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Bezig met laden... Sunnyside (2009)door Glen David Gold
Bezig met laden...
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. You cannot blame Gold for lacking ambition: this novel attempts to sum up the state of America during the late 19-teens, and in doing so he goes off on narrative tangents that seem tenuously connected. The two major events portrayed here are the birth of the Hollywood film industry and America's entry into WWI; both are important in that they are the beginnings of the U.S. as the dominant military and cultural power in the world, a state that we have become accustomed to in the modern era. Some of the characters are drawn better than others: Charlie Chaplin's pathos, woman troubles and genius are on brilliant display. Others veer more towards caricature, especially Hugo Black, who seems to be written into the novel to present a staged meeting between insular American old money and the (literally) dying Russian aristocracy. Gold's themes are large and subtly disseminated throughout the novel - but he asks patience on the part of the reader to see the big picture in the books final pages. ( ) A fantastic addition to the epic Americana novel tradition. Vivid characters and deeply researched settings bring a fascinating time period to life. Gold is a wiz at turning historical figures into fiction; in this case Charlie Chaplin and a host of other silent film era folks rub shoulders with other, strictly fictional characters to paint a lush, multi-layered portrait of America between the Wars. Fans of E.L. Doctorow (Ragtime, Billy Bathgate), T.C. Boyle (The Road To Wellville), William Boyd (Any Human Heart, The New Confessions), and of course Gold's fantastic first novel, Carter Beats The Devil, should not pass this one up. A fantastic addition to the epic Americana novel tradition. Vivid characters and deeply researched settings bring a fascinating time period to life. Gold is a wiz at turning historical figures into fiction; in this case Charlie Chaplin and a host of other silent film era folks rub shoulders with other, strictly fictional characters to paint a lush, multi-layered portrait of America between the Wars. Fans of E.L. Doctorow (Ragtime, Billy Bathgate), T.C. Boyle (The Road To Wellville), William Boyd (Any Human Heart, The New Confessions), and of course Gold's fantastic first novel, Carter Beats The Devil, should not pass this one up.
Sunnyside is not perfect; a stronger editor might have cut a further 50 pages. But it is a gloriously enjoyable read, with pleasures on almost every page: a novel of which Chaplin, the supreme entertainer, would have been proud. Sunnyside is a big novel in all senses: 560 dense pages, with a huge cast and an authorial tendency to pile diversion on diversion until it nearly collapses under its own weight. There are breathtaking moments here - three paragraphs on the treatment of Native American soldiers in France are so piquant and engrossing they could be a novel in themselves - but too often it feels as though Gold can't help including nearly everything that struck his fancy. He can be both immensely charming and wildly imaginative, but Sunnyside is finally too obsessive to be an entirely comfortable read. PrijzenOnderscheidingenErelijsten
On a winter day in 1916 American capitalism, a world at war, and the emerging mecca of Hollywood intersect to spawn an enduring culture of celebrity. Charlie Chaplin is spotted in more than eight hundred places simultaneously, an extraordinary delusion that brings together the fortunes of three men: Leland Wheeler, son of the world's last (and worst) Wild West star, as he finds unexpected love on the battlefields of France; Hugo Black, drafted to fight under the towering General Edmund Ironside in America's doomed expedition against the Bolsheviks; and Chaplin himself, as he faces a tightening vise of complications--studio moguls, questions about his patriotism, his unchecked heart, and, most menacing of all, "his mother." Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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