. It's the end of the twentieth century, and in the towering mountains of post-Soviet Central Asia, Anarbek Tashtanaliev is single-handedly providing for his small village in the face of a collapsed economy. But the cheese factory he manages no longer produces any cheese, and his favorite daughter has been stolen in an ancient nomadic courting ritual. When he is ruthlessly blackmailed, Anarbek finds himself at a crossroads between the traditional past and the uncertain future. He stands to lose everything he loves. Half a world away, in the high canyons of Arizona, Adam Dale is a young Apache basketball star and the future hope of his tribe. He struggles to keep his family together amid the pressures of reservation poverty and the corrupt rule of his increasingly bull-headed father, the tribal councilman. Anarbek and Adam seek out the one person they think will be the solution to all their problems: a peripatetic American aid worker who'd once volunteered in both of their villages. Now working as a refugee resettlement officer in Istanbul, Jeff Hartig must suddenly play host to first one, then both of these men from his past. Soon, Anarbek's disgraced daughter joins them and the unlikely foursome find themselves sharing an apartment in the magical, sprawling city. Equally fascinated and perplexed by one another, they discover hope, then friendship, then love, unaware that they will soon face one of the most disastrous earthquakes of the century. Yet it is only in traveling so far, and surviving so much, that each person realizes his or her own capacity to endure. Sweeping, compassionate, and deeply moving, this novel celebrates the power of human connection in a largely unsettled world. Robert Rosenberg is an original and important new voice in contemporary fiction.

Customer Reviews:

Illuminating read for travel to Kyrgyzstan.......2007-06-26

The title of this novel unfortunately created some awkward moments when the tour leader borrowed this book and noted from the first few pages that his mother is from the village where it is set. "An why is it called This is Not Civilization," he asked.
The novel is divided among three different locales. The first one, Kyrgyzstan, is so engaging that I was tempted to skip the next one, set in Arizona, and pick up the thread back in the village. Not possible, given that the characters among the three settings are interwoven and integral to the ending. This was a very good read for travel to Central Asia.

A big disappointment.......2007-06-19

This is Not Civilization starts off on the right foot by setting up the story line, populating it with interesting people, and setting it in an exotic and intriguing locale. And though it chugged along with a good deal of potential, before very long it started to come unraveled, and by the end it was a train wreck of a book.

First, the good news. Rosenberg clearly knows his material, having experienced Kyrgyzstan, the reservation at Red Cliff, and Istanbul. He also writes well. Unfortunately those are the book's only strengths. Frequently it seemed as if the author was simply looking for an excuse to share as many minute details about those places as possible, even when it was not necessary or even appropriate. When done well, this kind of fiction can make the reader feel like he's actually there. In this case it made me feel like I was listening to someone brag about how well traveled he his and how much he knows about other cultures and places.

One of the book's biggest shortcomings is that it is impossible to sympathize with any of the characters, with the possible exception of Nazira. Everyone else is so shallow, selfish, and self-pitying that I found myself completely annoyed with them. Or they simply aren't in the story enough to form an opinion one way or the other. Then there's the fact that the book begins with one protagonist - Jeff - but then ends up with two - Jeff and Adam. In fact, Adam becomes a more central character than Jeff by the end of the story for no apparent good reason.

Numerous events occur in the story that sometimes seem significant when they occur but that ultimately amount to nothing. The same could be said for the entire book. There is really no climax or resolution of any kind. Nothing happens to any of the characters that makes us care more about them or sympathize with them, and even the one major tragedy that occurs (I won't spoil it for you) isn't handled very well by the author and doesn't have the kind of impact it might.

The romance that develops in Istanbul (again, I won't spoil it for you) is utterly implausible and uncompelling. I found it impossible to visualize the two people in question being in love with each other, especially because we're given no good reason to even care about one of them. It was just too forced.

Overall this book was a big disappointment on many levels. It's just not a good story, however good the writing may be.

Rosenberg leaves the reading wanting..........2006-10-03

From the very sentence I was sucked into the book, my attention captured as I prepared for an exhilarting journey into unknown lands and experiences. However, after a few chapters in, I was sorely disappointed and simply finishing the book felt more like a chore than a pleasure.

