The Floating Opera and The End Of The Road are John Barth's first two novels. Their relationship to each other is evident ...
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Apr 04, 2008
Carter
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I read these two books in college and had the opportunity to meet John Barth at a book signing in the mid-eighties. He looked like a good author should: blazing eyes, etc. I told him I loved the two books so much. He said, "I wrote those when I was just about your age. It would be interesting to see if you liked them so much in twenty years." Then I told him I was going to read The Sot Weed Factor next. He said, "Don't waste your time on more of my books--there are too many good o
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Oct 01, 2007
Ashley
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the passage that I will take to my grave:
"So I left the ticket window and took a seat on one of the benches in the middle of the concourse to make up my mind. And it was there that I simply ran out of motives, as a car runs out of gas. There was no reason to go to Cincinnati, Ohio. There was no reason to go to Crestline, Ohio. Or Dayton, Ohio; or Lima, Ohio. There was no reason, either, to go back to the apartment hotel, or for that matter to go anywhere. There was no reason to More...
"So I left the ticket window and took a seat on one of the benches in the middle of the concourse to make up my mind. And it was there that I simply ran out of motives, as a car runs out of gas. There was no reason to go to Cincinnati, Ohio. There was no reason to go to Crestline, Ohio. Or Dayton, Ohio; or Lima, Ohio. There was no reason, either, to go back to the apartment hotel, or for that matter to go anywhere. There was no reason to More...
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Jun 17, 2010
Bob
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I have always been a fan of “End of the Road” and now that “The Floating Opera” is experiencing a resurgence, I wanted to read it. As many people have said before me, Barth is a gifted storyteller, and he is intelligent and witty. He is also very good a co-opting literary styles and making them his own, in this case the narrator is a novice writer who through his inexperience breaks narrative conventions as he understand them, and still manages to tell a compelling story.
Todd Andrews More...
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May 10, 2007
Teo
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o poveste excelenta despre ziua in care un om hotaraste sa se sinucida. Lupta lui de a transforma o zi care ar trebui sa fie exceptionala tocmai prin gestul proiectat de el intr-un sir de evenimente ale rutinei. Cartea captiveaza tocmai prin stilul usor pretentios, savant, atat de obisnuiti mai nou, dar care la Barth se pierde in fluxul unei povestiri care e si introspectie, si istorie de dragoste si, in plus, mai are si darul de a te tzine cu sufletul la gura pana la final.
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Jul 07, 2010
Julie
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How could I forget this book? John Barth is reported to have had a whole literary theory behind it's crafting - in the discussion on a readerly text versus a writerly text. Texts come in two ways, Barth asserts.
Some of this theory about the text and space made in it for the reader was built part on the basis of ideas from Lacan suppposedly. I just found that out, and I really must say I do recall a particular feeling of pleasure or enjoyment in reading this Floating Opera a book More...
Some of this theory about the text and space made in it for the reader was built part on the basis of ideas from Lacan suppposedly. I just found that out, and I really must say I do recall a particular feeling of pleasure or enjoyment in reading this Floating Opera a book More...
Nov 06, 2010
Peter
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The Times reviewed The Floating Opera when it was released in 1956, and they didn't really care for it. They complained that the narrative "twists and turns through so many flashbacks, pauses to consider so many irrelevancies and spouts so much pretentious verbiage that "The Floating Opera" seems permanently grounded on a mud bank." It really seems like that was the point, though. In describing how he came to decide to kill himself, the narrator finds himself drawn into frequ
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Feb 19, 2011
Alb
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I first heard about this book in one of my undergrad philosophy classes. I always thought of it as a philosophical treatise and felt a little intimidated by it. As I was looking back on the books I read in 2010, I realized I had read a lot of pulpy fiction and was feeling like I should add something with a little more mental nutrition to my night stand. With this goal in mind, I decided to go to the Floating Opera. While I feel like I did get the intellectual stimulation I felt I needed, I was i
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Sep 02, 2011
Amelia
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This pertains only to the first novel in the book, "The Floating Opera." (The other I haven't read, yet.) Though the speaker professes that his aim in writing the book is to chronologically tell the events of one day when he "changed his mind," he actually often jumps around in time to other significant days in his life to attempt to raise or explain a specific idea or event. This is an interesting book and essentially post-modernist (concerned as it is with narrative, man
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Aug 10, 2009
Sarah
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I can't decide if these should be rated/reviewed together or separately. But since I read the books in sucession and they were together in one volume, and clearly linked by subject, I'll rate them together. One is the study of potential suicide in minute forms; the other approaches guilt and irreverence using common neurosis. Both should be about love affairs but both are about much more, so much that the affair shrinks under the weight of everything else...and somehow, they aren't about love at
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Jul 30, 2011
Ronald
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Two novels in which the main character is drawn into sexual involvement with a married woman, one with the husband's definite encouragement, and the other with the husband's possible instigation. In both the narrators are easy to identify with, and yet seriously troubled and difficult to understand. Though I was a little kid during the 1950s, I suspect these two novels portray the darker side of the American psyche during that decade in a disturbingly accurate manner. This volume of Barth's firs
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Jul 30, 2010
Arlene
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The Floating Opera and The End of the Road, John Barth's first two novels presented in one book, center on "consuming love triangles". But it is not the telling of the love triangles that makes this book interesting -- it is the author's style of writing ie. "Now, reader, you must be wondering...", his willingness to discuss somewhat taboo topics (suicide and abortion), and his aside analytical thinking which entices the reader to ride the tide. What I will always remember
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Jan 08, 2012
Tom
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John Barth is the kind of writer who, if you are not a writer, makes you want to write or, if you are trying to be a writer, makes you want to stop completely, as you feel that you could not possible explore things more thoroughly and eloquently as he can. In short, he is a joy to read.
