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Loading... Who Do You Think You Are? (2000)by Malcolm Bradbury
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Mensonge is a piece of fictional nonfiction, a glorious skit on post-war philosophical writing and writers ('from Saussure to not saussure at all'). Since the elusive European writer Mensonge has brought the Negation of Being to its logical conclusion by probably never existing, the researcher must naturally follow his putative trail all the more earnestly. The fearsome smoothness of the academic style is sustained through puns and bathos, ironies and polysyllabic sillinesses to create a Deconstructionist romp which made me laugh aloud. ... The index makes jolly reading in its own right: 'Sameness, see Difference1; 'Nouvelle cuisine, contrasted with food, 23; compared with Mondrian, 27'; 'I, is there 1; 38-47'... Mensonge has an anti-bibliography which is a masterpiece of parody; the last entry reads: 'Yves Zylot, Fin, Paris, PUF, 1975'.
Who Do You Think You Are? contains all the wit, verbal dexterity and spot-on satirical humour of Malcolm Bradbury's finest novels, including the work that helped to define a generation, The History Man.In seven short stories Malcolm Bradbury takes a subtly ironic look at a variety of targets: American academics, provincial Britain, the aspirations of social workers, psychologists, the well-intentioned. . . In addition he delights us with an irreverent and hilarious series of parodies of some of the greatest paradigms of the British and American literary scenes: a passage from Iris Murdoch's little-known The Sublime and the Ridiculous; Muriel Spark (a whole novel); the fifth volume of Durrell's Alexandria Quartet; John Osborne; J. D. Salinger and many more. 'A very funny book indeed. Malcolm Bradbury is a satirist of great assurance and accomplishment' Observer 'Bradbury's eye is sharp, his trigger-finger steady and unafraid, and his range and explosive power devastating' The Times No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Perhaps I should begin by saying all that follows I write if a little frankly as a professional man
This could be said about all the stories if he had added "prone to dalliances with the opposite sex" This first story concerns a welfare psychiatrist (if there is such a thing) and his patient Evadne Winterbottom whose issues make the psychiatrist examine his own life and who he wants to be. "A Very Hospitable Person" is set in America where an English couple newly working at the college are invited to a meal by an American work colleague, whose wife makes overt sexual comments which embarrasses the English couple. "Who Do You think You Are" is an intellectual quiz programme devised for the BBC where the expert participants must carry out an in depth personality review of a character selected at random, using their own specialist knowledge and ends with the experts psychoanalysing each other. This is one of the best stories with Bradbury using his insight in how the BBC worked at the time. "The Adult Education Class" is also very good telling a story of a poetry class, whose professor has to cope with one of his former college pupils, involved in a take over bid. "Nobody Here in England" is actually set in an American college who have invited an "expert" on George Bernard Shaw, who wants to make a benefaction of love letters that she claims to have received from him. The college must decide if she is genuine. "A Breakdown" is a story of a mature student falling in love with her college professor. The final story "Composition" is about a visiting English professor in America becoming involved with students, who will do anything to get better grades.
Following the stories there are nine short parodies that could have been written by writers such as Muriel Spark, Lawrence Durrell, John Braine, Alan Sillitoe etc; authors from the 1960's. A sort introductory paragraph informs the reader who Bradbury is parodying, but much of the humour would be lost if you were not familiar with the authors in question.
I found the stories witty and entertaining, there were no read duds and as satirical slices of life from the teaching side of the campus of five decades ago, they work well. This one might go back on the bookshelf 3 stars. ( )