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Between the Bridge and the River: A Novel Copertina rigida – 23 marzo 2006
Prezzo Amazon | Nuovo a partire da | Usato da |
Formato Kindle
"Ti preghiamo di riprovare" | — | — |
Copertina flessibile
"Ti preghiamo di riprovare" | 31,33 € | 7,71 € |
CD MP3, Audiolibro, Audio MP3, Edizione integrale
"Ti preghiamo di riprovare" | 4,50 € | — |
- Lunghezza stampa329 pagine
- LinguaInglese
- EditoreChronicle Books Llc
- Data di pubblicazione23 marzo 2006
- Classe8 and up
- Età di letturaDa 13 anni in su
- Dimensioni15.24 x 2.54 x 23.5 cm
- ISBN-100811853756
- ISBN-13978-0811853750
Chi ha acquistato questo articolo ha acquistato anche
- American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely PatriotCraig FergusonCopertina flessibile
Descrizione prodotto
Recensione
Ferguson (host of CBS's The Late Late Show) takes us on a wild ride in his scintillating debut, a combination caper/morality tale with the barbed comic energy of a Carl Hiaasen novel.
We begin in the author's native Scotland. Fraser and George are teenaged buddies, fishing in a canal, when George saves Fraser from the local bully. Fast-forward some 20 years. George is a criminal defense lawyer with a wife (unloved) and a daughter (adored); he has just been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Without telling his family, he splits for London, contemplating suicide. Fraser, more of a reprobate, is a cynical evangelist on Scottish television who cannot keep his hands off the ladies. A sex scandal ends his gig at the same time he's invited to a convention of Christian broadcasters in the States. The invitation comes from Ferguson's two other leads, Leon and Saul, offspring of the same mother but different fathers (Sinatra and Peter Lawford, respectively). The well-hung Leon has his father's great voice; fat, physically repellent Saul has the brains, recognizing Leon as his meal ticket. After escaping from the orphanage, they wind up in backwoods Florida, adopted by snake-handling Pentecostalists. Ferguson deftly juggles his three storylines. George, postponing suicide, travels to Paris and falls in love with gorgeous Claudette, the ultimate femme fatale (her six Great Loves have all died); she will help him find his "inner Frenchman." The hard-drinking, whoring Fraser will be mugged in Miami and have a near-death experience. Leon and Saul will make a bundle in Hollywood (Ferguson looks balefully at its shark-infested waters) before scoring big on the religious circuit. There will be happy endings for everybody except the hateful, manipulative Saul.
Profane on its surface, ethical at its core and always fun, this debut marks the arrival of an important comic talent. Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Happily going along for the ride
There's a good chance that after reading Craig Ferguson's impressive debut novel you'll want to tune in to CBS' "The Late Late Show" simply out of curiosity. It isn't often that one comes across a talk show host who can hold his own as a literary storyteller.
Imagine Johnny Carson crossed with Kurt Vonnegut. Although that analogy isn't perfectly accurate, it is the kind of colorful merger that would be right at home in the pages of Ferguson's colorful chronicle, "Between the Bridge and the River."
The story of four (ultimately interconnected) characters and their life journeys begins simply enough. Two 13-year-old boys, George and Fraser, are fishing in a canal in rural Scotland, although neither really believes there's a fish to be caught. Still it's a peaceful adolescent bonding experience that over the course of six pages becomes a pivotal moment of lost innocence.
With that exit from paradise, the author is off and running across continents, introducing characters and situations that mix the profane with the sacred, the mundane with the magical, the real with fantasy.
George grows up to be a suicidal lawyer and Fraser becomes a disgraced televangelist. Then there are "The Holy Fools," Leon and Saul, brothers cursed with a narcissistic, delusional mother, who worked as a Las Vegas showgirl back when the Sands was a hot casino and the Rat Pack was cooling down.
Leon grows up being told that he's the offspring of Sinatra. Being blessed with a beautiful singing voice, he sees no reason to doubt it. Who needs DNA? Saul on the other hand is devoid of any magic or talent except making money by selling his brother and God to the glamour-chasing, spiritually hungry masses.
Ferguson knows how to maintain an artful balance. Deep cynicism is softened with wit and wisdom. An agent might be described as a shark, but she likes "to think of herself as a victim of the cruel sea." The author's birthplace, Glasgow, minus the dirt and soot that has been erased by urban renewal, becomes "Disneyland in the rain: sad and wrong." Kids on the outer rim of the high school universe become "Plutos in the nerd galaxy."
Ferguson takes you to the abyss then shows you the stars. He delivers the dirty news, but in a way that makes you feel cleaner for having been told the truth. His style and subject matter are so engrossing that even if you prefer more conventional storytelling, you'll gladly follow him into a world where the calendar gets tossed because, as he puts it, "[t]ime is only linear for engineers and referees."
This allows for all kinds of inventive maneuvers, including cameo appearances by the likes of Carl Jung, Socrates and Fatty Arbuckle. If this sounds a little like a twisted magical mystery tour, it is - but one with a well-thought-through itinerary that hits stops in Birmingham, Ala., and Crawford Creek, Fla., as well as Hollywood, Glasgow and Paris.
