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Cargando... The Worldpor Bill Gaston
Summer Reads 2014 (117) Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro.  TobinElliott | Sep 3, 2021 |   This is a book of deep emotions, dealing with issues of loss...loss of possessions, dreams, memory and even life. Yet, the author writes his characters with a sense of humour and optimism that reflects the hope that keeps us going and allows us to find pleasure in life. It's a good story. (  ) LynnB | Jul 1, 2015 |
 EVERY writer has an occasional failure, and Victoria literary writer Bill Gaston's usually impeccable instinct for narrative, and insight into the paradoxes of human behaviour, go awry even as we travel deeper into the eventual dead end of this novel-within-a novel's heart....Gaston is a master of small details, and there are enough in The World to keep one interested, but the feeling one gets is that in trying to include too much, even a master can end up with not enough for us to care.  There is no escape from being human, and no escape from what humans are capable of. Whether you are dying with dignity, suffering from illness or rebuilding your life, the chaos that contains us, and that envelops us, will have its way. But somehow, it is possible to live, to love, but also, yes, to suffer. That Gaston can send us on this journey without leaving us bereft is a testament to his powers as a novelist. That said, the book-within-a-book device never fully engages with the lives of the three main characters, and, to borrow a metaphor from the fire, things run out of fuel after the first section. Once Stuart has made it to Toronto, it’s unclear where Gaston wants his book to go. In the end, The World – both novel and meta-novel – turns inside out as it gets embroiled in Hal’s 30-year-old text. Instead of moving forward, we retreat into the past. Unfortunately, the historical aspect of Hal’s book is also the least compelling part of Gaston’s. As accomplished as much of The World is, it’s hard not to feel this is a novel that at some point lost its way.  But that’s what Gaston does, with breathtaking results. Oh, is this a book! What stories, what writing, what feeling, what depth, what humour....Reading this book is an emotional, spiritual and intellectual experience, so involving and engaging that it almost kidnaps you....The craftsmanship is superb. There is not one plot thread left to draggle; not one character is left behind. If it’s possible to cram a world of human existence into a single piece of CanLit, and to do so with grace, understatement, wry humour, respect and love, then Bill Gaston has done just that. PremiosListas de sobresalientes
Weaving together five heartbreaking stories, Bill Gaston transforms the cruelty of life into something not only beautiful but heartwarming. A recently divorced, early retiree accidentally burns down his house on the day he pays off the mortgage, only to discover that for the first time in his life he's forgotten to pay a bill: his insurance premium. An old friend of his, a middle-aged musician, prepares for her suicide to end the pain of esophageal cancer. Her father, who left his family to study Buddhism in Tibet, ends his days in a Toronto facility for Alzheimer's patients. The three are tied together not only by their bonds of affection, but by a book called The World, written by the old man in his youth. The book, possibly biographical, tells the story of a historian who unearths a cache of letters, written in Chinese, in an abandoned leper colony off the coast of Victoria. He and the young Chinese translator fall in love, only to betray each other in the cruellest way possible, each violating what the other reveres most. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
Debates activosNingunoCubiertas populares  
 Google Books — Cargando...GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Clasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio: (3.79)
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2
The characters, though well-drawn, still somehow feel a bit superficial. And the various stories do seem a touch drawn out. Though I liked the book and loved the twist at the end, I felt I would have enjoyed it much more if it had been a solid 100 pages shorter.
Still worth the read, though. (