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: The Green Suit by Dwight Allen ISBN: 0-452-28265-9 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: 02 October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Early winner for Allen
Comment: With his two novels, Allen is up there with the wonderful Nancy Clark ("Hills at Home") in his depiction of the complicated, verging-on-the-dysfunctional American family. These connected stories do meander along, but they mean something, finally... Allen is in no hurry and neither was this reader. I was sorry the story ended. Allen is a true master of language. His imagery is highly imaginative and his English as good as I have encountered in a long time. What a joy that I am discovering these fabulous authors! How can the country that produces its current unspeakable leaders nurture such imagination and talent? Well, that's America, I guess.
Rating: 3
Summary: wanted: testosterone!
Comment: The stories in this interlocked collection are all finely wrought, but they fail to reach any conclusions. The protaganist, Peter Sackrider, is indecisive, if not lost. Most of the stories recount various misadventures that befall him. In almost every case he fails to exert himself on those around him. Taken in full, his passivity is almost maddening! Undoubtedly the author meant him to be this way, but a dose of masculinity wouldn't hurt. At times he seems like a genuine wimp. While he is sympathetic and compassionate to those around him, a dose of testosterone wouldn't hurt. But then, he wouldn't be Peter Sackrider. I would have liked to see Dwight Allen explore this and other characters with greater range.
Rating: 4
Summary: A SAGE AND WITTY COMING OF AGE TALE
Comment: Former New Yorker staff member Dwight Allen makes his novelistic debut with a nuanced, likable series of interconnected stories, The Green Suit. These vignettes revolve around the Sackriders, an apple pie American family consisting of father, mother, daughter and son. They're a cosseted Kentucky foursome tended to by Willie who is "short and wide, a formidable squarish shape, like something not easily knocked over." She smokes Salems, cooks, cleans, and when she launders removes a joint from son Peter's shirt pocket. Father Sackrider is a judge who enjoys taking his ease by fishing. He's a man "who secretly believed that catching a fish could make your blood rush and your soul expand all at once." Mother Sackrider listens to classical music, gains strength from a murky health drink, and is constantly piqued by a neighborhood dog's desecration of her garden. Daughter Alex, affectionately called "Moony Tooth," has been to college in Philadelphia where she fell in love with Ed, "a sallow-skinned, lank-haired boy whose chief interest in life was the effects of hallucinogens on the neurochemistry of white rats." Ed's defection causes Alex to become temporarily unbalanced, and she tries to take her own life. She is then sent for therapy to Queen of Peace, "a columned and porticoed institution that sat on a hill about a mile from the new county zoo." But this book is primarily about Peter. It's about Peter's pursuit of girls - Lizzie, Mary Lee, Petra, a friend's "barely legal girlfriend," well, you get the picture. It's also about Peter's desire to be a writer or an editor; he's not quite sure. He has trouble, you see, with decisions and commitment as becomes evident when he eventually marries. At 23 Peter deems himself ready for New York. He'd been out of college for a year, so he "could read, conjugate Latin verbs........and handle a mop and a bucket." Once in the City he finds employment with a venerable, laid back publishing house. His venerable, laid back boss "gave off a scent that was a mix of talcum powder, butterscotch candy, and decrepitude." It is also in New York that the title story, The Green Suit," takes place. We meet Elvin, a building superintendent, clad in a "lizardy green" suit. "The trousers were flared and the jacket lapels were as big as wings........The suit glowed in the sulphurous glow of the street lights, but it would have glowed in pitch dark, too." Elvin is a man who has accepted his lot. He'd rather be the Sultan of Swing than a building superintendent, but as he says, "....you got to deal with the cards that get dealt to you." Peter might well have benefitted from a dose of this wisdom as he seems to stumble and bumble his way through the years. Nonetheless, in the deft hands of this author Peter's journey is a pleasant one for the reader, filled with comic characters, laughable fixes, and poignant moments, The Green Suit is a worthy debut signaling the promise of finer fare to come.
 |
Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Today Show Book Club #13) by Mark Haddon ISBN: 0385512104 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 31 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
 |
Title: The Namesake : A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri ISBN: 0395927218 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