The attitude of the main character, Jeff, left me feeling confused and disconnected. While there are undoubtedly disappointments in providing social aid abroad, I found the main character to be callous to experiences, dwelling more on the fact that he wasn't changing the world as opposed to finding the good in what he was doing. Overall Jeff comes off as a pessimistic, disconnected human being using distance and social service to run from a trouble past of his own.

The novel does bring up interesting questions and situations, but in the end the characters seem to fall flat and the reader is left wanting.

An aweful read in just about every aspect.......2006-07-09

As a doctoral student in economics and international development and a person with a lot of international experience and living abroad, I think this book could serve as a textbook case of what a foreigner and a development practitioner shouldn't write and do in reference to another culture.

The book is a glimpse into the psychological and intellectual challenges that a government-funded official (e.g. Peace Corps volunteer), faces and how they prevent him to bring about any social change or stir the local community structures in the village that he lives in for two years.

Instead, the author via his book demonstrates brilliantly what the word 'tokenization' of someone else's culture means in the Kyrgyz context. I am not Kyrgyz though I lived and worked in Kyrgyzstan as a development worker and am familiar with the country, its languages and culture. Thus, I am expressing an opinion as an outsider myself. When the author of the book gets to the point of even uttering a judgement in the very title of his book (even if implicitly done via what one of his characters supposedly says), and you feel like you are in for a visit to a cultural zoo or something, you know the book will add little as an intellectual read, even less so as a development story or an insight of how as an outsider you can add value to the process of empowering them.

As a person who embraces the grassroots approach to development and believe that my very work at some points in time facilitated it, I would be personally ashamed to publish a book like this.

cliched; rings true; direct and to the point.......2006-06-19

If you've traveled or lived overseas you will see that the author, a former Peace Corps volunteer, knows what it's like to live overseas.

The book if full of cliches, which have basis in truth (as many lies do), and is direct and to the point. The author's style is straight forward third person narrative, and the story comes across almost like an allegory.

The beef I had was the author is too direct, and instead of indirectly describing something, like Chekov's style, instead goes for it in a brute force manner, not unlike this review.

All in all a good book, not a great book, but if you plan to travel a lot overseas or live there, it's worth a read.

Average customer rating:

"This is even a disquisition on the maladies of the life of art, if Writer says so."
Literary impressionism
A compulsive read which is neither a novel nor a poem
A different way.
leer life

This Is Not a Novel
David Markson
Manufacturer: Counterpoint
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1582431337
Release Date: 2001-03-20

Book Description

"I don't know where to put the man-and for this I am glad.... Magnificent, a compilation that so exceeds the scatter of its parts that one must take some time to ponder why this should be. ... it's almost impossible to stop turning pages ... we realize: This is not a novel. It's a poem. ... When I reached the final pages, I felt, as all too seldom, sectioned off from the daily tyranny, released, as in a happy dream, into a kind of referential fugue-the afterlife of reading." Sven Birkerts, The New York Observer

"A cultural history of the Western world cast as a bricolage of decontextualized anecdotes, quotations, and facts. ... A lifetime's reading boiled down to sentences that have the terse clarity of epitaphs. ... This rigorously experimental work, of the sort that one tends to slog through dutifully, reads as addictively as an airport thriller." James Gibbons, BookForum

"The book does, as Writer hopes, seduce the reader into turning pages. ... Those with investigative proclivities can trace Writer's gloomy preoccupations through the items about how various notables died (and which states of financial destitution). Other items are more enigmatic (why did Henry James hide behind a tree to avoid Ford Madox Ford?), and a handful have an evocative, lovely melancholy: 'When and where did the last person die who still believed in the existence of Zeus?'" Laura Miller, The New York Times Book Review

This Is Not a Novel is a "novel" like none ever written, with the possible exception of David Markson's own Reader's Block (1996), which Ann Beattie has labeled "a work of genius."

This Is Not a Novel is a highly inventive work which drifts "genre-less," somewhere in between fiction, nonfiction, and psychological memoir. In the opening pages of the "novel," a narrator, called only "Writer," announces that he is tired of inventing characters, contemplating plot, setting, theme, and conflict. Yet the writer is determined to seduce the reader into turning pages-and to "get somewhere," nonetheless.

