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Loading... City (original 1999; edition 2001)by Alessandro Baricco
Work InformationCity by Alessandro Baricco (1999)
   Italian Literature (302) No current Talk conversations about this book.   CarmenMilligan | Jan 18, 2016 |  I REALLY wanted to like it. The idea of the book is great, and I think the overarching story is the best part of the book by far. For me, the stories within the story weren't nearly as good. They felt like a slow distraction, and they were just kind of silly. I guess they were insights into the characters who "wrote" them, but the subject matter of those stories within stories--a western and a story about boxing--just couldn't have been much less appealing for me personally. Maybe it's because I abandoned the book for a long time before going back to finish it, but the end went SO SLOWLY for me. Usually, by the time I get to the end of a book I'm zipping along, curious to see what happens next and how it will all end. Sadly, I just kind of wanted to get this one over with. It's too bad, because the basic premise really is interesting. (  ) tercat | Feb 6, 2014 |  ) evanroskos | Mar 30, 2013 | Shatzy's spaghetti western and Gould's underdog boxer Larry 'Lawyer' Gorman tend to steal the show at times, and a good thing too as they are relief from the heavier metaphysical elements. Overall, when reading this one it is best to just let all that is going on wash over you.... otherwise you might find yourself hopeless lost trying to decipher the hidden meanings that might... or might not... exist. The layers of stories became hypnotic for me with some really good comic bits worked into this exploratory work. An exploratory work that would fail except for the skilled writing of Baricco and Goldstein's translation which keeps the story conversational in tone. What really surprised me is how different City is from Baricco's other works - namely the stunning and lyrically beautiful Silk and the quietly thought provoking Emmaus. I never expected this style of writing/genre to exist in Baricco's repertoire. Once I got past the shock, I was able to settle in and enjoy the book. Part of me wonders what I will be in for when I pick up my next Baricco to read..... ( )3  lkernagh | Sep 9, 2012 |
It is this kind of authorial sleight of hand that will endear Baricco to some and infuriate others. But City stands as a laudable attempt to create a 21st-century Tristram Shandy.  Man kann bei der Antwort auf diese Frage einen Eindruck nur schlecht abwehren: Dass nämlich Alessandro Baricco, der in Italien eine der besten Werkstätten für "Kreatives Schreiben" anbietet, immer mehr Material hieraus in seine Bücher einfließen lässt! Und dass er sich immer weniger Mühe macht, als ernsthafter Schriftsteller große Literatur zu schreiben! Denn die braucht etwas mehr als nur Zeit und Schweiß und Mühe. Und damit der Schelte noch nicht genug! Vielleicht sollte Alessandro Baricco gar gleich Drehbücher für Hollywood schreiben und sich und uns den Umweg über ein Buch ersparen! Denn seine Bücher sind als Film sehr gut vorstellbar und scheinen dann sogar toll zu sein - als Film freilich!
The author of the international bestseller Silk now delivers a ravishing and wildly inventive novel about friendship, genius and its discontents, and the redemptive power of narrative. Somewhere in America lives a brilliant boy named Gould, an intellectual guided missile aimed at the Nobel Prize. His only companions are an imaginary giant and an imaginary mute. Improbably--and yet with impeccable logic--he falls into the care of Shatzy Shell, a young woman whose life up till that point has been equally devoid of human connection . Theirs is a relationship of stories and of stories within stories: of Gould's evolving saga of an underdog boxer and the violent Western that Shatzy has been dictating into a tape recorder since the age of six. Out of these stories, Alessandro Baricco creates a masterpiece of metaphysical pulp fiction that recalls both Scheherazade and Italo Calvino. By turns exhilarating and deeply moving, City is irresistible. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)853.914Literature Italian Italian fiction 1900- 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.59)
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