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Famous Last Words
Like it 1977 predecessor The Wars, Timothy Findley's 1981 Famous Last Words ruthlessly examines the (often violent) nature of social division and union, as well as the making of history. Together these two novels mark the peak of Findley's career. While the slim Wars focuses largely on a single Canadian soldier in the First World War, Famous Last Words observes the next wa...more
Published
(first published 1981)
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Definitely did NOT like this book. I read it for my highschool English class for a "book report", back in 2002, so in all honesty, maybe I should re-read it. I remember being extremely bored and annoyed with the (non)progress of the book and barely got what was going on!!! Maybe I should give it a try as an adult, but to a 16 year-old this was just ridiculous! I loved to read - it's not like I was one of "those" kids, but I just did not find this book interesting at all and I remember there bein...more
I tried to read this. I was actually forced to read it for school, but i am currently failing the class because I couldn't get through it no matter how hard I tried to concentrate. "Just get it over with," I would tell my self. I pushed and pushed my mind, but to no avail. This book was incredibly boring to me and i couldn't bring myself to finish. It was overly detailed and uninteresting, so I gave up trying to read it. Maybe it got better...
On the other hand, does anybody have any opinions or...more
On the other hand, does anybody have any opinions or...more
I found this book on a trip to Canada and couldn't put it down. I sat for over an hour on the floor of a bookstore in Vancouver totally engrossed in Findley's story about the memoirs of an American fascist.
Sep 27, 2011
Karlo Mikhail Mongaya
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
excellent
Timothy Findley’s Famous Last Words was not, as I first thought it to be when saw it from among the other books in the second-hand bookstore, about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The novel opens with Hugh Selwyn Mauberley‘s childhood experience of witnessing his own father’s dive to the earth from a hotel roof in Boston. His name is name appropriated from a 1920 collection of poems by Ezra Pound. As the plot unfolds, we are taken to Mauberley’s own final resting place in a hotel room high in th...more
The novel opens with Hugh Selwyn Mauberley‘s childhood experience of witnessing his own father’s dive to the earth from a hotel roof in Boston. His name is name appropriated from a 1920 collection of poems by Ezra Pound. As the plot unfolds, we are taken to Mauberley’s own final resting place in a hotel room high in th...more
Hugh Mauberley is cool fake dude & mad respect for fictionalized historical figures but cool parts in book stand out like weird mayan pyramids in middle of boring jungle, you run into these passages that make you go 'oh shit' and then a couple pages later you're back with the boring ppl you dont really like / kinda forgettable prose
ezra pound throwing goatmeat balls at cat to get him off roof was cool, crazy hess is cool, guy flying plain around bahamas + writing MENE MENE TEKEEL UPHARSIN in...more
ezra pound throwing goatmeat balls at cat to get him off roof was cool, crazy hess is cool, guy flying plain around bahamas + writing MENE MENE TEKEEL UPHARSIN in...more
something about this book resonated - something about Mauberley - Western european, stateless, a follower, waiting in the wings - and of course its Prufrock the "attendant lord"..... I loved the first half of this book, I was enthralled by the period - the end of WW2, Mauberley on the run, with Ezra Pound at his heels, coming back to the frozen Grand Elysium Hotel in Austria, where he had once mixed with royalty, and celebrity, but is now thrown onto the mercy of Kachelmayer the concierge.
After...more
After...more
The famous last words of the title are the dying confession of writer Hugh Mauberley, scrawled onto the walls of the Austrian prison cell where he dies in mysterious circumstances near the conclusion of World War II.
They contain the story of an extraordinary conspiracy involving Hitler, the exiled Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Wallace and Simpson) and Charles Lindberg, but how true are they? And how self-serving are they?
This is the mystery that competing investigating soldiers Quinn and Freyber...more
They contain the story of an extraordinary conspiracy involving Hitler, the exiled Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Wallace and Simpson) and Charles Lindberg, but how true are they? And how self-serving are they?
This is the mystery that competing investigating soldiers Quinn and Freyber...more
this remains one of my all time favourite books..read it three times. Set in Spain and Italy during the war an English captive writes a novel on the walls of his room in an abandoned estate while waiting for the Americans to arrive. The prisoner is a member of the European elite who are playing chess with facist politics while posing for England..amongst them the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor.
The antics of this high society border on surreal and add to the mystery of what really happened.
The antics of this high society border on surreal and add to the mystery of what really happened.
