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A regular guy : a novel by Mona Simpson
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A regular guy : a novel (edition 1996)

by Mona Simpson

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1831148,433 (3.43)4
Mona Simpson's first two novels, Anywhere But Here and The Lost Father, won her literary renown and a wide following. Now, in her third novel, the narrator Ann Atassi has been replaced by a third-person narrator recounting the adventures of young Jane di Natali, but the theme remains the same: the search for, and the attempt to understand, the absent father. This time the father is a millionaire biotechnology magnate named Tom Owens.nbsp;nbsp;Into Owens's charmed life comes Jane, born out of wedlock, raised in communes, and now dispatched intonbsp;nbsp;his care by a mother who is no longer capable of providing it; Tom is far from ready for this responsibility. Fans of Simpson's previous novels will not be disappointed by this excursion into the cracked world of family relations. "Simpson is an attentive observer and a fluent stylist, but it is the element of subtle surprise that draws us through these pages, the magnetism of an original mind that holds us fast." --Booklist… (more)
Member:c_why
Title:A regular guy : a novel
Authors:Mona Simpson
Info:New York : Knopf, 1996.
Collections:Your library, To read
Rating:
Tags:fiction--American, Steve Jobs--fict

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A Regular Guy by Mona Simpson

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This is a good, but difficult book to read. Mona Simpson writes well; she masters a sort of folky writing style where the reader must infer from the dialogue what really is happening behind what is said. Simpson comes across as a dispassionate but very keen observer of things around her. The real beauty of this book, though, can only be understood if you have read a lot about Steve in real life. Without knowing about Steve, this book is entirely without context. More than anything, this work is personal, it's real, it's poignant and it is written in a deceptively dispassionate way. What Mona has done with her characters - particularly Noah and Jane, is absolutely remarkable. To create Noah on paper, is to my eyes, one of Simpson's greatest accomplishments in this book. Do I recommend this book? Only if you are interested in a serious, slow, literary read and only if you have done lots of homework on understanding Steve. ( )
  nbarman | Oct 23, 2010 |
"The result, for all Ms. Simpson's impressive gifts as a writer, is a novel that lacks the emotional immediacy of her earlier books, a stilted and strangely detached novel that feels as if it had been forcibly willed into creation."
added by LiteraryFiction | editNew York Times, Michiko Kakutani (pay site) (Oct 15, 1996)
 
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Mona Simpson's first two novels, Anywhere But Here and The Lost Father, won her literary renown and a wide following. Now, in her third novel, the narrator Ann Atassi has been replaced by a third-person narrator recounting the adventures of young Jane di Natali, but the theme remains the same: the search for, and the attempt to understand, the absent father. This time the father is a millionaire biotechnology magnate named Tom Owens.nbsp;nbsp;Into Owens's charmed life comes Jane, born out of wedlock, raised in communes, and now dispatched intonbsp;nbsp;his care by a mother who is no longer capable of providing it; Tom is far from ready for this responsibility. Fans of Simpson's previous novels will not be disappointed by this excursion into the cracked world of family relations. "Simpson is an attentive observer and a fluent stylist, but it is the element of subtle surprise that draws us through these pages, the magnetism of an original mind that holds us fast." --Booklist

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