What follows are pages crammed with short lines of astonishingly fascinating literary and artistic anecdotes, quotations, and cultural curiosities. This Is Not a Novel is leavened with Markson's deliciously ironic wit and laughter, so that when the writer does indeed finally get us "somewhere" it's the journey will have mattered as much as the arrival.

Customer Reviews:

"This is even a disquisition on the maladies of the life of art, if Writer says so.".......2007-10-06

This is the first book that I have read by David Markson, and had picked this up based on a glowing review. I read it with no real idea what to expect except the general literary brand value Markson has: underappreciated and postmodern.

When I realized what I was reading, I smiled, but I expected to hate it by the end. I don't really like overly referential works and I also do not think that poets should only talk to poets. This Is Not A Novel is a series of unconnected sentences that mix quotations, snippets of biography, literary gossip and fleeting thoughts of Writer in a way that creates a flow rather than a narrative. The allusions connect to each other, creating a variety of themes. The more that you know about the works and the artists that Markson selects, the more that you are going to get the cross-references. There is literary snobbery built right in at the core and I actually have no idea what it would be like to read this if you did not get at least (say) 25% of the joke.

I am not actually sure how much I really got about the book. But I am almost embarrassed to say that despite the elitism, I found it absolutely delightful to read.

I spent a fair amount of time scrambling for a reference. Several times I stopped to try and remember where a particularly haunting line of poetry had come from. I reminded myself of several of my favorite poets and poems. I actually laughed out loud several times. There was something overarching about the fear of death. There is something about the relationship between critic and writer. Something about translation. Perhaps even something slightly unreliable in the narration? It was great fun to connect the dots, and I really admired the spirit in which the book was written.

Like I said, this is probably a wonderful book for compulsive readers. Less wonderful if you are just starting your journey in the world of books. It is probably not wonderful at all if you are looking for... well, looking for a novel. Markson does warn you from the start. I am going to file it under literature instead of essays, myself, but nobody will ever accuse it of having a plot.

Markson has moved up my priority list as a writer to explore. I would be curious to read something more substantial by him-- something not quite such an elegant (albeit delightful) conceit.

Literary impressionism.......2005-07-30

David Markson's later works are decidedly non-traditional and experimental. This book, written in 2001 when Markson was 73, is no exception. As the title indicates and as the narrator points out, this book is missing almost all of the components of the traditional novel. There is no plot, no subject, no conflict and only one character. That character, known only as Writer, narrates.

The narrative consists of short anecdotes, phrases, dates and names given at random. With occasional broad hints from Writer, one gradually realizes that the references are related to one another and that many, if not all, of them fit together like pieces from a puzzle. For the most part, Markson leaves it to his readers to do the necessary background work to fit the references together. Readers with a solid background in the humanities and a memory for minutiae have an edge - most of the references overtly or impliedly relate to the lives and deaths of writers, artists, musicians and even an occasional emperor or missionary priest. Reading this book is a challenge, but it is a surprisingly rewarding and engaging challenge. There is something in this recitation of references that keeps one reading and looking for the next clue. The more I read and studied this book, the more I thought of it in terms of a pointillist painting. Each reference is like one of the tiny dots of unblended color that when combined with other dots forms a luminous impressionist picture.

Markson constantly points out the experimental nature of this work. Its epigram is a Jonathan Swift quotation, "I am now trying an Experiment very frequent among Modern Authors; which is, to write upon Nothing." Every few pages or so, Writer indicates in passing what the work is and is not. It is one of the first of a recognizable literary genre which turns the traditional concept of the novel on its head. Lest the reader forget this, there is a footer on every page to remind him that what he is reading "is not a novel".

This is not to say that the book is without a theme or message. Here Markson explores the inevitability of death and the connection between creativity and pain. There is much sadness in this book. However, there is humor and wickedly delightful sarcasm as well (be on the lookout for a renown contemporary scholar and critic whom Markson hilariously turns into a sideshow attraction). Markson also explores -- in a poignantly personal and candid fashion -- the aspect of the human imagination that reaches out for immortality and sometimes achieves a small measure of it. Markson has earned his share of literary immortality. His works will be remembered, read and studied for years to come.

