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In these two audacious novellas, Americans abroad find that losing themselves in another culture can be dangerous Invited to Prague's first annual Kafka conference to read from his play about the great Czech writer, a playwright named Landau finds himself upstaged by Jiri Krakauer, the dashing Holocaust survivor whose claim to fame is a long-ago death-camp love affair with Kafka's sister. On a visit to the camp, Landau attempts to prove that Krakauer is lying--risking his career to destroy that of another. On the other side of Europe, Nina and Leo go on a macabre tour of their own. A guidebook editor and his besotted assistant, they are enduring a miserable French vacation when Leo suggests a "Paris Death Trip," taking in catacombs, prisons, and all the darkest corners of the City of Light. In these two novellas, Francine Prose skewers Americans abroad.… (meer)
Two novellas are included in this volume: the title story and “Three Pigs in Five Days.” Both share similarities in terms of theme, characterization and setting. In both, the main character struggles with an overwhelming sense of self-doubt while in the thrall of a much more charismatic person who is in most ways their opposite, set against the backdrop of-and contradicted with-the horrors of World War II perpetrated against the European Jews.
I have read several of Prose’s novels, and she always attempts to do something very difficult: make unlikeable characters sympathetic. When she succeeds, as in Blue Angel, the results are enthralling. More often, though, she doesn’t quite manage to pull it off, as is the case here. Her protagonists in both stories are too self-pitying, too obsessive — they quickly become tiresome. Her antagonists are self-important blowhards, and we can’t quite see what the attraction is. Prose is a fine writer, and she gets points for trying to stretch, but she falls a little short of the mark here. ( )
Beautifully written, hard to read. I admire Francine Prose's writing. Beautiful, silken prose (no pun intended) that slides through the mind. Gosh how I wish I could write like this. Some sentences are so lovely I read them multiple times just to enjoy their flavor. Ultimately, at least in this volume, her characters and situations are just so darn unpleasant, I come away wondering why I spent so much time with them.
Which makes it difficult for me to say if I recommend this or not. I think it depends on what you're looking for. Are reading for entertainment? For a pleasurable evening? This is likely not what I'd recommend. If you want a quiet study of how a master strings words together, then yes, it's well worth your time.
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
To Deborah Eisenberg and in memory of Stanley Elkin
Eerste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Guided Tours of Hell: On the bus to the death camp, Landau searches for an image, some brilliant incisive metaphor for the fields of stunted brown sunflowers, their fat dwarfish heads drooping stupidly on their crackling stalks.
Three Pigs in Five Days: Every time she turned on the TV, someone was killing a pig.
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Laatste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Guided Tours of Hell: But for now, it's all that counts, and for now, Jiri is right: Landau would feel better, he would have been better off if something or someone had picked him up and thrown him into the abyss.
Three Pigs in Five Days: She was determined not to move, not to disturb or stop Danton, not for fear of him but from respect for what he was doing, for the ambition, the foolishness of his doomed impossible hope, disinterring his wife from the grave, that grand ridiculous gesture that proved, despite what Leo said and despite any whisper of doubt, the existence of love beyond reason, beyond the reach of time's sharp blade: the love that - miraculously, narrowly - evades the arc of the scythe as Death stalks past in his hooded cape, mowing his way through the world.
In these two audacious novellas, Americans abroad find that losing themselves in another culture can be dangerous Invited to Prague's first annual Kafka conference to read from his play about the great Czech writer, a playwright named Landau finds himself upstaged by Jiri Krakauer, the dashing Holocaust survivor whose claim to fame is a long-ago death-camp love affair with Kafka's sister. On a visit to the camp, Landau attempts to prove that Krakauer is lying--risking his career to destroy that of another. On the other side of Europe, Nina and Leo go on a macabre tour of their own. A guidebook editor and his besotted assistant, they are enduring a miserable French vacation when Leo suggests a "Paris Death Trip," taking in catacombs, prisons, and all the darkest corners of the City of Light. In these two novellas, Francine Prose skewers Americans abroad.
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(3.46)
1
I have read several of Prose’s novels, and she always attempts to do something very difficult: make unlikeable characters sympathetic. When she succeeds, as in Blue Angel, the results are enthralling. More often, though, she doesn’t quite manage to pull it off, as is the case here. Her protagonists in both stories are too self-pitying, too obsessive — they quickly become tiresome. Her antagonists are self-important blowhards, and we can’t quite see what the attraction is. Prose is a fine writer, and she gets points for trying to stretch, but she falls a little short of the mark here. (