Nicholson Baker
Paperback | Pages: 135 pages Rating: 3.83 | 7049 Users | 799 Reviews
Declare Regarding Books The Mezzanine
| Title | : | The Mezzanine |
| Author | : | Nicholson Baker |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 135 pages |
| Published | : | January 16th 1990 by Vintage (first published October 15th 1988) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Novels. Literature. Contemporary. American |
Relation Toward Books The Mezzanine
Although most of the action of The Mezzanine occurs on the escalator of an office building, where its narrator is returning to work after buying shoelaces, this startlingly inventive and witty novel takes us farther than most fiction written today. It lends to milk cartons the associative richness of Marcel Proust's madeleines. It names the eight most significant advances in a human life -- beginning with shoe-tying. It asks whether the hot air blowers in bathrooms really are more sanitary than towels. And it casts a dazzling light on our relations with the objects and people we usually take for granted.Particularize Books Conducive To The Mezzanine
| Original Title: | The Mezzanine |
| ISBN: | 0679725768 (ISBN13: 9780679725763) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Howie |
Rating Regarding Books The Mezzanine
Ratings: 3.83 From 7049 Users | 799 ReviewsCommentary Regarding Books The Mezzanine
This book is so good. It's about something I've wondered about and been fascinated by but have remained unable to articulate for almost my entire life: how the material culture and physical environment of our time and place shape human experience. I've been interested in that idea since I was a little kid but have never understood how to conceptualize it clearly.At the moment I can't think of many things more exciting than discovering a novel that addresses a huge question you've had for so longThis is the book for those readers who like a protagonist they can identify with. Ever break a shoelace? And for gods' sake don't skip the footnotes.
This book is simply dull. Its gimmick is that it documents the random thoughts passing through its narrator's head during a completely uneventful lunch hour. I knew before starting that the book was essentially plotless, but I had hoped, rashly, that it wouldn't also be pointless. The narrator witters on about the patterns of wear on his shoelaces, the varieties of escalator experience, and how he puts on his socks. None of it is particularly interesting, none of it has any kind of unifying
Tantric YankThis novella almost felt like having tantric sex with Sting.If it had lasted any longer, it would have become tedious. So, at 135 pages, it was just the right length. Nicholson Baker set out his goals and demonstrated his ability to achieve them, but he stopped just before either he or we lost interest in the whole project.Semen and ShoelacesWhat was he trying to achieve? As often happens, Baker gave us some insight in the book itself:"Observe, in short, how transient and trivial is
A jaded, young wealthy aristocrat in French author Joris-Karl Huysmans slim novel À rebours (Against Nature) retreats to a country villa to construct a custom-made artificial world where he can live his entire solitary life on his own aesthetic, highly refined terms. In many ways, the main character in this slender Nicholson Baker book is the complete opposite of Huysmans - rather than being a jaded aristocrat, Bakers narrator is an ordinary guy supremely attuned and energized by commonplace
Quite a brilliant little book, but possibly only because the author seems to live inside his own head as much as I do. What happens here is 120 pages of one man going to get shoelaces on his lunch break and coming back to the office. That's it. That's all that happens. The rest is commentary on just about every mundane activity that could possibly happen on such an "adventure." If you're already saying to yourself, "oh, one of THOSE books," bail out now. This isn't for you. And I certainly can't
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