A compulsive read which is neither a novel nor a poem.......2004-01-26

It was odd to read this, because of timing. I had just read Mark Salzman's _Lost In Place_, a memoir of his quixotic youth which addresses the human need to make a mark in the face of mortality and frailty, and the ultimate futility of that need. Then I pick up this. Same theme, just as overtly stated.

However, though this book is entertaining, erudite, and thought-provoking, it doesn't do the job nearly as well as Salzman's hilarious story. The conceit is ultimately pretentious, and its melancholy narrator isn't very interesting.

A different way........2003-10-27

Markson quotes a conversation between an unnamed critic and Picasso. Critic: You can actually draw so beautifully. Why do you spend all your time making these queer things? Picasso: That's why.

Some artists are driven to find a different way. The older I get and the more conventional stories I have under my belt, the more I crave the work of these artists, for whom the pursuit of strangeness is a powerful mandate. I don't mean the merely weird or ugly--I'm talking about doing something new, or else finding a way to uncover the oddness in ordinary life. Overfamiliarity with the world is suffocating.

THIS IS NOT A NOVEL is a sly book. It appears to be little more than a miscellany of notes from Markson's reading, mixed with a few stray thoughts on the nature of this book he's writing. By the third page we know that he wants it to be characterless and plotless, "yet seducing the reader into turning pages nonetheless." I, for one, turned the pages happily, borne along by the flow of anecdote. But gradually in became apparent that what I was reading, finally, was an odd meditation on the phrase "timor mortis conturbat me"--refrain line from a poem by William Dunbar, "Lament for the Makers" [15th C.] The fear of death disturbs me. This is a novel about a writer trying to shake of the chill of approaching death. A strangely moving work.

leer life.......2003-04-22

One assumes that fans of David Markson's work will not be too disappointed by this latest book. I was not, though I admit I prefer his other writings to this. The book is structured as a sequence of sentences, often anecdotes describing the creative habits and deaths of an artistic pantheon. Sure, some will consider the book pretentious, but part of its glory is the effort of the writer, the central character, if any, who seems to be more of a reader, Markson, perhaps, and who puzzles and tries to be reconciled with his own impending mortality. Aside from the bounty of names, here and there an uncommon star appears, this book takes less cleverness to resolve into a thoughtful experience than other Markson books. Most dazzling, to be sure, is the variant structure of declarative sentences, often taken for granted. Some structures are continued repetitively, others, strikingly, challenge the rhythm the reader establishes. The sequences have the potential to mesmerize the patient and weary the rushed.

Out of all of the books, anecdotes, and sentences a character of sorts appears, who is not terribly interesting, nor completely capable of engaging the world without thinking through reading. The book is filled with curiosities that will jog to recollection details from a life spent reading. For some it is important to criticize what this book is not. Certainly, the style and approach to the writing of this book does not differ radically from the author's others. Perhaps this one is more refined. Perhaps it is repetitive and parodic. I prefer to recommend its observant and playful stories and structures that emerge from the sentences.

Average customer rating:

Joyride

This Is Not It: Stories by Lynne Tillman
Lynne Tillman , Jane Dickson , Peter Dreher , Stephen Ellis , Barbara Krueger , Laura Letinsky , Stephen Prina , Linder Sterling , Roni Horn , Silvia Kolbowski , Jeff Koons , Vik Muniz , Juan Munoz , Kiki Smith , Haim Steinbach , and Jessica Stockholder
Manufacturer: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | African American | Asian American | Classics | Collections & Readers | Drama | General | Hispanic | History & Criticism | Humor | Jewish American | Letters & Correspondence | Native American | Poetry | Short Stories | Women Writers
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Haunted Houses (High Risk)

No Lease on Life: A Novel

The Broad Picture: Essays (Broad Picture)

