| Click on Title or Image for details and user reviews. Follow such "New(7) Used(2) from £9.99" links right below the shopping cart to see a list of offers from various sellers (example). |
|
|
Man in the Dark | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul Auster
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Category: Book
List Price: £14.99
Buy New: £4.69
You Save: £10.30 (69%)
New (26) Used (5) Collectible (1) from £4.32
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 1430
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0571240763
EAN: 9780571240760
ASIN: 0571240763
Publication Date: August 21, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 What a disappointment! January 5, 2009
L. Miller (Oxford UK)
I am generally a fan of Paul Auster, but this effort is a poorly-constructed jumble of ideas. The first part reads like a teenage attempt at a philosophical novel - rather like "Sophie's World" but nowhere near as well thought-through and, by now, not very original. This thread is abruptly terminated and we are led instead into a sentimental meander through coming-to-terms-with-loss. There is a common thread of the horror of war, but it's not enough to create any coherence. The book itself is also very short, so for the money, both the quality and quantity are lacking. It's not very often that I feel like writing to a publisher in disgust, but this could be that moment. This publication very much trades on the author's reputation rather than his current achievement.
 Brilliant novel December 24, 2008
J. H. Bretts
Paul Auster is a master storyteller and this is one of his best. August Brill lies in bed trying in vain to get sleep - so he spins a weird story of an alternative universe...But his storytelling is a way of keeping his mind off heartbreaking events in a world we can all recognise. I can't recommend this highly enough.
A story about darkness. December 19, 2008
Jan Dierckx (Belgium, Turnhout)
I began to read Paul Auster in the eighties. I was captivated by the bleak, mysterious, and inimical atmosphere of his novels. But at the same time his sense of humor, his love for the absurd, and the relentless search for The Father formed a counterpart for the dark side of his novels.
All these things are together again in his latest novel "Man In The Dark". I love this novel because it's the real Paul Auster. He writes without commercial afterthought and he refuses to go easy on us (like in his novel The Brooklyn Follies).
Seventy-two-year-old August Brill is recovering from a car accident in his daughter's house in Vermont. When sleep refuses to come, he lies in bed and tells himself stories, struggling to push back thoughts about things he would prefer to forget - his wife's recent death and the horrific murder of his granddaughters' boyfriend, Titus.
August imagines a parallel world in which America is not at war with Iraq but with itself. In this other America the Twin Towers did not fall, and the 2000 election results led to the secession, as state after state pulled away from the union, and a bloody civil war ensued. As the night progresses, August's story grows increasingly intense, and what he is so desperately trying to avoid insists on being told.
Passionate and shocking, Man in the Dark is a novel of our moment, a book that forces us to confront the darkness of night even as it celebrates the existence of ordinary joys in a world capable of the most grotesque violence.
 'The weird world rolls on' ------some spoilers------ November 29, 2008
J. Minogue (UK)
`I am alone in the dark, turning the world around in my head as I struggle though another bout of insomnia, another white night in the great American wilderness.'
Man in the Dark opens with August Brill, a Pulitzer prize winning critic, lying in the pitch black as he recovers from a car accident in his daughter's house. Grandfather, daughter Miriam and granddaughter Katya share the house since the `the roof fell in on Katya' and she dropped out of film school.
Brill tells himself stories as he lies awake - he wants to divert his mind from his worries; the death of his wife, of his granddaughter's boyfriend Titus, of his daughter's failed marriage. He and his granddaughter Katya have been spending their time watching films together, conscious displacement activity to avoid thinking about their lives.
In the alternate world he conjures up an alter ego - Owen Brick wakes up in a deep hole dressed in uniform. It's a world where the twin towers were never bombed. Instead of a war in Iraq the disputed US election of 2000 has led to a civil war in America. Throughout the night Brill alternates between the worlds until he abandons Brick to his American wilderness `with no chance to say a last word or think a last thought'. Brick then starts to confront the list of subjects he told us he was avoiding; his wife Sonia, the shocking story of Titus' death and his worries about his daughter. Then he and Katya have a long insomniac conversation on the same topics.
