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Title: Nothing by Henry Green ISBN: 1-56478-260-3 Publisher: Dalkey Archive Pr Pub. Date: October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Everything.
Comment: I recommend that you do not read the back cover of this book before you read the book itself: it gives away too much and frames things incorrectly as well. And obviously you ought to read this book! Henry Green is a jazzy Jane Austen, more Monk than Mozart. He's got quite the sense of humor. People at parties asked him what he was writing and he'd say, "Nothing." Many of his novels have gerund titles-- _Loving_, _Living_, _Doting_-- but "nothing" isn't a verb. Or is it? Do people "nothing" their lives away? Well I won't attempt to explain the significance of the title, but-- as I gave away-- this really is a book about everything. Through conversation caught in painfully beautiful rhythms, we can learn a lot about the tragi-comedy that is life as we follow characters who seem to be recorded more than created. These are not bad people. But Green's prose doesn't exactly let them off the hook. You might laugh or shudder, or do both at the same time. But something very serious is at stake here. People meet, eat, drink, gossip, are cruel, are insecure, but beyond appetite and role-playing is there anything to it--or is it all nothing? Perhaps you too will be shocked that any author could be as good as Henry Green.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fine British literary gem with fabulous nuanced dialogue!
Comment: The British writer Henry Green's literary skill went far beyond a comedy of manners, which this book appears to be on the surface. Dense with meaning, "Nothing" is a short literary gem, which forces the reader to read a million nuances into the witty and yet deeply dense conversations which make up the entirety of the book. The story is set in 1948 and follows John and Jane, now middle aged but still reminiscing about an affair they had many years before when they were still married. They both have new relationships, Liz and Richard, but still see each other frequently for meals or for tea. Their respective children, Mary and Philip, are now grown and want to marry. But of course there are complications.
The world that the author creates for the reader is a very British one. The dialogue is precise but filled with hidden meanings, as what is unsaid is often even more important than what is said. There's a wonderful symmetrical balance in each of the conversations as well as in the structure of the book. The characters speak for themselves, with very little description, and, through their words alone, the twists and turns of the story emerge, the sounds of their voices echoing on the pages. The question of what really happened and is happening is always just beyond our reach, and the even though the characters might be moved around like chess pieces at the author's whim, they never do change or gain insight into their behavior. Surprisingly, this is still an amazingly satisfying read, as if is the reader himself or herself who gets to experience their world and gain insight into the inevitability of the conclusion. This book is a delightful read and a real treat. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Unabashedly charming and delightful novel
Comment: With a little patience, the reader will quickly adjust to the rhythms of one of English literature's most unique, and until recently, nearly forgotten novelists; and in the process enjoy an utterly and unabashedly charming and delightful novel. Years after having an affair that almost ruined their respective marriages, Jane Weatherby and John Pomfret are reunited when their children decide to get married despite questions regarding their possible kinship and the fact that they have almost no money to their name. Afraid that Mary Pomfret and Philip Weatherby are destined for the working-class, Jane and John attempt to stall the development of the wedding plans by having endlessly witty conversations about, well, nothing. This gives Jane -- a shrewd, resourceful widow -- the opportunity to embark on a scheme to lure John away from his current love interest. As the plot advances through discussions filled with misdirections and omissions, Green demonstrates that there is nothing like the spoken word to conceal one's true intentions, yet at the same time reveal everything. One of Green's final novels, Nothing is a worthy addition to the varied tradition of English literature that includes Virginia Woolf and Evelyn Waugh. Fans of Austen, Forster, and Wharton should also be rewarded. Green's masterful description of the novel's centerpiece alone -- an as-if-you-were-there party -- is worth the price of purchase.
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Title: Doting (Coleman Dowell British Literature Series) by Henry Green ISBN: 1564782662 Publisher: Dalkey Archive Pr Pub. Date: March, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.50 |
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Title: Loving/Living/Party Going (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Henry Green, John Uplike, John Updike ISBN: 0140186913 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1993 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, Edith Grossman, Harold Bloom ISBN: 0060188707 Publisher: Ecco Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Blindness by Henry Green ISBN: 1564782654 Publisher: Dalkey Archive Pr Pub. Date: March, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.50 |
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