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L.J. Davis’s 1971 novel, A Meaningful Life, is a blistering black comedy about the American quest for redemption through real estate and a gritty picture of New York City in collapse. Just out of college, Lowell Lake, the Western-born hero of Davis’s novel, heads to New York, where he plans to make it big as a writer. Instead he finds a job as a technical editor, at which he toils away while passion leaks out of his marriage to a nice Jewish girl. Then Lowell discovers a beautiful crumbling mansion in a crime-ridden section of Brooklyn, and against all advice, not to mention his wife’s will, sinks his every penny into buying it. He quits his job, moves in, and spends day and night on demolition and construction. At last he has a mission: he will dig up the lost history of his house; he will restore it to its past grandeur. He will make good on everything that’s gone wrong with his life, and he will even murder to do it.… (meer)
Darkly amusing at first, then it gradually just becomes purely dark. The description of the brownstone Lowell buys is fantastic. Unsatisfying ending. ( )
Hilarious, a real very funny novel. Brilliant characterizations and a parade of very weird people. The description of the house Lowell bought in Brooklyn almost matches Dante's Inferno. ( )
A young couple move to New York and settle into an aimless 9-5 life, it's monotony broken only by gin and Speed Racer reruns. When Lowell Lake decides to turn his life around by purchasing a grotesque fixer upper in Bed-Stuy, bleak existential hilarity ensues. Written in the early 70's, the prose remains fresh. Very funny, hopeless and highly recommended. ( )
I didn't love this as much as Davis' "Cowboys Don't Cry" but still a great read. No one depicts a hopeless and misunderstood existence better than Davis. ( )
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
"This is the place. Drive on." --Brigham Young
"Brigham , Brigham Young, It's a miracle he survived, With his roaring rams, And pretty little lambs And his five and forty wives." --Old Idaho Folk Song
Opdracht
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
For Judith
Eerste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Lowell Lake was a tall man, rather thin, with thin sandy hair and a distant, preoccupied though amiable disposition, as though the world did not reach him as it reaches other men and all the voices around him were pleasant but very faint.
Citaten
Laatste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Everything had gone wrong, and he had succeeded at nothing, and he was never going to have any kind of life at all.
L.J. Davis’s 1971 novel, A Meaningful Life, is a blistering black comedy about the American quest for redemption through real estate and a gritty picture of New York City in collapse. Just out of college, Lowell Lake, the Western-born hero of Davis’s novel, heads to New York, where he plans to make it big as a writer. Instead he finds a job as a technical editor, at which he toils away while passion leaks out of his marriage to a nice Jewish girl. Then Lowell discovers a beautiful crumbling mansion in a crime-ridden section of Brooklyn, and against all advice, not to mention his wife’s will, sinks his every penny into buying it. He quits his job, moves in, and spends day and night on demolition and construction. At last he has a mission: he will dig up the lost history of his house; he will restore it to its past grandeur. He will make good on everything that’s gone wrong with his life, and he will even murder to do it.
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