Timothy Findley (Tiff to his friends, of whom 2 were also mine) gave a talk about this book at our local library well before its release. The Duchess of Windsor was still alive, so this book couldn't be published. He mentioned how he listened to the news every night, waiting to hear about her demise. So I was eager to read it once it was available, and was impressed by the amount of research he must have done to portray these real people and events.
Personalmente, mi ha parecchio annoiato, quando l'ho letto nell'ormai lontano 2004. L'idea poteva anche essere carina: ripercorrere per una via insolita la storia della seconda guerra mondiale, riferendosi a Ezra Pound, a Wallis Simpson, a Edoardo VIII e altri famosi personaggi. Ma gli manca "personalità". E' alquanto anonimo, sia dal punto di vista espressivo, sia dal punto di vista del coinvolgimento del lettore.
Although Findley chose an interesting twist of seeing the major events of World War 2 through the eyes of poet Ezra Pound's fictional character, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, I quickly lost interest in this book. It started off wonderfully with the main character escaping from a train, but then led into nothing but name-dropping and nothing of particular interest. I read the first half of the book (200 pages), and left it at that.
A thrilling WWII spy drama blended with a poetic meditation on the guilt of those who supported or enabled fascism. Written with Findley's usual skill with language and ith pacing. A masterpiece by one of the great North-American writers of the second half of the 20thc. Why is he so unknown outside of Canada? I have no idea, but thanks to Bianca and Julie for getting him in my sights.
This is my favourite Timothy Findley novel. I was engrossed in the story, the interweaving of the historical figures (Ezra Pound, Hitler, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, WWII), and the era. Shanghai at its height of glory is one of the highlights. All brought to a devastating conclusion. I have lent this to my mother and never got it back... I think she has claimed it for her own.
My favorite book of all time, by my favorite author of all time. Timothy Findley's works are amazing...you can tell he was an actor also because that kind of a theatrical sense comes through in his writing.
Loved this book, so if you get a chance to read it, you should.
Loved this book, so if you get a chance to read it, you should.
Mauberley is real here, and so is Ezra. Ezra is a real grumpy shit. There are so many other historical figures that it will make you dizzy - fascists, dukes and duchesses, hotelliers, poets and queens - but what a story.
Feb 17, 2008
Sherry Howland
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
History, mystery buffs
Recommended to Sherry by:
A French friend who teaches literature at UBC-Victoria
This is a CLEVER book...and I don't say that in a bad way. However, it was almost too clever for me, the twists and turns, using the subject of a (real) poem written by a (real) poet as the main character...I found myself referring back to the Ezra Pound poem, trying to guess what Mauberly (widely thought to be autobiographical) was REALLY all about.
Findley's trick of employing real people in (maybe) fictional situations was at times too confusing. Or maybe I simply need to go back to Modern Wo...more
Findley's trick of employing real people in (maybe) fictional situations was at times too confusing. Or maybe I simply need to go back to Modern Wo...more
First class book in fictional history. Love the re-write, and teaches you so much about famous/important individuals in early 20th century history.
I like Timothy Findley but I find his books are a bit hit and miss. I either love them or they're just okay.
This is hardly high literature, especially compared to the work Findley can and has produced, however, I was engaged for the entirety. Perhaps that's enough.
I read this when I was a kid. I had no clue what it was about. I still don't.
Excellent. The memory of this book will stay with me forever.
Another on to read again
Lianne's pick
Wonderful novel about the war years with some interesting speculation about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
A historiographic metafiction in which intertextual characters (Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, from a poem by Ezra Pound) interact with historical characters (the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Hitler, Charles Lindbergh).
Amazing novel... Extremely well researched and therefore a very convincing (fictional) story. I read it a few months after I had seen the film The King's Speech, which made the book even more interesting to read.
This book did not, unfortunately, live up to (at least what I thought was) the promise of its early sections. I am actually really disappointed by this.
Thumbs up! I'm pretty sure I haven't read anything of Findley. But but but!(always a but!)... you really have to be in the right mood for this one!
Really loved this book. Not an easy read, really dense, full of stuff. Would make a good book club.
Tom-this isn't what I thought it was going to be but I'm a bit intrigued. I'm on page 58.
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Timothy Irving Frederick Findley was a Canadian novelist and playwright. He was also informally known by the nickname Tiff or Tiffy, an acronym of his initials.
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“Time is light, time is dark. You either dance, or you fall.”
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Jan 17, 2013 10:25am