2003, ISBN: 9788498775631

Pasta dura

Hyperion. Very Good. 6.38 x 1.38 x 9.63 inches. Hardcover. 1997. 384 pages. <br>Years after giving up his dreams of becoming a pho tographer for law, Ben Bradford finds his perfect … Más…

Hyperion. Very Good. 6.38 x 1.38 x 9.63 inches. Hardcover. 1997. 384 pages. <br>Years after giving up his dreams of becoming a pho tographer for law, Ben Bradford finds his perfect life falling ap art when his wife begins having an affair with a neighbor, a prof essional photographer, and Ben is suddenly faced with a dangerous choice. A first novel. Editorial Reviews Review Osc ar Wilde once said that the only real tragedy in life is getting what you want. Ben Bradford, the protagonist of Douglas Kennedy's new novel, The Big Picture, is living proof of that adage. At th e start of Kennedy's novel, Ben Bradford would appear to have it all: a beautiful wife, a big suburban home, two kids and a partne rship in a prestigious New York law firm. But Ben's heart lies ne ither with his family nor his career. Instead, he dreams of being a photographer, and when he discovers his wife is having an affa ir with the man next door--who happens to be a photographer--Ben snaps and commits an act that will commit him to a whole new way of life, forever. Kennedy threads his tale of obsession, murder , and identity with themes that resonate strongly today: what com promises are worth making? What sacrifices require too much? The Big Picture is both a thriller and a cautionary tale concerning t he complexities of modern life. From Publishers Weekly This ast onishingly assured first novel, by an American working in London as a journalist, has a breathless readability that is rare-partic ularly as it seems at first to cover pretty familiar territory. B en Bradford is a Wall Street lawyer living a comfortable life in Connecticut, with a wife and two small children, but he seems to be heading, rather early, for a midlife crisis. He had always wan ted to be a photographer, still putters around at it, but feels h is life is ebbing away. Beth, his wife, a frustrated novelist, is increasingly estranged from him. Then Ben discovers she has take n a lover-ironically, another failed photographer-and in a confro ntation with the man, Gary Summers, Ben's accumulated rage leads to a moment of murderous madness. Both Beth's infatuation with Ga ry and Ben's maniacal rage seem rather out of character, but with that caveat, the rest of this headlong novel grips like a vise a s Ben carefully covers up his crime, disappears and takes on his victim's identity. The Big Picture has to be the most careful and imaginative exploration of such a situation ever penned, from th e details of how one convincingly contrives an apparent accidenta l death to the minutiae of building a new life, unrecognized, in a far place. In Ben's case, it is a small town in Montana, and hi s born-again existence there is rich in ironies, from his eventua l success as a photographer to his ultimate need to disappear yet again. The book is more than just a compelling read: it also has poignant and moving things to say about lost opportunities and w asted lives in America, the cynical quality of sudden fame, the a wfulness of willed separation from deeply loved children. There i s a lot of excitement in the air about Kennedy's novel, and it is thoroughly justified. 400,000 first printing; $750,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; film rights to Fox2000 Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Pu blishers Weekly This astonishingly assured first novel, by an Ame rican working in London as a journalist, has a breathless readabi lity that is rare-particularly as it seems at first to cover pret ty familiar territory. Ben Bradford is a Wall Street lawyer livin g a comfortable life in Connecticut, with a wife and two small ch ildren, but he seems to be heading, rather early, for a midlife c risis. He had always wanted to be a photographer, still putters a round at it, but feels his life is ebbing away. Beth, his wife, a frustrated novelist, is increasingly estranged from him. Then Be n discovers she has taken a lover-ironically, another failed phot ographer-and in a confrontation with the man, Gary Summers, Ben's accumulated rage leads to a moment of murderous madness. Both Be th's infatuation with Gary and Ben's maniacal rage seem rather ou t of character, but with that caveat, the rest of this headlong n ovel grips like a vise as Ben carefully covers up his crime, disa ppears and takes on his victim's identity. The Big Picture has to be the most careful and imaginative exploration of such a situat ion ever penned, from the details of how one convincingly contriv es an apparent accidental death to the minutiae of building a new life, unrecognized, in a far place. In Ben's case, it is a small town in Montana, and his born-again existence there is rich in i ronies, from his eventual success as a photographer to his ultima te need to disappear yet again. The book is more than just a comp elling read: it also has poignant and moving things to say about lost opportunities and wasted lives in America, the cynical quali ty of sudden fame, the awfulness of willed separation from deeply loved children. There is a lot of excitement in the air about Ke nnedy's novel, and it is thoroughly justified. 