Allen & Un
2007
01
AU $45.00
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From Publishers Weekly Ondaatje's oddly structured but emotionally riveting fifth novel opens in the Northern California of the 1970s. Anna, who is 16 and whose mother died in childbirth, has formed a serene makeshift family with her same-age adopted sister, Claire, and a taciturn farmhand, Coop, 20. But when the girls' father, otherwise a ghostly presence, finds Anna having sex with Coop and beats him brutally, Coop leaves the farm, drawing on a cardsharp's skills to make an itinerant living as a poker player. A chance meeting years later reunites him with Claire. Runaway teen Anna, scarred by her father's savage reaction, resurfaces as an adult in a rural French village, researching the life of a Gallic author, Jean Segura, who lived and died in the house where she has settled. The novel here bifurcates, veering almost a century into the past to recount Segura's life before WWI, leaving the stories of Coop, Claire and Anna enigmatically unresolved. The dreamlike Segura novella, juxtaposed with the longer opening section, will challenge readers to uncover subtle but explosive links between past and present. Ondaatje's first fiction in six years lacks the gut punch of Anil's Ghost and the harrowing meditation on brutality that marked The English Patient, but delivers his trademark seductive prose, quixotic characters and psychological intricacy. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist *Starred Review* The new novel by the author of The English Patient (1992) is easy to read, not because its theme and plot are simple but because the reader simply wants to read it. Told from alternating points of view, the narrative might not have worked. But Ondaatje's experience and skill prevent fatal fragmentation. The story begins in California in the 1970s, with a quiet man who lost his wife in childbirth raising his two daughters, Anna and Claire, and tending his farm with the help of a young man, Coop, who he has more or less adopted. When the maturing Anna and Coop fall into a sexual relationship and are discovered, much to his horror, by Anna's father, a bolt of violence springs up like a ferocious storm, and Anna and Coop flee forever--never to see each other again. The shadow--no, the determining force--of this horrible event on how these three individuals lead the rest of their lives is the tripartite tale Ondaatje follows over the course of the next several years. So the reader experiences an initial sense of segmentation, but it dissipates in the face of strong thematic connections between what are not really segments at all, but rather, layers to the story. The novel's title, not idly chosen, refers to a San Francisco street name derived from the Spanish word for division. What this at once powerful and beautiful novel is about is the division of these three lives into two parts, a bifurcation that occurred when Anna's father found things out and exploded. Brad Hooper Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Review My life always stops for a new book by Michael Ondaatje. I began Divisadero as soon as it came into my possession and over the course of a few evenings was captivated by Ondaatjes finest novel to date . . . Divisadero is a deeply ordered, full-bodied work, illuminating both what it means to belong to a family and what it means to be alone in the world . . . Like Nabokov, another master of twinning, Ondaatjes method is deliberate but discreet, and it was only in rereading this beautiful bookwhich I wanted to do as soon as I finished itthat the intricate play of doubles was revealed. Every sign of the authors genius is here: the searing imagery, the incandescent writing, the calm probing of lifes most turbulent and devastating experiences. No one writes as affectingly about passion, about time and memory, about violence, subjects that have shaped Ondaatjes previous novels. But there is a greater muscularity to Divisadero, an intensity born from its restraint. Episodes are boiled down to their essential elements, distilled but dramatic, resulting in a mosaic of profound dignity, with an elegiac quietude that only the greatest of writers can achieve. Jhumpa Lahiri, Amazon.com Divisadero is easy to read, not because its theme and plot are simple but because the reader simply wants to read it . . . What this at once powerful and beautiful novel is about is the division of [the main characters] lives into parts. Brad Hooper, Booklist (boxed and starred review) Emotionally riveting . . . Challenge[s] readers to uncover subtle but explosive links between past and present . . . Divisadero delivers Ondaatjes trademark seductive prose, quixotic characters and psychological intricacy. Publishers Weekly The bewitching, assured Divisadero is the perfect reminder of why Ondaatje deserves to be honoured with his global peers . . . Ondaatje [has] maestro-like control and [a] page-turning plot. In the novels final pages, the genius of this multi-layered, multi-perspective approach fully reveals itself. Rachel