| Product Summary | | Format: Hardcover | | ISBN: 9780805071900 | | Publisher: Metropolitan Books | | Publish Date: 4/1/2003 | | Buy.com Sku: 31110012 | | Item#: BYP4CS | | Dimensions (in Inches) 8.5H x 6L x 1T | | Pages: 320 |
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| | | Praise for The White Bone: "Inspired ... A marvel of a book ... Absolutely compelling." -- Alice Munro "The marvelously inventive Gowdy here performs her greatest creative feat yet." -- Entertainment Weekly "A spectacular achievement." -- Chicago Tribune "The White Bone is a brilliant precursor of the novel of the future--a realization of noble and tragic lives not our own. This novel does holy work because it engages us in the holiest of acts--empathy." -- Joy Williams "Barbara Gowdy has produced a classic quest story that is also a technical feat ... A surprisingly high-stakes work of the imagination." -- Elle
Annotation:
Louise has loved Abel since they were kids together in Toronto. But his family moves away, and the two are not reunited again until years later, when they get together briefly--resulting in Louise's pregnancy. He rejects her, she has an abortion, and when her mother dies, she hooks up with Abel again, only to find he is, by now, a self-destructive alcoholic. A New York Times Notable Book for 2003.
| PraiseKirkus
"Somewhat reminiscent of LEAVING LAS VEGAS, but Gowdy's version of booze-thwarted love shows considerably more complexity, and her focus is squarely on the survivor." 02/15/2003New York Times Book Review
"[Barbara Gowdy is] an especially adroit writer about childhood....The book's plot proved so inert that I found myself bored not just sometimes but pretty often.....Even so, I had to admire Gowdy's elegant structure....By resisting the bossy tug of plot, Gowdy finds plenty of time to notice those unimportant-to-the-world details that make her writing so lovely." - Claire Dederer 05/11/2003 |
| | Read A Chapter | From The Romantic:I fall in love with Mrs. Richter immediately, Abel the following summer. I know how unlikely it sounds, a ten-year-old girl falling in love at all, let alone with a middle-age woman. But to say I become infatuated doesn’t describe the gravity and voluptuousness of my feelings. I trail after her to the grocery store and touch the grapefruits she has fondled. I gaze at her flannel nightgown billowing on the clothesline and am uplifted, as if by music. Under the pretext of welcoming her to the subdivision or asking if she gives piano lessons, asking if she heard about the white-elephant sale at church—any excuse—I write letters advertising my availability and qualifications as a daughter. “Lend a Helping Hand!” I write on the back of the envelopes, as if this were my motto. Down the margins I draw pictures of a girl doing the dishes, scrubbing the floor, dusting. Continues...Click to read more... From The Romantic:I fall in love with Mrs. Richter immediately, Abel the following summer. I know how unlikely it sounds, a ten-year-old girl falling in love at all, let alone with a middle-age woman. But to say I become infatuated doesn’t describe the gravity and voluptuousness of my feelings. I trail after her to the grocery store and touch the grapefruits she has fondled. I gaze at her flannel nightgown billowing on the clothesline and am uplifted, as if by music. Under the pretext of welcoming her to the subdivision or asking if she gives piano lessons, asking if she heard about the white-elephant sale at church—any excuse—I write letters advertising my availability and qualifications as a daughter. “Lend a Helping Hand!” I write on the back of the envelopes, as if this were my motto. Down the margins I draw pictures of a girl doing the dishes, scrubbing the floor, dusting. Continues...
Excerpted from The Romantic by Gowdy, Barbara Copyright © 2003 by Gowdy, Barbara. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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