Mona Simpson
Paperback | Pages: 416 pages Rating: 3.54 | 2719 Users | 244 Reviews
Point Out Of Books Anywhere But Here (Mayan Stevenson #1)
| Title | : | Anywhere But Here (Mayan Stevenson #1) |
| Author | : | Mona Simpson |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 416 pages |
| Published | : | 2004 by Atlantic Books (first published December 12th 1986) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Young Adult. Coming Of Age. Literature. Novels. Literary Fiction. Contemporary |
Chronicle As Books Anywhere But Here (Mayan Stevenson #1)
This is a wonderful novel. It is about the relationship between a mother and daughter -Adele and Ann. They journey together to California, to a life Adele is seeking but can never attain. She can never attain what she is seeking partly because she is unable to accept what she has, partly due to not recognizing what it is she is and is seeking, and partly due to her crazy longing for a self and way of life that is not embedded in reality.Adele is crazy, cruel, self-centered , almost sociopathic, yet she has a uniqueness and childlike quality that is almost endearing. ann has her mother's tendencies, but at the same time, the ability to recognize this and want to change herself and escape from her demons while there is still time. The reader views the gradual and almost total disintegration of the last vestiges of Adele's stability.
Adele takes Ann to California so that Ann can become a child star and yet, when Ann actually is able to make it, Adele tries to destroy this possibility. We watch Adele's zany and crazy actions - letting Ann off in the middle of highways, becoming obsessed with her psychiatrist (pretending he's marrying her), her lies, her cheating, and her deceit.
There is a telling paragraph - just a few lines - that let us know how Adele had Ann pose for pornographic photos when she was a young child. However, it's a short paragraph, of no tremendous significance in light of the reality of Adele and Ann's relationship. Taken alone, it might be abhorrent. In context, it's merely sad. Their relationship is cemented. Despite love, hate, anger, and all the other emotions that come into play, the reality is their eternal bond - the arc of continuity even in separation and isolation.
The enduring quality of love and the cement of family and relationships is the zeitgeist of this book. And it is a wonderful book indeed. Simpson can describe the ordinary in a visually poetic and profound way. Her imagery is new and jolts the reader with its visual beauty and power.
Specify Books Conducive To Anywhere But Here (Mayan Stevenson #1)
| Original Title: | Anywhere But Here |
| ISBN: | 1843542161 (ISBN13: 9781843542162) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Mayan Stevenson #1 |
Rating Out Of Books Anywhere But Here (Mayan Stevenson #1)
Ratings: 3.54 From 2719 Users | 244 ReviewsJudgment Out Of Books Anywhere But Here (Mayan Stevenson #1)
A brilliantly drawn portrait of a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship (along with tour-de-force sketches of their kin) that is both eccentric and eerily familiar. We can't believe such a selfish, smart, dysfunctional mother exists, yet still empathize and even recognize flashes of our own motives in her. We ache for the daughter and wonder how she will survive and keep bouncing back (and always again toward her mother!) This is one of those master novels that makes cinema-lovers like meSlow, boring and dull, this book disappoints. The last straw was when the daughter starts taking semi-pornographic photos of other children. I don't find this engaging or entertaining. It just gives me a bad feeling all over. Nor did I find the mother to be a particularly engaging character.I tried three times to read this book and finally gave up.
This gets 3.5 stars. It wasn't bad, but it just completely lacked structure. It meanders along episodically for several hundred pages, not necessarily chronologically, but not with any meaningful pattern of switching between past, present, and future. It was too long for a book in which very little actually happens, and there were so many characters and digressions that took up hundreds of pages but barely figured into the story at all. The last chapter is kind of a cheap, tacked on Happy Ending
This book has two major strikes against it: the fact that it was later made into a movie starring Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman, and the fact that there is neither plot not conclusion. But I still loved the writing and the characterization of everyone except the mother character, who was clearly supposed to be this charming but shiftless Unique Person, and I had very little sympathy for her. But I loved a lot of the other voices in the book, especially the sections that were told from the
"Strangers always love my mother," Ann August tells us at the start of Anywhere But Here. "And even if you hate her, can't stand her, even if she's ruining your life, there's something about her, some romance, some power. She's absolutely herself. No matter how hard you try, you'll never get to her. And when she dies, the world will be flat, too simple, reasonable, fair." Indeed, over the course of the dozen or so years chronicled in Mona Simpson's first novel, Ann and everyone else related to
"The thing about my mother and me is that when we get along we're just the same."This book hit a little too close to home. Details the relationship between a shy daughter and her (at most times) delusional mother. Wonderfully written.
This book was big & long & messy & complex and I'm glad I stuck with it, despite occasional misgivings. I tend to forget that literature isn't meant to be easy or infallible, that good characters aren't necessarily good people, that portraits can be smudged and misleading and still be compelling. This book made my stomach hurt in a way I didn't know could be good. Adele was infuriating and heartbreaking, as was her daughter Ann. You learn to understand them even as they continue to
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.