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Laddar... England, England (1998)av Julian Barnes
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Gå med i LibraryThing för att få reda på om du skulle tycka om den här boken. Det finns inga diskussioner på LibraryThing om den här boken. Funnier the first time I read it, over 15 years ago, in an pre-Trump era; now it's a bit less funny and a bit more sad. A smart Everywoman, disillusioned in love at an early age when her father leaves, takes control of a corporate world that is a nation-state unto itself, an England more English than England, on the Isle of Wight: a theme park that celebrates history as photo collage with fun captions. It continues the theme of historical fiction presented in Flaubert's Parrot: how all history is fictionalized to various extents, and all our fictions have a history. Also continued are themes of lovers ennui, despair as way of life, and what makes truth truthful in the larger context. Some easy shots, a bit snarky in places, but redeemed by the main character, who is really the only character with development. ( ) I'm afraid I did not finish this book. It starts well enough, with a short section introducing Martha Cochrane as a child, and talking about memory and accuracy of memory. The next section I found less interesting. Here we meet Sir Jack Pitman, who wants to turn the Isle of Wight into a theme park representing all things English, and Paul Harrison, an ideas catcher, who becomes Martha's lover. Not one for me, it was chosen as this month's book club read, and I discovered at the meeting that I was not the only one who had not finished it. I gather by not finishing it, I have missed some funny and interesting bits, so I've put it to one side to revisit at some point.
Mit liebevoll zynischem Blick stellt Barnes in "England, England" einen ganzen Strauß von philosophischen, politischen und gesellschaftlichen Zeitphänomenen zusammen. Beispielsweise gehören die wenig familienverträglichen Reflexionen des angestellten Historikers Dr. Max über den Mythos des Freiheitskämpfers Robin Hood - über den jede und jeder Bescheid zu wissen glaubt - sicher zu den humorigen Glanzlichtern des Romans. Gelungen ist Barnes so eine komisch-absurde Satire auf die Ferienpark-Industrie und das allseits propagierte Primat der Ökonomie unter neoliberalen Vorzeichen. Barnes uses his copious talents as a writer -- his lapidary prose, his eye for the askew detail, his ear for the circumlocutions of contemporary speech -- to turn the saga of England, England into an uproarious farce that mocks both our postmodernist suspicion of the authentic and our Disney-like willingness to turn that embrace of the ersatz into a money-making machine. He examines the arbitrary nature of history writing and the cyclical nature of history, and he satirizes the ideas that the English hold about themselves. A mischievous satire on the marketing of illusion and a trenchant analysis of a rootless woman’s interrupted pursuit of authenticity are joined in a highly original way in this consummately entertaining novel, the eighth by the dependably clever British author.
A replica of Britain is created on the Isle of Wight, complete with Robin Hood, Princess Di and replays of the Battle of Britain. It is the idea of a millionaire to show tourists the real Britain, a land with a great past and no future. Inga biblioteksbeskrivningar kunde hittas. |
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Google Books — Laddar... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999Klassifikation enligt LCBetygMedelbetyg:
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