By novel's end, all the odd scenarios and even odder people (Is there anything odder than a snake-handling Pentecostal Baptist?) start to connect. You begin to see that all journeys might lead to the same fork in the road: Redemption? Or maybe not.
Of course redemption, like everything else in this book, comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. This doesn't mean that things get wrapped up neatly, but they do come to a satisfying conclusion, which happens the moment the story takes a leap off the bridge and heads toward the river - no parachutes in sight.
In Ferguson's world, we don't need them. -Los Angeles Times
L'autore
Dettagli prodotto
- Editore : Chronicle Books Llc; 1° edizione (23 marzo 2006)
- Lingua : Inglese
- Copertina rigida : 329 pagine
- ISBN-10 : 0811853756
- ISBN-13 : 978-0811853750
- Peso articolo : 590 g
- Dimensioni : 15.24 x 2.54 x 23.5 cm
- Recensioni dei clienti:
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Um zum Buch zu kommen: Ich fand es genial. Der Schreibstil ist gekonnt und es ist einzigartig wie Ferguson in eigentlich tragischen Situationen immer noch ein kleines Bisschen Humor einbaut ohne die Situation lächerlich zu machen.
Es werden die Leben verschiedener Menschen mit unterschiedlichen sozialen Hintergründen beschrieben und am Ende zusammengeführt. Das Buch beschäftigt sich dabei hauptsächlich mit religiösen Fragen, welche in die Geschichte verstrickt sind. Um ein Beispiel zu liefern: Nahtoderfahrung mit Beschreibung der "Unterwelt" (Was ist nach dem Tod?), Selbstmordversuch eines Krebskranken (Darf man das eigene Leben vorzeitig beenden, wenn es in wenigen Monaten ohnehin geschehen wird und nun die Schmerzen beginnen?), Sekten bzw. auf den Geldgewinn ausgelegte "Kirchen" und vieles mehr. Dies geschieht nicht klischeehaft sondern man merkt, dass der Autor hier seine eigenen durchdachten Gedanken niederschreibt und uns zum Nachdenken anregt.
Falls Sie nun denken, dass dies keine gute Bettlektüre ist, so sei Ihnen versichert, dass diese Diskussionen in eine humorvolle Geschichte verpackt sind, die alleine schon einen Grund darstellt, das Buch zu lesen.
Ich denke es muss gesagt werden, dass dies kein gewöhnlicher Roman ist. Ein auf der Rückseite des Buches abgedrucker Kommentar von Kirkus Reviews beschreibt dies am besten: "Profane on its surface, ethical at its core"
Von mir gibt es eine uneingeschränkte Leseempfehlung.
In Between the Bridge and The River, we have two Scottish school mates who end up dying or maybe not. The first is a sports reporter/drunk/womanizer turned televangelist and the other is dying but decides a few last days in Paris would be the right send off. The televangelist spends way too much time thinking about his dreams and the men who are trained (although long dead) to analyze them. The second Scot finds his soul mate much too late in life although everyone seems to have a good time, some closure, and learn about seizing the moment.
Then we have two American half brothers who were cleverly the sons of famous singers, although only one inherits the singing and acting skills. He also inherits the covet thy wife tendencies which leads to a lot of quick escapes and cross-country runs. We also have a really down on his luck country parson who loses his wife after taking in the singer.
In the end Ferguson manages to pull all of this together. Everything shows up at a religious broadcasters convention along with many others they meet on the way. We learn that redemption is always possible. As the title indicates, one can still achieve salvation even after jumping from the bridge.
Before the story begins in earnest, the author reminds us of the mysterious nature of time and of bumblebee flight. Synchronicity and serendipity surface again and again, weaving a pattern of transformation and miracles. Improbable-impossible coincidences and twists propel the characters through their adventures.
Mr. Ferguson shines a harsh and unforgiving light on western popular culture. Sex and violence are used as expertly as a surgeon wields a scalpel, exposing the disturbing pathology that underlies much of modern life. But the author also reveals an unexpected tenderness and depth of emotion. It is the author's expression of the profound poignancy of the human experience that has stayed with me after this read, leaving me with a sense of the sweetness of life.
"Between the Bridge and the River" is funny, sexy, desperate, heart-breaking, hopeful and beautiful. I love this book and I recommend it highly, because we are born and we die and the journey between is a mystery. And because bumblebees can fly.
Great book, fantastic characters. But what impresses me most is the dead-on observation of our emotional landscape and the back story motivations that drive some people to do what they do. Love the Jung dream chat scenes! I'm picturing the author sitting in cafes people watching to gather his bits of weird soup ingredients for creating characters, nursing his cup of coffee while scribbling in a notebook and occasionally dropping his head to stifle rolls of barely muffled maniacal laughter...
Ferguson's ability to lay bare the truth beneath bizarre behavior while leaving an otherwise loathsome character intact, hope, heart and all, is a true gift.
If you blindly follow religious dogma that has been fed to you since birth, you probably won't like this book. Then again, you probably don't like anything that rattles your dedication to your job as most excellent mindless puppet, so go read some fiber cereal boxes instead.
Craig Ferguson- Author. It suits you. And pssssst - this should be a movie ala- Dogma. Have lunch with Kevin Smith. I'm just sayin...