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Carregando... The Petty Details of So-and-So's Life (2002)de Camilla Gibb
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Registre-se no LibraryThing tpara descobrir se gostará deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. The novel explores much of the same territory as Mouthing the Words, centering on a dysfuncional family, an abusive father, a withdrawn mother, and the ensuing psychological after-shocks in adulthood. Twins Emma and Blue are so close that they communicate in an invented language and are almost telepathic. They huddle in the basement from the rages of their unpredictable father, who drops out of paid work to become an inventor - gradually withdrawing from the family to live a reclusive existance in the garage, until one day he disappears, taking with him the family's life savings. Although Gibb never uses the term the father is clearly manic-depressive - his moods swing unpredicatabley, he's full of grandiose schemes and ambitions to change the world (and scorn for those who lack the same vision), yet unable to complete even the simplest of tasks. The twins react differently to their father's disappearance - Blue becoming obsessed with finding him, while Emma defects to a new family and sees academic success as her ticket out of chaos, while their mother Elaine numbs the pain with alchohol and anti-depressants and becomes increasingly withdraw. Again, as in Mouthing the Words, Gibb handles painful material (and I must ask her how much is drawn from her own life) but the book never feels heavy, and is tempered with humour and people with characters you care about. Highly recommended. (I like it even better than Mouthing the Words.) sem resenhas | adicionar uma resenha
In The Petty Details for So-and-so's Life, Camilla Gibb tells the unusual story of two siblings, Emma and Blue, who, despite an almost telepathic connection, respond to the disruptions of their childhood and the sudden disappearance of their explosive father in remarkably different ways. In her father's absence, Emma travels vast distances, both internal and external, in pursuit of a new family, and discovers a sense of belonging in the most unexpected of places. While Blue, her burly, tattoo-stamped brother, haunted by the brutal, criticizing voice of their father, sets off on a cross-country search for their elusive parent. In the novel's powerful conclusion, brother and sister find value in each other's quest, reconciled to the fact that one can love without ever truly understanding the other. The energy and imaginative force of Camilla's writing leave the reader breathless. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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If there was a bum note, I would say that the constant reminders, in between events, of the reasons behind the characters' actions (it's all down to their upbringing etc etc) and the gazing at eachother's navels occasionally felt overly didactic, which is not to say that it was badly written.
Oh, and the section where two pre-school children are sent unaccompanied on a bus gave me a bit of a jolt. Is this legal in Canada? I'd be tempted not to try it all the same. ( )