Details Epithetical Books Great House
| Title | : | Great House |
| Author | : | Nicole Krauss |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition (US/CAN |
| Pages | : | Pages: 289 pages |
| Published | : | October 12th 2010 by W. W. Norton & Company |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Contemporary. Literary Fiction. Novels |
Nicole Krauss
Hardcover | Pages: 289 pages Rating: 3.48 | 16803 Users | 2374 Reviews
Ilustration As Books Great House
For twenty-five years, a reclusive American novelist has been writing at the desk she inherited from a young Chilean poet who disappeared at the hands of Pinochet's secret police, one day a girl claiming to be the poet's daughter arrives to take it away, sending the writer's life reeling. Across the ocean, in the leafy suburbs of London, a man caring for his dying wife discovers, among her papers, a lock of hair that unravels a terrible secret. In Jerusalem, an antiques dealer slowly reassembles his father's study, plundered by the Nazis in Budapest in 1944. Connecting these stories is a desk of many drawers that exerts a power over those who possess it or have given it away. As the narrators of Great House make their confessions, the desk takes on more and more meaning, and comes finally to stand for all that has been taken from them, and all that binds them to what has disappeared. Great House is a story haunted by questions: What do we pass on to our children and how do they absorb our dreams and losses? How do we respond to disappearance, destruction, and change? Nicole Krauss has written a soaring, powerful novel about memory struggling to creat a meaningful permanence in the face of inevitable loss. (front flap)Specify Books During Great House
| Original Title: | Great House |
| ISBN: | 0393079988 (ISBN13: 9780393079982) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Orange Prize Nominee for Fiction Shortlist (2011), Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction (2011), National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (2010), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2010) |
Rating Epithetical Books Great House
Ratings: 3.48 From 16803 Users | 2374 ReviewsPiece Epithetical Books Great House
This book of four loosely connected stories is a demanding read - it requires work from the reader. It has two parts, each with 4 chapters. The stories told in the 4 chapters of Part I are continued in Part II, although one of the stories has a different title and narrator in Part II. The most obvious connection, as the book cover and GR blurbs tell us, is a desk. But the blurbs are misleading, as they fail to mention the fourth story, probably because the direct link to the desk is not there.How to Extract EmpathyKrauss is a mistress of extracted empathy. She can drag it out of you even when you fight it, particularly empathy for writers: for Nadia, a writer prevented by success from writing what she ought; for Dov, an Israeli, prevented by apparent paternal sadism from becoming a writer at all; for Lotte, an Holocaust-traumatised emigre writer, who reportedly goes skinny dipping every day on Hampstead Heath; for Isabel, a failed Oxford student (presumably a writer, if only of
There are books that are the right ones at the right time. This one was a book at a certain time, maybe not just right, but with rough hewn edges that generally fit, squint the eyes a little, hold a thumb sideways, good enough. Life has thrown me from a moving vehicle and since I wasn't wearing my seat belt, the resulting scrape has left all these exposed nerve endings to be once again scraped by this book.It wasn't the best read to have on the commute, the jerking of the bus and other people
I so desperately wanted to like this book because I adore the concept of separate but linked stories that become a beautiful tapestry by a novels end. To begin, the writing in this novel is beautiful, eloquent, and achingly real. The characters, however, are ALL remarkably unlikable and the stories are linked by the thinnest, most transparent thread (the object itself is a massive, imposing desk but the linkage is shaky). Everything in the novel is angst-y and morose; the language is redemptive
Im more a genre guy than a literature reader, but Ive been trying to branch out lately. Im glad I did because Ive read some amazing things that I probably wouldnt have tried otherwise. However, it only takes one book like this send me running back to the mystery or sci-fi section for comfort. It wasnt bad, but its just working so damn hard to be an important book that it really isnt much fun to read. And maybe all books shouldnt be fun, but they really shouldnt feel like this much work either.
This is the worst book I've read in years! The narratives are incredibly disjointed and confusing. None of the characters is interesting enough to warrant the energy required of the reader to piece together their stories in a meaningful way. The writing itself is trite and one gets the feeling that one has read similar stories by better writers. By far the worst flaw of the book is the lack of propulsion. I'm amazed that I read the entire book as there was nothing driving the book forward.
I loved this story, I identified with so many of the characters. How a person can fold into themselves so much and not realize they are blocking out the rest of the world. How you can live with someone until death do you part and not really know them. How one decision changes someone's world. How we are all entitled to our secrets, to tell our secrets or to hold them till the grave. How the person holding the answer, to a question they never knew they had, has a choice, do they open the folded
0 Comments