Mark Helprin
Paperback | Pages: 528 pages Rating: 4 | 2617 Users | 202 Reviews
Point Of Books Memoir from Antproof Case
| Title | : | Memoir from Antproof Case |
| Author | : | Mark Helprin |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 528 pages |
| Published | : | May 1st 1996 by Harper Perennial (first published 1995) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Literature. Magical Realism. Literary Fiction |
Representaion To Books Memoir from Antproof Case
An old American who lives in Brazil is writing his memoirs. An English teacher at the naval academy, he is married to a woman young enough to be his daughter and has a little son whom he loves. He sits in a mountain garden in Niterói, overlooking the ocean.As he reminisces and writes, placing the pages carefully in his antproof case, we learn that he was a World War II ace who was shot down twice, an investment banker who met with popes and presidents, and a man who was never not in love. He was the thief of the century, a murderer, and a protector of the innocent. And all his life he waged a valiant, losing, one-man battle against the world’s most insidious enslaver: coffee.
Mark Helprin combines adventure, satire, flights of transcendence, and high comedy in this "memoir" of a man whose life reads like the song of the twentieth century.
Be Specific About Books Concering Memoir from Antproof Case
| Original Title: | Memoir from Antproof Case |
| ISBN: | 0380727331 (ISBN13: 9780380727339) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Of Books Memoir from Antproof Case
Ratings: 4 From 2617 Users | 202 ReviewsColumn Of Books Memoir from Antproof Case
A sprawling catch-all tale. (Helprin's brain must be teeming with odds and ends - I was continually amazed by his skill and imagination.) This was a kitchen sink picaresque if I've ever seen one. I was irritated a few times by the trampoline timeline - where are we now? was the question that came up for a lot of the first half of the book. It evened out a bit from then on (or I got used to it - I'm not sure which), but the flexible plotline is obviously necessary to the tale, and is notI dont know what to say about this book because so much of the writing is wonderful. But also, so much of the plot is weird. Ive not read anything quite like it in a long time. There is no question though that Helprin is brilliant IMO, with a fervid quirky imagination I was glad to finish the book but dont regret the time spent reading it.
...the world is somewhat like a piece of paper: it can be folded only a fixed number of times, and then it refuses further adjustment.A gentleman with a strict aversion to coffee writes a memoir and keeps it in an antproof case (which happens to be the last surviving case in the world). His life has been an amazing adventure, from orphan to WWII air ace to husband of a billionairess to gold bullion robber to South American pensioner. The hinge of the story appears to be his intense hatred of the
I'm not sure what I can add about this book that hasn't already been said, save for how I felt about it. I mean, it's Helprin, so the writing is crisp and tight, and the story is entertaining - so there's always a sort of appreciation for how well he does things. But subtracting from this very interesting and odd story is the level of absurdity. The villains are not deep or profound. The things that bother the protagonist are banal and odd. Instead of showing a fighter pilot who fought nazis,
Every Mark Helprin novel may not be perfect, but so far I can't prove otherwise.I read this as part of my recovery-weekend from my first full semester of grad school, mostly in Center City Philadelphia drinking coffee (ironic, I know) in the rain, in a super-hipster coffee shop where everyone wears the same shoes and no one laughs, except me, crazily in the corner at this book. I'll be thinking about it for a long, long time.
This is another book that's been sitting unread for years on my shelf. It's a hardcover, more than 500 pages thick, its book jacket illustrated to look like the case of the title bound in twine. Every time my hand hesitated over it while selecting something to read, the large, refined serif letters drawled Literature with a self-important L, and I sighed and moved on.But I tackled it this time, and found it neither as heavy handed nor as culturally snotty as I feared. I'd forgotten that Mark
A very funny, but bittersweet tale, encyclopedic in scope, that veers from magical realism to farce.
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