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Bezig met laden... The Hat of Victor Noirdoor Adrian Mathews
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. It takes him a couple of chapters to get into gear but once he does there are some funny scenes, like the one with the calvados, or the one where his Englishness makes it impossible for him to use a French queue. I had a laugh at the bit where Kovacs calls Babalu a deus ex machina, because of course that's exactly what he is: he has to exist because of the plot. I wasn't too sure abou the wife popping up like a deus ex machina though. I don't know if he was making some sort of artistic point but I had been enjoying the mystery plot and would have liked there to have been something interesting behind the mystery. Really, the only complaint I have is his heavy use of adjectives, but as this was his first novel I shall blame his editor. ( ) An engaging debut novel by Anglo-Czech writer Mathews. The story is set in present-day Paris where the Anglo-Serbian hero, Philip Kovacs teaches. Divorced from his wife, he becomes embroiled in the affections and hatreds of other females, with potentially disastrous results. Pivotal to these events is the tomb of Victor Noir, a 19th-century journalist shot dead by his mistress's husband, and now a cult symbol for the deepest female fantasies and desires. Contemporary Paris comes to life on the pages, but underneath it all lurks a more magical, surreal city, waiting to confound our hero. The novel can be read as a battle from darkness to light. There are several oblique references to "The Prisoner" TV series. It's cleverly written, with much innocent humour, including a flippant "Papa?", "Nicole?" exchange at a particularly poignant moment in the plot. The thought of Kovacs having his face burnt away by acid thrown by a maniac is said to be "discountenancing". The language is a delight. Mathews, like others from a dual-language background, revels in word-play. Writers such as Nabokov, Kerouac, and Dylan Thomas spring to mind, and there's also a certain similarity to the style of Paul Auster's New York Trilogy. Maybe it's the French connection. The characters, including an anglophobic police inspector, and a black Brazilian visitor who befriends Kovacs, are all colourful, three-dimensional and completely believable, and this well-crafted novel is a joy to read. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
A surreal black comedy set in Paris by the most talented British newcomer since Louis de Bernieres. Philip Kovacs is a teacher in Paris. One evening he returns to his flat beside the Canal Saint Martin to find a sharp, disturbing odour in the air. It is the smell of trespass; the smell of his own fear. Nearby, in a curious corner of Pere Lachaise cemetary, a woman pays her respects at the tomb of Victor Noir, a 19th-century journalist gunned down in the prime of life by his mistress’s husband. Furtively, she pops a letter into the bronze hat that lies beside the effigy of Victor’s supine, bullet-punctured corpse. The envelope bears Kovacs’ name. As Fate would have it, she does not go unobserved. For Philip Kovacs, the nightmare has only just begun. By turns surprising, elliptical and surreal, The Hat of Victor Noir is a wild card of a novel, a moody black comedy that stalks through the City of Light with mayhem in mind. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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