400,000 first prin ting; $750,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club s election; film rights to Fox2000 Copyright 1996 Reed Business In formation, Inc. From Booklist Kennedy's first novel is receiving top-drawer hype: a 400,000 first printing and a $300,000 televis ion advertising campaign. And it's true, his book is a grabber. B en and Beth Bradford, who once dreamed of being hippie artists, b ought into the American dream instead: Ben is a successful lawyer pulling down a six-figure salary, and Beth is a bored suburban h ousewife with everything Ben's money can buy. But the Bradfords a re miserable, imprisoned in a loveless marriage, and tied to a li festyle they hate. To relieve her tedium, Beth takes a lover, an aging hippie who, unlike Ben, hasn't given in to the almighty dol lar. Naturally, Ben finds out about Beth's affair. The worst happ ens, and in a moment, the Bradfords' lives change forever. The en suing roller-coaster ride is full of tantalizing twists guarantee d to keep readers reading even as they're disgusted by a hero who is shallow as a rain puddle, nauseatingly self-centered, and und eservedly lucky enough to win multiple chances to redeem himself. Kennedy's story concept--a sort of morality tale cum action-adve nture--rates a thumbs-up for inventiveness, but it's tough to bel ieve that a wimpy yuppie lawyer could suddenly transform himself the way Ben does or that anybody could benefit from such an unlik ely string of coincidences. Still, there's something about Kenned y's book--call it charisma--that just may catapult it onto the be st-seller lists and maybe even the big screen. This time, the hyp e is well deserved. Emily Melton From Kirkus Reviews Kennedy's w ell-hyped debut showcases a Connecticut lawyer who loses his desi gner life to a moment of murderous rage--and then squirms frantic ally to avoid retribution. Ben Bradford has it all, even though h e doesn't want it. Years ago he surrendered his desire to be a ph otographer to his father's demand that he go to law school; now h e's immured in a junior partnership in his New York firm's cozy T rusts & Estates division; in family responsibilities--a second ch ild who's keeping him up nights, a wife who's stopped loving him; in the upscale consumables that holler success; and in the exces s acid that pays for it. Shattered by the news that his wife Beth prefers the embraces of Gary Summers, a neighbor who's never giv en up his technical status as a professional photographer, Ben se es his life held hostage to this layabout. But he's the one who g ives it the final calamitous push when he punctuates an ugly scen e with Gary by killing him. Desperate for confession and absoluti on, Ben steels himself instead to hide every trace of the murder- -and since he's a lawyer with money and unexpected leisure (Beth has bolted with his sons) as well as extended access to Gary's pl ace, it's a world-class effort that involves faking an accident t hat will apparently kill Ben but will leave Gary dead in his plac e. Ben's taut narrative, which deftly mingles yuppie angst with o bsessive plotting, almost makes you overlook how ancient this gam bit is, and how cheesy its pulp antecedents. The accident staged, Ben flees the scene, lights out for the territories, scans the T imes daily for his obituary, settles into a new life backed by Ga ry's ID and trust fund--and waits for the postman to ring twice, as he does in a satisfyingly ironic way. A startlingly unoriginal story whipped up by Kennedy's overdrive pacing and mastery of de tail. (First printing of 400,000; Literary Guild selection; $750, 000 ad/promo) -- Copyright ®1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All righ ts reserved. Review The Big Picture is edgy and crisply paced wh en Ben is carrying out his scheme, but the already contrived plot gives way under the weight of too many unlikely twists and absur d coincidences once Ben flees to Montana... It's as if the reader is expected to forget that the same soulful guy who finds true l ove and his artistic calling in Big Sky Country was, just a hundr ed pages earlier, dismembering his victim's body with a Black & D ecker power saw. -- The New York Times Book Review, Scott Veale ., Hyperion, 1997, 3, Random House Trade Paperbacks. Very Good. 5.27 x 0.86 x 7.95 inches. Paperback. 2003. 