book data
142 ratings, 3.85 average rating, 11 reviews
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published
October 27th 1998
by Vintage
binding
Paperback, 192 pages
isbn
0375701850
(isbn13: 9780375701856)
description
An intricate and self-reflective novel about that most delicate of relationships--meaning the one between writers and readers. The narrator, an anonym...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 257)
Read in June, 2008
I found this book last semester while working on a research project about Michel Foucault's heterotopia theory, the installation/sculptural art of Louise Bourgeois,and the union of Foucault and feminist theory as it relates to Bourgeois' work. Duncker does a wonderful job of summing up Foucault's philosophies, while maintaining control over the nameless main character's voice. She even manages to pull in the falling away from Sartre, who once said, "Nous sommes que nous ne sommes pas."...more
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Read in July, 2008
This wasn't as engrossing as I thought it would be. I wanted to be immersed in the relationships between the narrator and his work, the narrator and his Germanist, the narrator and Paul Michel, but I never felt the consummate madness that Duncker was trying to get across. Overall, it was a good, quick read and had an excellent little twist towards the end, but I suppose I was just a little underwhelmed.
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Read in October, 2007
I struggle, still, to see where Foucault comes into things here. The tenuous connection between the crazy novelist at the center of this work and the French philosopher aside, this is a story of obsession, an intellectual fixation that spills over into a real-life encounter. Ultimately inconclusive but charming.
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TOO BEAUTIFUL. WHY ARE YOU SO BEAUTIFUL? My good friend Becky lent me this book in college and I read it cover to cover. On a side note: There is one of the briefest, but hottest, sex scenes in this book that is so hot because of what it doesn't say, but instead what it eludes to, and that is also beautiful.
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Read in January, 2008
if you're going to write a tightly controlled and pretentious narrative it better be meticulous. otherwise the result is disappointing and difficult to read. i wish i had liked it more, since the idea was an interesting one.
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Read in February, 2007
This book was so good. It was so tragic and romantic...but it's not the typical type of romance. It's the type of romance we've all experienced by reading a good book, only taken to the next stage.
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Read in December, 2007
Read this one night- short book- strange and not sure if I'd recommend it, but something about it meant I couldn't put it down.
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Read in July, 2007
thank you to jamie's third cousin(?) this book is amazing
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i love this book...it is truly an amazing work of fiction.
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Read in January, 2008
so so so so so so good.
wonderful. seriously.
wonderful. seriously.
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Read in January, 2003
the author is a relation of mine, and quite talented
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quotes from this book
"The love between a writer and a reader is never celebrated."
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