His characters are at once logical and absurd, universal and absolutely inhuman. They are at once everything that the reader wants to be and everything that he or she finds ridiculous. In this sense, tho More...
His characters are at once logical and absurd, universal and absolutely inhuman. They are at once everything that the reader wants to be and everything that he or she finds ridiculous. In this sense, tho More...
Jul 08, 2008
Jim
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Winner of the National Book Award for The Floating Opera, Barth's companion piece, The End of the Road, has the same triangular love affair that the participants try to make workable. The action in both frequently turns out to be quite different than one would expect, the most notable scene being the narrator's initiation into nighttime frontline warfare when an 18 year-old. Completely inexperienced and cut off from contact with anyone with artillery shells whisling overhead, he was terrified
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May 12, 2007
The Floating Opera and the End of the Road are John Barth's first and second novels--mainly overlooked until he published his third, The Sot-Weed Factor. Both novels are now published together (and have been for some time). I've just finished The Floating Opera, and for the sake of cleanliness want to take the whole thing off my "currently reading" list, even though I haven't gotten to the second book. Anyway, The Floating Opera is a good read. It's entertaining and engaging and manage
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Jan 29, 2010
Jason
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(The End of the Road- I read Floating Opera last year; this review is just for the other): Existentialist drama in the form of a love triangle that isn't really a love triangle. Written in the '50's, this book foresees the sexual revolution of the 60's and 70's (at least when it comes to swingers) and places it in the context of an all pervasive existential world view. Pretty straightforward as far as Barth goes, but equally as brilliant as all else he has written.
Sep 16, 2010
Ryan
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This marks the end of my Summer reading because school is back in session. It's all text and journals until break. It was a disappointing end on this supposed life altering recommendation. Based on such hopes though of course it would be a let down. Of course it is well written and they are good stories (two novels in one), but I was hoping to be in a better place. I'm looking forward to a Winter of liberal propaganda and Irvine Welsh. What will my sister have for me for the holidays? May
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Jan 10, 2010
Anthony Haden
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The Floating Opera was a fascinating and farcical journey through the fews days in the life of a man planning suicide, which is hilariously impossible since the story is written in the past tense! Barth-lite and brilliant. Funny and frightening and always thought provoking. Lot's of quotable lines in this one.
The End of the Road is just that. A very dark, disturbing, humorous, but ultimately terrifying and morbid tale. I loved this one, also written with Barth's vigorous wordsmi More...
The End of the Road is just that. A very dark, disturbing, humorous, but ultimately terrifying and morbid tale. I loved this one, also written with Barth's vigorous wordsmi More...
Nov 02, 2008
Aubrey
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The Floating Opera was great. Barth's main character is self-absorbed and imaginative - over thinking things in a Proust-like manner without the floweriness.
The story is a bit harsh, ironic, and down-to-earth for all the rationalization that the characters go through to make sense of their lives.
The narrator hooks the reader from the beginning with his chatty manner of speaking and his casual reference to the day, many years ago, when he changed his mind and decided not More...
The story is a bit harsh, ironic, and down-to-earth for all the rationalization that the characters go through to make sense of their lives.
The narrator hooks the reader from the beginning with his chatty manner of speaking and his casual reference to the day, many years ago, when he changed his mind and decided not More...
Jan 04, 2009
terrycojones
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I've not much to say about The Floating Opera. I liked it a lot, and recommended it to friends over the years - and they also liked it, including several who are hyper-critical of books.
This was the first Barth I read. It's much more accessible than Giles Goat Boy or The Sot-Weed Factor.
This was the first Barth I read. It's much more accessible than Giles Goat Boy or The Sot-Weed Factor.
Feb 06, 2012
Nathan
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John Barth's first two novels are fine novels. They are good novels. And they should be read before reading his LETTERS. But they are not of that John Barth which we love for all his meta-fictional antics. Start with one of his fat volumes or perhaps Sabbatical if you'd like something a bit more slender.
Oct 25, 2009
Stargrave
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A seed of jealousy, like At Swim-Two-Birds he got away with publishing his personal mythology. Maybe someday I'll be able to as well.
Jun 03, 2009
John
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Highly recommended. Local author, nationally acclaimed. Amazing work. I met John Barth a couple of times. Incredibly sharp and witty. These are his first and second books published in one volume. Incredible premiere works.
May 10, 2010
Polly
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John Barth is a wonderful writer and I enjoyed his "The End of the Road" with its witty overanalysing... everything. Currently I am reading "The Floating Opera".
Aug 17, 2011
Claudia
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I just remember my brain hurting in the most delightful ways as I read this...
Jan 01, 2012
Charlotte
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The two books are very similar, but they detract from rather than add to each other. I thought The End of the Road was the better novel--a better plot crescendo--and Barth is just plain brilliant, so five stars.