384 pages. <br>#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ? We all have dreams- -things we fantasize about doing and generally never get around t o. This is the story of Azar Nafisi's dream and of the nightmare that made it come true. For two years before she left Iran in 19 97, Nafisi gathered seven young women at her house every Thursday morning to read and discuss forbidden works of Western literatur e. They were all former students whom she had taught at universit y. Some came from conservative and religious families, others wer e progressive and secular; several had spent time in jail. They w ere shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked t o speak their minds, but soon they began to open up and to speak more freely, not only about the novels they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments. Their storie s intertwined with those they were reading--Pride and Prejudice, Washington Square, Daisy Miller and Lolita--their Lolita, as they imagined her in Tehran. Nafisi's account flashes back to the ea rly days of the revolution, when she first started teaching at th e University of Tehran amid the swirl of protests and demonstrati ons. In those frenetic days, the students took control of the uni versity, expelled faculty members and purged the curriculum. When a radical Islamist in Nafisi's class questioned her decision to teach The Great Gatsby, which he saw as an immoral work that prea ched falsehoods of the Great Satan, she decided to let him put Ga tsby on trial and stood as the sole witness for the defense. Aza r Nafisi's luminous tale offers a fascinating portrait of the Ira n-Iraq war viewed from Tehran and gives us a rare glimpse, from t he inside, of women's lives in revolutionary Iran. It is a work o f great passion and poetic beauty, written with a startlingly ori ginal voice. Praise for Reading Lolita in Tehran Anyone who has ever belonged to a book group must read this book. Azar Nafisi t akes us into the vivid lives of eight women who must meet in secr et to explore the forbidden fiction of the West. It is at once a celebration of the power of the novel and a cry of outrage at the reality in which these women are trapped. The ayatollahs don' t know it, but Nafisi is one of the heroes of the Islamic Republic. --Geraldine Brooks, author of Nine Parts of Desire Editorial Rev iews Review Anyone who has ever belonged to a book group must re ad this book. Azar Nafisi takes us into the vivid lives of eight women who must meet in secret to explore the forbidden fiction of the West. It is at once a celebration of the power of the novel and a cry of outrage at the reality in which these women are trap ped. The ayatollahs don' t know it, but Nafisi is one of the hero es of the Islamic Republic. -Geraldine Brooks, author of Nine Par ts of Desire I was enthralled and moved by Azar Nafisi's account of how she defied, and helped others to defy, radical Islam's wa r against women. Her memoir contains important and properly compl ex reflections about the ravages of theocracy, about thoughtfulne ss, and about the ordeals of freedom-as well as a stirring accoun t of the pleasures and deepening of consciousness that result fro m an encounter with great literature and with an inspired teacher . -Susan Sontag When I first saw Azar Nafisi teach, she was stan ding in a university classroom in Tehran, holding a bunch of red fake poppies in one hand and a bouquet of daffodils in the other, and asking, What is kitsch? Now, mesmerizingly, she reveals the shimmering worlds she created in those classrooms, inside a revol ution that was an apogee of kitsch and cruelty. Here, people thin k for themselves because James and Fitzgerald and Nabokov sing ou t against authoritarianism and repression. You will be taken insi de a culture, and on a journey, that you will never forget. -Jac ki Lyden, National Public Radio, author of Daughter of the Queen of Sheba A memoir about teaching Western literature in revolutio nary Iran, with profound and fascinating insights into both. A ma sterpiece. -Bernard Lewis, author of The Crisis of Islam? [A] v ividly braided memoir...anguished and glorious. -Cynthia Ozick, T he New Republic Stunning...a literary life raft on Iran's fundam entalist sea...All readers should read it. -Margaret Atwood Rema rkable...an eloquent brief on the transformative power of fiction . -The New York Times Certain books by our most talented essayis ts...carry inside their covers the heat and struggle of a life's central choice being made and the price being paid, while the wri ter tells us about other matters, and leaves behind a path of sad ness and sparkling loss. Reading Lolita in Tehran is such a book. -Mona Simpson, The Atlantic Monthly From the Inside Flap Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered se