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Greg Baxter

Auteur van The Apartment

3 Werken 306 Leden 20 Besprekingen

Over de Auteur

Bevat de naam: Greg Baxter

Werken van Greg Baxter

The Apartment (2012) 194 exemplaren
Munich Airport: A Novel (2014) 91 exemplaren
A preparation for death (2010) 21 exemplaren

Tagged

Algemene kennis

Geboortedatum
1974
Geslacht
male
Nationaliteit
USA
Geboorteplaats
Texas, USA
Woonplaatsen
New York, New York, USA
Berlin, Germany
Dublin, Ireland

Leden

Besprekingen

An American has recently moved to a city in Central Europe. It's a cold day sometime before Christmas and he meets up with a woman he's recently met to look for an apartment to rent. As they travel around the city, meeting up with her friends, looking at this place he's decided to call home and looking for the apartment, the man thinks back over his life, especially his time in Iraq. There are also memories that lead to digressions about music and art. Not much happens, and while it's not an ordinary day, it's not a remarkable one.

And yet, I was entirely pulled into this exercise in minimalism. This is written in a way that places the reader entirely within the setting of the novel, feeling the cold from the snow seep through your shoes, smelling the sausages for sale at the Christmas market, seeing the daylight fade in the afternoon. Greg Baxter knows how to evoke a setting. He also knows how to build a character, letting the details arise organically as the novel progresses. This short novel is a masterclass in character-development and in creating a setting, even if neither the protagonist nor the city are ever named.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
RidgewayGirl | 12 andere besprekingen | Nov 18, 2021 |
We are not given the name of the European city the narrator of The Apartment has moved to but it feels like Prague in many ways.
The novel is spread over one day but flits around other times in the near past and further when he was in the military and a security worker in the Middle East. It is cold and winter and we read how he had to buy warmer shoes and on this day he buys a warm coat.
He meets his friend Saskia and she is helping him to find an apartment to live in. He appears to be trying to find a new life, isn't keen to develop new friendships but, despite this, enjoys Saskia's company. The topics in the book stretch wide and varied, art and architecture are discussed and music and even billiards. Tales from his time as a young adult appear too, including about his friend who died and death is certainly prevalent in the novel, including opposite the apartment where there is a cemetery. The novel has an intimate feel and is written with a gentle pace that never stops, there are no chapters and few paragraphs, it is a stream of words from the narrators head. Although his thoughts talk of loss there is a sense of hope for something new and loving underneath. An excellent read.… (meer)
1 stem
Gemarkeerd
CarolKub | 12 andere besprekingen | Sep 15, 2019 |
A short story, but in no way is it light or an easy read. I don't mean that as an insult, often shorter stories tend to be books you read on a lazy afternoon.

The book is all one long chapter. It's an unusual format, but I feel like the format works well with the storyline. It's all one big, long day. It's mostly thoughts, some memories, some conversation, but it all takes place in one day.
Not much happens in this day, a man looks for an apartment with the help of a new acquaintance/friend.

He has spent years trying to isolate himself in the world. He doesn't like himself much, he doesn't like the world much and he doesn't form attachments with other people easily. He pretty much fights attachments to people.

But here he is, on a fairly insignificant day, doing something pretty usual (apartment hunting) and for him this day stands out in a way because of his new acquaintance and the possibility that he's going to be putting down roots in this new city.

I'm not sure what to say beyond that. I didn't love it, I didn't dislike it. I felt like there was going to be a big obvious lesson at the end, but there wasn't. It's just about a man trying to isolate himself from everyone and everything and where he's at at this particular day in his life.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
Mishale1 | 12 andere besprekingen | Dec 29, 2018 |
Written from the point of view of a man whose sister was found dead of starvation in her Berlin apartment, this is the story of his father and his trip to Germany to bring the body back to the USA. It takes place in Munich Airport as they wait for a connecting flight and seemlessly flows back and forth between the present and the past as the narrator thinks about his journey.
 
Gemarkeerd
Jane-Phillips | 6 andere besprekingen | Mar 2, 2018 |

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Statistieken

Werken
3
Leden
306
Populariteit
#76,934
Waardering
½ 3.4
Besprekingen
20
ISBNs
32

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