For me, the characters became more and more sympathetic as we gradually learn more of their back stories and see their connection to each other. Auster's themes of stories within stories, war and writing knit together well in this short novel.
The book covers just one wakeful night and ends with a plan for going out to breakfast - a hopeful end to a thoughtful book which challenges us to confront our thoughts about our weird world.
Lazy October 28, 2008
Alfred King
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Auster never writes badly, but this is a lazy lazy book. The first half is an ambling, pointless collection of stories that go nowhere. It's like he's shoehorned bits of writing in from elsewhere and no editor has said "hang on, what's the point of this?" The conceit of the novel that here is a man creating a dream/story to keep him from thinking of terrible memories runs out of steam very quickly and Auster seems to just end it abruptly when it's clear it's a blind alley. The idea that he somehow creates an alternative reality, a world without the 9/11 attacks is nonsense. Towards the end of the book that are flashes of quite moving and affective prose, but that's not much to say for a very disappointing book.
|
We display the lowest priced offers from a list of new and used items. It is clearly indicated right before the displayed price on whether the displayed item is new or used, i.e. "Buy Used: £8.00" or "Buy New: £8.00".
For more options to buy new (or used) just follow the link that looks like this "New (7) Used (2) from £9.99" right below the shopping cart. The link will not be displayed if there is no other offer.
Free UK delivery available for offers from Amazon.co.uk (terms & conditions) with indication of "Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping" (example). Offers from other sellers are subjected to delivery charge of £2.75 per book. More about free delivery, click here. |
|
|
| Browse by genre |
|
Audio CDs
Languages: Michel Thomas Language Courses, Rapid Language Courses, Courses For Children,
Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, Gaelic, Irish & Welsh, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Vietnamese
Biographies & Memoirs
Business, Finance & Law
Children's Books: Book & CD Gift Packs, Children's Modern, Classics, Education, Harry Potter, Language, Music
Authors: Blyton, Enid, Rowling, JK, Wynne Jones, Diana
Comedy: Comedy Classic, Contemporary Comedy, Bill Bryson, Billy Connolly, Blackadder, Dead Ringers, Fast Show, Hancock, Knowing Me, Knowing You, Monty Python, Rumpole of the Bailey, The Goon Show
Crime, Thrillers & Mystery: Child, Lee, Christie, Agatha, Cornwell, Patricia, Francis, Dick, Grisham, John, Rankin, Ian, Smith, Wilbur
|
Fiction: Literary Classics, Religious, Unabridged, Western
Health, Family & Lifestyle: Personal Growth, Relaxation & Meditation
History: BC-1500, 1501-1700, 1701-Present, This Sceptered Isle
Horror: Herbert, James, King, Stephen, Koontz, Dean
Music
Poetry & Drama
Radio Shows: Dead Ringers, Hancock, The Goon Show
Religion & Spirituality
Romance: Austen, Jane, Binchy, Maeve, Bingham, Charlotte, Collins, Jackie, Cookson, Catherine, Steel, Danielle
Science Fiction & Fantasy: Fantasy, Science Fiction, DiscWorld, Dr Who, Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Star Wars, Tolkien
Sports, Hobbies & Games
Travel
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright 2006 © audiohome.co.uk, an audio books store Privacy Notice | Delivery | Customer Service | Buying Guide | Search Audiobooks Quickly | | My favourite authors: |
| In CDs: |
| Adams, Douglas |
| Bennett, Alan |
| Bryson, Bill |
| Christie, Agatha |
| Covey, Stephen R. |
| Cornwell, Patricia |
| Dahl, Roald |
| Dickens, Charles |
| Ludlum, Robert |
| Rowling, JK |
| Stevenson, Robert Louis |
| More authors... |
| |
| In cassettes: |
| Adams, Douglas |
| Bennett, Alan |
| Bryson, Bill |
| Christie, Agatha |
| Cornwell, Patricia |
| Dahl, Roald |
| Dickens, Charles |
| Ludlum, Robert |
| Rice, Anne |
| Stevenson, Robert Louis |
| More authors... |
|
|
|
|
Over 30,000 audio books,