ven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Weste rn classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a b lind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi ?s living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselve s in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their storie s become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Loli ta in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the fac e of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literat ure. From the Back Cover Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized h old of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expr ession, the girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing th eir veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F . Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this ex traordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the one s they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable expl oration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature. About the Author Azar Nafis i is a professor at Johns Hopkins University. She won a fellowshi p from Oxford and taught English literature at the University of Tehran, the Free Islamic University and Allameh Tabatabai Univers ity in Iran. She was expelled from the University of Tehran for r efusing to wear the veil and left Iran for America in 1997. She h as written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New Republic, and is the author of Anti-Te rra: A Critical Study of Vladimir Nabokov's Novels. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two children. Excerpt. ? Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter 1 In the f all of 1995, after resigning from my last academic post, I decide d to indulge myself and fulfill a dream. I chose seven of my best and most committed students and invited them to come to my home every Thursday morning to discuss literature. They were all women -to teach a mixed class in the privacy of my home was too risky, even if we were discussing harmless works of fiction. One persist ent male student, although barred from our class, insisted on his rights. So he, Nima, read the assigned material, and on special days he would come to my house to talk about the books we were re ading. I often teasingly reminded my students of Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and asked, Which one of you will fi nally betray me? For I am a pessimist by nature and I was sure at least one would turn against me. Nassrin once responded mischiev ously, You yourself told us that in the final analysis we are our own betrayers, playing Judas to our own Christ. Manna pointed ou t that I was no Miss Brodie, and they, well, they were what they were. She reminded me of a warning I was fond of repeating: do no t, under any circumstances, belittle a work of fiction by trying to turn it into a carbon copy of real life; what we search for in fiction is not so much reality but the epiphany of truth. Yet I suppose that if I were to go against my own recommendation and ch oose a work of fiction that would most resonate with our lives in the Islamic Republic of Iran, it would not be The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie or even 1984 but perhaps Nabokov's Invitation to a Be heading or better yet, Lolita. A couple of years after we had be gun our Thursday-morning seminars, on the last night I was in Teh ran, a few friends and students came to say good-bye and to help me pack. When we had deprived the house of all its items, when th e objects had vanished and the colors had faded into eight gray s uitcases, like errant genies evaporating into their bottles, my s tudents and I stood against the bare white wall of the dining roo m and took two photographs. I have the two photographs in front of me now. In the first there are seven women, standing against a white wall. They are, according to the law of the land, dressed in black robes and head scarves, covered except for the oval of t heir faces and their hands. In the second photograph the same gro up, in the same position, stands against the same wall. Only they have taken off their coverings. Splashes of color separate one f rom the next. Each has become distinct through the color and styl e of her clothes, the color and the length of her hair; not even the two who are still wearing their head scarves look the same. The one to the far right in the second photograph is our poet, Ma nna, in a white T-shirt and jeans. She made poetry out of things most people cast aside. The photograph does not reflect the pecul iar opacity of Manna's dark eyes, a testament to her withdrawn an d private nature. Next to Manna is Mahshid, whose long black sca rf clashes with her delicate features and retreating smile. Mahsh id was good at many things, but she had a certain