Pulse en una miniatura para ir a Google Books.
Cargando... The Long Formpor Kate Briggs
Top Five Books of 2023 (202) Cargando...
Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. I have to confess, a few hours into The Long Form I was finding it tedious and plodding - a wonderfully written exploration of a new mother's day, world, and memories, but ultimately one that didn't seem to be going anywhere. However, as the book began to unfold what was revealed was a beautiful and intricate tapestry, weaving this day in a life and reflections with the structure and history of a novel. Looking at what it means to be a novel and what it means to bring a life into the world, Briggs looks at narrative and structure from an incredible number of angles. By the end of the book I was rapt, absorbed in this small world and the galaxy of thought that accompanies it. I picked this book up because my first child is due early next year. I’d tried dipping into a more typical pregnancy/infant care book given to us by a friend called Baby 411 or something like that; but I quickly realized that I was actually interested in a more introspective version of what it was like to be a new parent. In that, Briggs’ book was perfect. It’s filled with lots of interesting observations on what it means to be a new parent, especially for people from a generation who were mostly agnostic on the fact of even having kids in the first place. I also like that Briggs named her sources, both in the text and in an extensive annotated list in the back of the book. It’s always nice to learn something “concrete” from a work of fiction - from The Long Form I learned of the work of D.W. Winnicott, who I will certainly be checking out, as well as Bruno Munari, an early 20th century artist who made mobiles that later became famous for their benefit in helping newborns develop their vision. I ordered a Munari mobile for my little one because of this book. It’s always nice to encounter a work of art exactly at the time in your life that it was meant for. This book sometimes indulges in the kind of vague, impressionistic writing that seems en vogue these days, sacrificing clarity for what is supposed to be a kind of ticker tape of the mind. It also includes a whole side story of an Amazon delivery driver that seems out of place. But it was a nice little primer for what I’ll be going thru very soon, and an uncommonly deep perspective on a topic that isn’t often the focal point of literature. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
PremiosListas de sobresalientes
"Kate Brigg's debut novel--the follow-up to her acclaimed This Little Art--is the story of a young mother, Helen, awake with her baby. Together they are moving through a morning routine that is in one sense entirely ordinary--resting, feeding, pacing. Yet in the closeness of their rented flat, such everyday acts take on epic scope, thoughts and objects made newly alive in the light of their shared attention. Then the rhythm of their morning is interrupted: a delivery person arrives with a used copy of Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, which Helen has ordered online. She begins to read, and attention shifts. As their day unfolds, the intimate space Helen shares with her baby becomes entwined with Fielding's novel, with other books and ideas, and with questions about class and privilege, housing and caregiving, and the support structures that underlie durational forms of codependency, both social and artistic" -- No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
Debates activosNinguno
Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)813Literature English (North America) American fictionClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
¿Eres tú?Conviértete en un Autor de LibraryThing. |
The Long Form is technically fiction but often veers toward essay. In this, it resembles a book delivered that morning to Helen’s door, interrupting a coveted moment of calm. In the gaps of time Helen can find to read it, we learn that Fielding’s novel also moves between forms and that it, too, addresses the subject of child-rearing, at least for a few chapters. But, as Helen muses, whereas Fielding’s protagonist arrives as an orphan without history, speeds through infanthood, and becomes a young hero, in reality, babies do come from somewhere, and they exert their own wills before they can walk or speak, even as they depend on a cast of care-giving others. I found the style worked for a time, but it made it difficult to maintain interest in the whole book. ( )