American Genius: A Comedy

Falling Man: A Novel

ASIN: 1891024469
Release Date: 2002-10-02

Book Description

In This Is Not It, Lynne Tillman's collection of 20 years' worth of important and compelling short stories and novellas, the protagonists seduce you into their lives and thoughts. Engaging, funny, elegant, and ironic, Tillman takes the reader to new heights of wit and meaning through staccato phrases, grammatical twists, and sensuous language. Familiar worlds of honesty, deceit, dark humor, pleasure, pain, confusion, dependence, love, and lust each play decisive roles in her believable fictions. In "Come and Go," three characters and an author collide. In "Pleasure Isn't A Pretty Picture," the reader is treated to a he/she meditation on the one-night stand. And "Dead Sleep" is truly an insomniac's worst nightmare. A twin act on a double bill, This Is Not It is a collection of innovative and stand-alone writing that also engages and matches wits with the some of the best contemporary art: work by Kiki Smith, Jane Dickson, Jessica Stockholder, Diller & Scofidio, Laura Letinsky, Peter Dreher, Roni Horn, Stephen Ellis, Juan Munoz, Vik Muniz, Silvia Kolbowski, Jeff Koons, James Welling, Aura Rosenberg, Barbara Ess, Barbara Kruger, Dolores Marat, Haim Steinbach, Gary Schneider, Marco Breuer, Stephen Prina, and Linder Sterling. Since 1982, acclaimed novelist Tillman has created these unique narratives that are a parallel universe to the contemporary art world. Maybe they're analogues or dialogues, maybe fictions inspired by art, maybe reflections, or meditations--but whatever they're called, like Borges's fictions, they are their own worlds, too. Tillman has marked out terrain of her own, which this collection celebrates. Full of life and art, This Is Not It is illuminating, bold, subtle, and riotous.

Customer Reviews:

Joyride.......2003-04-12

...through a unique vision of the world we're struggling to be in - through the alternation of worlds. A glimpse into the nature of things, situation, and people. Precise sentiments. Bold language. Innovative forms. Rewarding for young writers and readers who enjoy variety in literature. Leave this book alone though if you're used to more traditional stuff - not that everyone would like Lynne Tillman.

Average customer rating:

not a love song, but a great read

This Is Not a Love Song: A Novel
Sarahbeth Purcell
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Love Is the Drug: A Novel

ASIN: 0743476174

Book Description

From the author of Love Is the Drug, the wickedly funny, pull-no-punches story of Julia, a hip, young writer whose life is thrown completely out of whack when her free-spirited soul mate decides to free himself from her, leaving her reeling.

Brilliant young writer Sarahbeth Purcell combines witty melodramatics with her own brand of hard-edged, tough-girl cadences in This Is Not a Love Song, a fantastic new novel filled with characters who are idealistic enough for readers to relate to and just cynical enough to respect.

When Julia first met Chase one February day two years ago, she knew something was different. An intelligent, free-spirited artist, Chase was not like the other guys Julia had dated. He was her soul mate. At least for two blissful years. And then, with nothing more than a single note left on a bedside table, he was gone -- following his lifelong search for peace and inspiration on another spontaneous road trip across the country. But this time, he wasn't coming back. Devastated and depressed, Julia turns to her friend Delia, a gorgeous and tortured alcoholic who approaches life with the spirit of a warrior. Through terse phone calls and late-night crying jags, Delia helps Julia navigate her heartbreaking loss.

Hilarious and heart wrenching, This Is Not a Love Song is a story about hope, healing, and that endless search for the truest form of affection -- loving yourself.

Customer Reviews:

not a love song, but a great read.......2006-12-01

If you're not afraid to go emotionally deep with your characters, or experience the other side of love, This Is Not A Love Song is your book.The author uses such intimate forms of communication as phone calls, diary entries and letters to tell stories of lost love, misplaced love and lives in transition through best friends Julia and Delia, Julia's wayward boyfriend Chase, and Delia's dysfunctional love interest, Michael. The author's ability to hook her characters to our hearts and keep them there is exceeded only by the unique, intense and captivating way in which she tells the story. THIS IS NOT CHICK LIT. This is serious and very good literature by a fine young voice.

James and Jessie (This Is Not A Mushy Romantic Novel)

Average customer rating:

James and Jessie: This Is Not a Mushy Romantic Novel
Great book!

