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Title: Riders in the Chariot (New York Review Books Classics) by Patrick White, David Malouf ISBN: 1-59017-002-4 Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: April, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: world masterpiece
Comment: This is certainly one of the great masterpieces of world literature. There were occasionally some Australian slang or particular terms that I didn't understand but it did not detract from my immense enjoyment, and ultimate catharsis I derived from reading this novel. The character of Himmelfarb will be with me forever, and the other 4 major characters were equally vivid, unique, and profound.
Rating: 5
Summary: Astonshing. Unforgettable.
Comment: Riders in the Chariot is a supreme work of art. At least a dozen times, I found White's writing so moving and beautiful that I had to put the book down and reflect on what I'd just read. All too rarely has a book prodded me to deeply examine my own life and priorities -- this book is one of them. Riders in the Chariot provides a reaffirmation for the jaded 21st century reader: humilty over arrogance, beauty over ugliness, good over evil.
Rating: 5
Summary: Epic scope and mystical significance.
Comment: This deceptively complex and tension-filled Australian novel begins as the straightforward story of Mary Hare, a strange, half-mad spinster who lives in Xanadu, a crumbling "pleasure dome," with the busybody Mrs. Jolley, a servant she fears. At various times in her meanderings, Mary meets a kind laundress named Mrs. Godbold, who lives in a shed with her nine children; Alf Dubbo, an often-drunk aborigine artist; and Mordecai Himmelfarb, a Jewish concentration camp survivor who has emigrated to Australia and now works in a machine shop.
In succeeding sections, in which these characters overlap, their intricate interior lives are developed in colorful, memorable detail, and the reader quickly sees that each is a lonely survivor of some traumatic experience which has made him/her question the nature of good and evil. Each hopes to unravel some of the mysteries at the center of the universe. Remarkably, all of them have experienced the same apocalyptic vision of a chariot being drawn by four horses galloping into a shimmering future.
In the hands of a lesser writer, the characters, their daily lives, and their vision of the chariot might have been presented in a sentimental or romantic way, or even been used to illustrate the author's religious views. But White's view of the chariot and its importance is far subtler--and more enigmatic--than that, and its role in the lives of these characters is both unsentimental and haunting. Tantalizing parallels between the vision of the chariot and the mysteries of Revelations, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the Seven Seals, along with Biblical warnings about blood, fire, and destruction will keep a symbol-hunter totally engaged. At the same time, more literal readers will find the stories and characters so firmly grounded in the reality of 1960's Australia, that they are captivating in their own right and may be taken, and thoroughly enjoyed, at face value.
This is a huge novel, an old-fashioned saga of fascinating characters living their lives the best way they can, while wrestling with issues of epic significance. The author's primary concern with telling a good story never falters, despite the overlay of mysticism, and the leisurely pace and fully realized dramatic action make this a totally fulfilling reading experience.
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Title: The Tree of Man (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) by Patrick White ISBN: 0140185844 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: July, 1993 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West, Andrea Barrett ISBN: 1590170342 Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: An Imaginary Life by David Malouf ISBN: 0679767932 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 May, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll (New York Review Books Classics) by Alvaro Mutis, Edith Grossman, Francisco Goldman ISBN: 0940322919 Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: 17 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Voss (Twentieth-Century Classics) by Patrick White ISBN: 0140186239 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: July, 1993 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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