Giese, CBC Book Review A heart-wrenching story about a tight-knit family thats shattered forever by one pivotal event . . . Divisadero has been called Ondaatjes most accessible novel, perhaps because it's about the universal subject of family . . . Ondaatjes writing is evocative, powerful and deeply intimate. The reader can't help but care about all of the characters. Paula Arab, Calgary Herald Divisadero shines with an indisputable and incomparable power . . . [It] is so rich that every description or summary beggars its accomplishment . . . Savouring Ondaatjes subtle expertise in word cuisine is an indelible pleasure, pleasure that, incredibly, deepens with each book penned by this genius (there is no other word for a writer of such grace and depth). His unique gift is that his stories perform an inexorable seduction, impossible to resist . . . His words unfold with the dazzling variety of a courtesan, infinite, unpredictable, always intriguing . . . For all that Divisadero is elegant and erudite, it is also a breathtaking tango of violence, raw truth . . . Although the attentive reader will delight in every sentence, will revel in the vividly original language and narrative approach, Divisadero refuses the aggrandizement of pyrotechnics. By virtue of that reserve, the novel accomplishes an intimacy that is extraordinary, nakedly beautiful. Aritha van Herk, Globe and Mail (Toronto) Its Ondaatjes singular achievement to explore the heavy costs and burdens of colliding human lives with a lightness of touch and clarity of vision that makes for dead-run compelling reading . . . This novel everywhere offers evidence of a writer so entirely poised in his arrangements that he can move the action and interior lives of his characters wherever and whenever he pleases . . . Gorgeous. Randy Boyagoda, National Post Michael Ondaatje is the Canadian William Faulkner, writing novels that are visually unforgettable, stylistically inimitable, utterly devoted to the rise and fall of the human heart . . . In his new novel, he remains true to form . . . Compelling and moving. Darryl Whetter, Vancouver Sun Ondaatjes prose is breathtaking . . . Divisadero is his most beautiful [novel] . . . I look forward to several returns to this luminous book by one of our most thoughtful and erudite writers. Charlotte Gray, Ottawa Citizen All of Michael Ondaatjes novels bear the unmistakable signature of a fine poets turn to fiction. The spare erotics and lucid passions of Divisadero engage readers first and last through Ondaatjes supple and resonant gifts with language, syntax and style, in the service of stories and voices that resonate far beyond the page . . . Ondaatje shows us once again how and why our contemporary poets and novelists are held in such high regard. Neil Besner, Winnipeg Free Press Divisadero has the ensemble qualities of early Robert Altman films and the poetic intensity of Ingmar Bergmans oeuvre, all rendered in Ondaatjes characteristically poetic style . . . [It] is a story full of perfect shots and passionate performances . . . What holds [the] many narratives in check is the fluidity of Ondaatjes masterly writing. Omar Majeed, Montreal Gazette Book Description From the celebrated author of The English Patient and In the Skin of a Lion comes a remarkable new novel of intersecting lives that ranges across continents and time. In the 1970s in Northern California, near Gold Rush country, a father and his teenage daughters, Anna and Claire, work their farm with the help of Coop, an enigmatic young man who makes his home with them. Theirs is a makeshift family, until it is riven by an incident of violenceof both hand and heartthat sets fire to the rest of their lives. Divisadero takes us from the city of San Francisco to the raucous backrooms of Nevadas casinos and eventually to the landscape of south-central France. It is here, outside a small rural village, that Anna becomes immersed in the life and the world of a writer from an earlier timeLucien Segura. His compelling story, which has its beginnings at the turn of the century, circles around the raw truth of Annas own life, the one shes left behind but can never truly leave. And as the narrative moves back and forth in time and place, we discover each of the characters managing to find some foothold in a present rough hewn from the past. Breathtakingly evoked and with unforgettable characters, Divisadero is a multilayered novel about passion, loss, and the unshakable past, about the often discordant demands of family, love, and memory. It is Michael Ondaatjes most intimate and beautiful novel to date. About the Author Michael Ondaatje is the author of four previous novels, a memoir, a nonfiction book on film, and several books of poetry. The English Patient won the Booker Prize; Anils Ghost won the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, the Giller Prize, and the Prix Médicis. Born in Sri Lanka, he now lives in Toronto. (Pages:) [When referring to this item please quote stockid 146203]
ISBN: 0747589240
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