Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Zeno's Conscience : A Novel by William Weaver, Italo Svevo ISBN: 0-375-72776-0 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Tour de Force of Tone
Comment: Among its other virtues, well-described by other reviewers here (I particularly like the observation, "Eliot's Prufrock made novel"), this book (in the Weaver translation at least) reveals Svevo as a master of control of tone, or voice: Zeno is not one thing one moment, and another the next -- not wise and then stupid, or good then venal -- he is a very human jumble of contradictions at every moment, in each sentence and paragraph. That's very hard to do when you deny yourself the option of switching to another character's voice or, like Joyce in Ulysses, into another prose style. Svevo performs his tonal tight-wire act straight through this 400-plus-page novel so brilliantly that the sheer technical virtuosity can be overshadowed by the book's more obvious novelties of diction and plot. My rating is really more like 4.5. The only reason I don't give it a 5 is that I didn't find it as laugh-out-loud funny (well, maybe once) or as exhiliratingly smart as the very finest novels in this vein, by Musil, Joyce, Proust, etc.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Great Unkown Writer
Comment: I read Zeno's Conscience and As a Man Grows Older years ago, the former when I was eighteen. At my first reading of Zeno, I recall it being funny and insightful, and I recall being taken with the narrator, his awkwardness - his inability to mirror Guido, the handsome, talented and carefree suitor to the woman of his dreams. Of course, I had no one to share my thoughts on the book because no one had ever heard of Italo Svevo which was, and is, a surprise. You pretty much have to stumble upon his work yourself because for the most part I think Zeno won't be taught in classrooms because of his weak moral fiber. He is a cheat, a loser, an attempted murderer, has little will power, is sedentary, rich, and somewhat delusional - not to mention a sexist, though the women seem to be the most steadfast characters throughout the novel, they are men's possessions.
Of course we wouldn't have to look far to find canonical characters who have similar characteristics as Zeno(Huck, Holden, Meursault) but Zeno really isn't a bad guy, just given to fits of weakness and unsteady values.
The first chapter, "Last Cigarette" is awesome, and could be read as a short story in itself - and of course, if you have ever tried to quit smoking or ever need another reason not to begin, this chapter is a hoot, and very cleverly written.
The book can get a little repetitious at times, and it is not a story of intense action, it is presented by an intensely introspective narrator who is full of contradictions and uncertainty. I would recommend this book to anyone who has read and liked the Catcher in the Rye, The Beautiful Room is Empty, The Great Gatsby, The Stranger, On The Road, or Huck Finn - though by no means is Zeno relational to these other books, they have similar narrators.
Rating: 4
Summary: There's something to it
Comment: This is really a strange book: the characters are not that likable, there is practically no plot, and still it is attractive. This is the story of a man that does nothing in his life, except to procrastinate, cheat and waste his time. But he's not unlikable. I think that, in the end, he's even wise.
Zeno Cosini is the heir to a prosperous merchant, and so he has no need to work. He has a bad habit of smoking and he's always trying to quit although in his heart he doesn't really want to. He undertakes therapy to get rid of the habit and his analyst advises him to write down his memoirs, which end up being this book. Zeno tells us about his father's death, the story of his courtship of Ada and his marriage to Ada's ugly (cross-eyed)sister Augusta, a wonderful woman who loves Zeno very much, although he cheats on her constantly. Then we read the story of Zeno's association with Guido, the man Ada finally marries. This is the funniest part of the book.
It is funny without being "comical". Zeno is really a puzzle: sometimes he's despicable, sometimes he's noble and wise. On the whole it is a good novel with a believable story, vivid characters and a sense of humor. But it is strange.
 |
Title: As a Man Grows Older (New York Review Books Classics) by Italo Svevo, Beryl De Zoete, James Lasdun ISBN: 0940322846 Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: 10 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
 |
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 |
 |
Title: The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails by ROBERT MUSIL ISBN: 0679767878 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 December, 1996 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
 |
Title: Emilio's Carnival by Italo Svevo, Beth Archer Brombert, Victor Brombert ISBN: 0300090498 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: The Man Without Qualities Vol. 2: Into the Millennium, from the Posthumous Papers by ROBERT MUSIL ISBN: 0679768025 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 December, 1996 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