daintiness abou t her and we took to calling her my lady. Nassrin used to say tha t more than defining Mahshid, we had managed to add another dimen sion to the word lady. Mahshid is very sensitive. She's like porc elain, Yassi once told me, easy to crack. That's why she appears fragile to those who don't know her too well; but woe to whoever offends her. As for me, Yassi continued good-naturedly, I'm like good old plastic; I won't crack no matter what you do with me. Y assi was the youngest in our group. She is the one in yellow, ben ding forward and bursting with laughter. We used to teasingly cal l her our comedian. Yassi was shy by nature, but certain things e xcited her and made her lose her inhibitions. She had a tone of v oice that gently mocked and questioned not just others but hersel f as well. I am the one in brown, standing next to Yassi, with o ne arm around her shoulders. Directly behind me stands Azin, my t allest student, with her long blond hair and a pink T-shirt. She is laughing like the rest of us. Azin's smiles never looked like smiles; they appeared more like preludes to an irrepressible and nervous hilarity. She beamed in that peculiar fashion even when s he was describing her latest trouble with her husband. Always out rageous and outspoken, Azin relished the shock value of her actio ns and comments, and often clashed with Mahshid and Manna. We nic knamed her the wild one. On my other side is Mitra, who was perh aps the calmest among us. Like the pastel colors of her paintings , she seemed to recede and fade into a paler register. Her beauty was saved from predictability by a pair of miraculous dimples, w hich she could and did use to manipulate many an unsuspecting vic tim into bending to her will. Sanaz, who, pressured by family an d society, vacillated between her desire for independence and her need for approval, is holding on to Mitra's arm. We are all laug hing. And Nima, Manna's husband and my one true literary critic-i f only he had had the perseverance to finish the brilliant essays he started to write-is our invisible partner, the photographer. There was one more: Nassrin. She is not in the photographs-she d idn't make it to the end. Yet my tale would be incomplete without those who could not or did not remain with us. Their absences pe rsist, like an acute pain that seems to have no physical source. This is Tehran for me: its absences were more real than its prese nces. When I see Nassrin in my mind's eye, she's slightly out of focus, blurred, somehow distant. I've combed through the photogr aphs my students took with me over the years and Nassrin is in ma ny of them, but always hidden behind something-a person, a tree. In one, I am standing with eight of my students in the small gard en facing our faculty building, the scene of so many farewell pho tographs over the years. In the background stands a sheltering wi llow tree. We are laughing, and in one corner, from behind the ta llest student, Nassrin peers out, like an imp intruding roguishly on a scene it was not invited to. In another I can barely make o ut her face in the small V space behind two other girls' shoulder s. In this one she looks absentminded; she is frowning, as if una ware that she is being photographed. How can I describe Nassrin? I once called her the Cheshire cat, appearing and disappearing a t unexpected turns in my academic life. The truth is I can't desc ribe her: she was her own definition. One can only say that Nassr in was Nassrin. For nearly two years, almost every Thursday morn ing, rain or shine, they came to my house, and almost every time, I could not get over the shock of seeing them shed their mandato ry veils and robes and burst into color. When my students came in to that room, they took off more than their scarves and robes. Gr adually, each one gained an outline and a shape, becoming her own inimitable self. Our world in that living room with its window f raming my beloved Elburz Mountains became our sanctuary, our self -contained universe, mocking the reality of black-scarved, timid faces in the city that sprawled below. The theme of the class wa s the relation between fiction and reality. We read Persian class ical literature, such as the tales of our own lady of fiction, Sc heherazade, from A Thousand and One Nights, along with Western cl assics-Pride and Prejudice, Madame Bovary, Daisy Miller, The Dean 's December and, yes, Lolita. As I write th, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003, 3, Used - Very Good. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects., 3<

2011, ISBN: 9788498775631

Algaida Editores, 2011. Paperback. Very Good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guarantee… Más…

Algaida Editores, 2011. Paperback. Very Good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed., Algaida Editores, 2011, 3<