book data
225 ratings,
3.78
average rating, 24 reviews
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published
January 12th 1998
(first published 1991)
by Granta Books
binding
Paperback, 192 pages
isbn
1862070970
(isbn13: 9781862070974)
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avg 3.78
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in August, 2008
1) NB says :
"I wanted my first novel to be a veritable infarct of narrative cloggers; the trick being to feel your way through each clog by blowing it up until its obstructiveness finally revealed not blank mass but unlooked-for seepage-points of passage."
2) I just belted and I think killed with my copy of "U and I" the only housefly which has had the temerity or resourcefulness or lack of satnav to find its way into this my sanctum sanctorum. It was a...more
"I wanted my first novel to be a veritable infarct of narrative cloggers; the trick being to feel your way through each clog by blowing it up until its obstructiveness finally revealed not blank mass but unlooked-for seepage-points of passage."
2) I just belted and I think killed with my copy of "U and I" the only housefly which has had the temerity or resourcefulness or lack of satnav to find its way into this my sanctum sanctorum. It was a...more
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It's very difficult to put into words the beauty of this book, or figure out precisely what kind of book it is. It's ostensibly a book about John Updike, but in reality it has to do with Nicholson Baker's bizarre obsession with John Updike, or with Nicholson Baker's psyche in general. And what an amazing psyche it is! Wretched, grasping, obsessed with fame, completely and totally incapable of seeing only one side of any given sentence or word or syllable. On paper, this seems like a terrible...more
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Good book to read if you have two hours to kill waiting for the fucking night owl bus and its mid-April and 40F and raining. For anyone who has had a distant hero-worship/kill the father literary complex and finds they are constantly comparing the most minute biographical data of the object of said obsession with themselves, this is probably a cathartic read. Baker's anxiety over Updike seems to give credence to Bloom's thesis, but fuck that guy, like Shakespeare wasn't ripping off hi...more
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I should have heeded the jacket blurb: "Baker's latest book reaches glorious new depths of shallowness". This 'book' confirms the suspicion induced by the vapid emptiness of 'Mezzanine' - Baker is a smirking ass.
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Read in September, 2008
recommended to Amanda by:
the catalogrecommends it for: Not Sure
An enjoyable read. More autobiographical antics from Baker who is becoming my favorite author. He starts with talking about Don Barthelme and wantign to write about him in the living, the difference between a contemporary writers work while living and the tone it has in death, and then concludes with a hundred pages of moving through an obsession with John Updike. Whom I have never read, but whom Baker has barely read. He creates as a reviewer from memory and acknowledges the merit of his me...more
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Read in January, 1992
I picked it up because I like his wring AND I like Updike (the "subject" of the book) but I'm not sure that fans of NB or JU will like it for those reasons.
I did. Of course, I also made a drive once in my undergrad days to Cornish, NH to try to connect with JD Salinger, so I know something of his book's landscape.
I did. Of course, I also made a drive once in my undergrad days to Cornish, NH to try to connect with JD Salinger, so I know something of his book's landscape.
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Read in April, 2009
Navel gazing at its finest, though sometimes I appreciated his sense of humor. Maybe I would've been more engaged if I'd ever read anything by John Updike except "The A & P."
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Read in March, 2009
This book's conceit grew increasingly annoying as the book wore on, which is a shame, because Baker is a good writer. Also, I hate Updike.
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Read in February, 2009
basically a very informal/meandering disquisition about updike and his influence on baker. very funny, great writing.
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I remain extremely skeptical of Baker having read three of his books and not having been thrilled by any of them. I'm hoping The Size of Thoughts will please me more. Given that I'm not a fan of Updike perhaps I was predisposed to dislike the book, but there was definitely a moment herein where Baker claims not to be showing off when, in fact, that's exactly what he's doing. And that's probably where my patience ran out.
Also, Geoff Dyer's Out of Sheer Rage is a funnier and more inter...more
Also, Geoff Dyer's Out of Sheer Rage is a funnier and more inter...more
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Read in September, 2008
I'm undecided about Nicholson Baker. Vox was the highlight of April 2008. The Mezz was brilliant, but tedious. Here, more tedium interspersed with nuggets of amazing Updike. The book does what it's supposed to: makes you want to read and honor Updike. The best part is the way Baker honestly assesses Updike with incomplete knowledge of his work — the anti-James Wood approach of thorough erudition. Baker's about the spirit of the writing, the imprint it leaves on the reader as more important, an...more
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Read in April, 2008
This one is about one of Baker's favorite writers, John Updike.
The most recent New Yorker says of Baker that he has "the creative habits of an obsessive-compulsive." This book is so much fun to read. I'm now rereading The Mezzanine and may be on a Nicholson kick for a few weeks...
Great quote: "Nothing is more impressive than the sight of a complex person suddenly ripping out a laugh over some words in a serious book or periodical."
The most recent New Yorker says of Baker that he has "the creative habits of an obsessive-compulsive." This book is so much fun to read. I'm now rereading The Mezzanine and may be on a Nicholson kick for a few weeks...
Great quote: "Nothing is more impressive than the sight of a complex person suddenly ripping out a laugh over some words in a serious book or periodical."
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Read in January, 2000
Reading this one, I couldn't help but imagine how weird it must have seemed to Updike. Other reviewers were smart to compare it to Geoff Dyer's book about DH Lawrence, although Dyer's book is even less about Lawrence than Baker's is about Updike. As Paul Theroux once said, both writers chewed more than they bit off. It's more interesting to watch Dyer chew, however, than it is Baker, who comes off as a little creepy in his obsession with U.
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Read in May, 2009
Nicholson Baker cracks me up! I took all these notes about a billion books he references in this one. Recommended! I am glad I am not an obsessive over-thinker, but also am glad Baker is one. Best part: him recounting a McDonald's promotion when there was a NATIONAL PENNY SHORTAGE (I had never heard of this!) and you could bring $5 in pennies and they would give you a free Big Mac if you exchanged them for a $5 bill. WHAT??? Yeah.
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This made me really want to read all of Updike. Wonderfully written. Flowing prose. Like Geoff Dyer's "Out of Sheer Rage," in that it approaches its subject (Updike) without bothering to reread his stuff, prefering to exacvate lingering impressions.
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Read in January, 2005
I'm 95% certain I read this all the way through. It is a testament to my love of Baker's writing that I read it without first having read a single novel by the famous writer who is the subject of the book, John Updike.
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Praise for John Updike, done well if you like Updike... maybe too effusive if you don't like Updike. And you have to like Baker, of course, to even consider this book.
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I wish more authors would write such crazy honest accounts of their literary "crushes." Behind my most favorite writers, there is almost invariably an unusually lusty reader.
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Prepare yourself for a couple hundred pages of pure obsession. But Baker is a master writer, and he pulls you through the muck of his brain against any better judgment.
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I laughed outloud all the way through this. Just great! Another outstanding book for Baker!
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