James and Jessie (This Is Not A Mushy Romantic Novel)
Tom Whatley
Manufacturer: Lulu Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Horror | Teens | Subjects | Books

Mysteries | Teens | Subjects | Books

Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Teens | Subjects | Books

Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Teens | Subjects | Books

Horror | Teens | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

Mysteries | Teens | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1411662474

Book Description

A young boy James, and his sister Jessie, travel with their parents quite often. While on a vacation trip to North Carolina, they find out their resort is on a battle field from the Civil War. The ghost of the deceased soldiers try and warn James about the danger that is in the house. A young Hitler - like man who goes by the alias of Latmy Homewth, trys to find James & Jessie to kill them. He instead tricks them, and traps James, and Jessie in the Bermuda Triangle, which leads to the lost paradise island of Atlantis.

Customer Reviews:

James and Jessie: This Is Not a Mushy Romantic Novel.......2006-03-20

This is an incredible book! I love the plot and the characters! I can't wait for the second one to come out!

Great book!.......2006-01-10

All I can say is...WOW! This book deserves 100 stars! All my kids love it! A excellent choice for anyone who loves a good scare and mystery! A+!

This is Not a Story and Other Stories (World's Classics)

Average customer rating:

This is Not a Story and Other Stories (World's Classics)
Denis Diderot , and P. N. Furbank
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Diderot has been admired as a novelist, philosopher, and encyclopedist, but he is less well known as a writer of short fiction. This volume presents his five remarkable philosophical tales including "This Is Not a Story," "On the Inconsistency of Public Opinion Regarding Our Private Action,"
and "Supplement to Bougainville's Voyage," as well as "The Two Friends From Bourbonne" and "Conversation of a Father with His Children: or the Danger of Setting Oneself Above the Law," both of which are here translated into English for the first time.

3 Great Novels: Not Less Than All, The Lonely Road, Cherish This Wayward Heart

Average customer rating:

3 Great Novels: Not Less Than All, The Lonely Road, Cherish This Wayward Heart
Margaret Malcolm
Manufacturer: Harlequin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0373200722

Mary Stewart: Four Complete Novels: Touch Not the Cat/The Gabriel Hounds/This Rough Magic/My Brother Michael

Average customer rating:

Mary Stewart: Four Complete Novels: Touch Not the Cat/The Gabriel Hounds/This Rough Magic/My Brother Michael
Mary Stewart
Manufacturer: Avenel Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WS7FYO

Average customer rating:

Sad but beautiful

This Is Not a Novel
Jennifer Johnston
Manufacturer: Headline Review
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0747269467

Customer Reviews:

Sad but beautiful.......2005-01-23

En dépit du titre, oui ! le dernier livre de Jennifer Johnston est bel et bien un roman. Une histoire touchante d'une famille qui cache des secrets : il y a trente ans, Imogen apprenait la mort de son frère Johnny, porté disparu après être parti nager en mer. Imogen a dix-huit ans, son frère vingt. C'était un nageur émérite, d'où le refus catégorique d'Imogen de croire à cette disparition tragique. La jeune fille séjourne dans une clinique depuis plusieurs mois, d'abord parce qu'elle a perdu sa voix et qu'on pense à un déséquilibre mental. Pourtant elle n'est pas folle. Certes, elle pense que son frère s'est enfui et vit quelque part, caché. Trente années vont passer, Imogen va écrire l'histoire de sa famille, fouiller dans les souvenirs, trouver des lettres d'une arrière-grand-mère qui ne s'est jamais remise de la mort de son fils pendant la guerre, lire le journal de son père, et se rappeler de cette année 1970 où tout a basculé : Johnny qui refuse de poursuivre son entraînement de natation, son ami allemand Bruno qui joue un rôle ambigu, sa mère Sylvia et la mystérieuse mais aimante Mathilde. Le roman va donc se construire comme un puzzle, on y découvre les acteurs de cette tragédie familiale jusqu'au dénouement dans les dernières pages. L'auteur prend son temps, passe du passé au présent et conclue sur un hypothétique avenir. La tournure générale est grandissime, captivante et envoûte littéralement son lecteur. C'est une lecteur rapide et divertissante, une révélation au niveau de l'auteur ! Une confirmation de la bonne santé de la littérature irlandaise. A découvrir.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books