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Title: Picture Palace by Paul Theroux ISBN: 0-14-005072-8 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Shame It's Out-of-Print
Comment: Though I doubt it will be for long. This is quite possibly Theroux's most ambitious project in straight *fiction*, and it's extremely well-written and well-crafted. The "voice" of the elderly female narrator is at times just a bit unconvincing, but as a novelist, Theroux isn't at all what one might think from his numerous "travel" books--this is riveting and almost shocking, and quite vivid.
Finally, Theroux is one of those few novelists (Iris Murdoch and Robertson Davies come to mind) who seamlessly weaves a large amount of knowledge, history and culture into his narratives. In its way, this is also one of the finest books on photography ever written. I encourage you to find a copy--there's something here for those who like literary fiction, vivid description and...an excellent story.
Rating: 4
Summary: A very strange book
Comment: The premise for this novel resides in the main character's desire to bed her brother. Her desire for him motivates her life and thinking; her brilliant career in photography serves only as a means to gain his respect and um, affection. Sadly, the other sister wins the brother's favors. Our heroine avoids a complete breakdown but does contract hysterical blindness when she learns the awful truth. Theroux sets up a Conradesque narrative framework, and the female narrator often launches into some turgid prose detailing the passionate vagaries of her inner life. What struck me was the incestual motivation for her great work so admired by others. A commentary on the creation of art, its basis not necessarily as pure as we'd like to imagine?
A brilliant novel in many respects, I only subtract a star due to the (in my opinion, of course) overblown nature of some of Maude's rantings. Perhaps that was part of the point -- her visceral passion.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Story of Love, Photography, and Cape Cod
Comment: This is one of my favorite books. Whereas Theroux often has a hard time depicting love convincingly and sometimes doesn't even try, I found the unrequited love between brother and sister in this book to be fierce and intensely tragic. The historical backdrop of the development of photography is brilliantly conceived and realized, as is the ongoing dialogue of the old woman, retired, reliving her past on Cape Cod. In many ways uncharacteristic of Theroux's brash, egocentric style, this book uses a strong feminine voice that evokes a very unforgettable personality. Good fun to read
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Title: Naked City by Weegee, Arthur F. Weegee ISBN: 0306812045 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 17 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson, Anne Carson ISBN: 037570129X Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 27 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Pillars of Hercules by Paul Theroux ISBN: 0449910857 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 29 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee, Walker Evans ISBN: 0618127496 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 14 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: On Photography by Susan Sontag ISBN: 0312420099 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 25 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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