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Ascension: A Novel (2003)

door Steven Galloway

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893300,824 (3.86)6
The acclaimed author of Finnie Walsh turns from small-town hockey to the extraordinary intrigues of circus life during the heyday of the Big Top through the story of Salvo Ursari, undisputed master of the high wire. As the novel opens, it is the summer of 1976. Salvo is 66 years old and has decided he can never retire. Already famous thanks to his days in an American circus, he has made a living in recent times performing solo walks of extraordinary difficulty. And so he finds himself attempting to accomplish the most difficult feat of his career: to walk a wire strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, 1350 feet from the ground. Transylvania in 1919 is a place of poverty and persecution for the Rom people. Salvo follows his father to a village church, where the senior Ursari -- the only man who volunteers for the task -- is to climb the steeple to replace a large iron crucifix that had been removed for safe-keeping during the war. He restores the cross, but it is not properly attached and as they are leaving, it falls, killing a priest. When the villagers exact their revenge, Salvo's parents are killed and he is separated from his brother and sister. Thus begins nearly a lifetime of being forced to flee from suspicion and misfortune that takes the reader from Europe to the US to British Columbia's Fraser Valley and back to Manhattan. Ascension combines powerful storytelling -- including stories of the Romany people, poverty-stricken but resourceful, and rich in legend -- with great surprise and originality; Steven Galloway makes it clear why he is one of the hottest young writers in Canada today. Excerpt from Ascension "Once a newspaper man had asked him what it felt like to walk high above the crowd, with death looming beneath you and success a long way off on the other platform. Salvo had told the man that it was like being a bird, an eagle, but he knew that wasn't true at all. He was a man, nothing more. Still, he was a man who dared do things other men watched and admired and were jealous of. He walked for these people as much as for anyone. But today he was walking only for himself. That was the difference with these solo walks. When he was among them, he was one of them, but here he is timeless, one man on a wire far above it all, in a separate place. He was not free, but he was as free as he would ever be."… (meer)
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Toon 3 van 3
The novel opens with a tight-rope walker on a high wire strung between the Twin Towers (written prior to the attacks). From the Galloway takes us to the childhood of a Roma boy and his journey to becoming a wire-walker, traveling thru Europe, America and Canada. We hear Roma stories and fables, learn a of their customs and lifestyles, and transition to the lives of circus performers.
Galloway is an author known for impeccable research and an uncanny knack for bringing to life events and characters far removed from his own. His novels are beautifully written, his characters come vividly to life and his ability to make me care about a world (the circus, high wire walkers ) that really doesn't interest me much, is astounding.
I am so impressed with this author and highly recommend this novel and all of his work! ( )
  Rdra1962 | Aug 1, 2018 |
I listened to this audiobook -- riveting story! ( )
  junepearl | Mar 4, 2016 |
Ascension is the story of the life of a Romany boy, Salvo, who grows up to become a rope walker in the USA. The book follows Salvo for many years and covers (amongst others) WWII and the blooming period of the circus. I don't want to give away too much of the story, because some of the beauty of this book is in the discovering of how things have become the way they are. Instead, I will say that this book had me really feeling for Salvo and his family; I was happy for them, I was angry for them and I was sad for them. All in all, this is a beautifully written novel, which is, although not super impressive, a very enjoyable read. ( )
  SimoneA | Jan 19, 2012 |
Toon 3 van 3
The descriptions of circus life and tightrope walking are riveting, and Galloway supplies crisp narration, delivering his plot twists in tight, well-constructed scenes. But he rarely gets beneath the surface of the various family members, and only Salvo Ursari really comes to life. Despite the plot's inherent potential for drama, the weakness of the human element gives the story an oddly sterile feel.
toegevoegd door SimoneA | bewerkPublishers Weekly (Jun 3, 2009)
 
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The acclaimed author of Finnie Walsh turns from small-town hockey to the extraordinary intrigues of circus life during the heyday of the Big Top through the story of Salvo Ursari, undisputed master of the high wire. As the novel opens, it is the summer of 1976. Salvo is 66 years old and has decided he can never retire. Already famous thanks to his days in an American circus, he has made a living in recent times performing solo walks of extraordinary difficulty. And so he finds himself attempting to accomplish the most difficult feat of his career: to walk a wire strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, 1350 feet from the ground. Transylvania in 1919 is a place of poverty and persecution for the Rom people. Salvo follows his father to a village church, where the senior Ursari -- the only man who volunteers for the task -- is to climb the steeple to replace a large iron crucifix that had been removed for safe-keeping during the war. He restores the cross, but it is not properly attached and as they are leaving, it falls, killing a priest. When the villagers exact their revenge, Salvo's parents are killed and he is separated from his brother and sister. Thus begins nearly a lifetime of being forced to flee from suspicion and misfortune that takes the reader from Europe to the US to British Columbia's Fraser Valley and back to Manhattan. Ascension combines powerful storytelling -- including stories of the Romany people, poverty-stricken but resourceful, and rich in legend -- with great surprise and originality; Steven Galloway makes it clear why he is one of the hottest young writers in Canada today. Excerpt from Ascension "Once a newspaper man had asked him what it felt like to walk high above the crowd, with death looming beneath you and success a long way off on the other platform. Salvo had told the man that it was like being a bird, an eagle, but he knew that wasn't true at all. He was a man, nothing more. Still, he was a man who dared do things other men watched and admired and were jealous of. He walked for these people as much as for anyone. But today he was walking only for himself. That was the difference with these solo walks. When he was among them, he was one of them, but here he is timeless, one man on a wire far above it all, in a separate place. He was not free, but he was as free as he would ever be."

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