false 3710 29 When Alex-Li Tandem is 12 years old, his father takes him and his friends Adam and Rubinfine to a wrestling match at the Albert Hall in London. By the end of the evening, the pivotal events of Alex-Li's youth have occurred: he has met Joseph Klein, a boy whose fascination with autographs proves infectious; his friendships with Adam and Rubinfine are cemented; and his father has dropped dead. This is enough action for an entire book, and in fact things slow down dramatically after page 35 of <i>Zadie Smith's</i> sophomore novel <I>The Autograph Man</I>. When we meet Alex again, he is a grown man, an autograph dealer and devoted slacker, suffering the physical and spiritual after-effects of a three-day romance with a drug called "Superstar." While under its malign influence, Alex has managed to wreck his sports car, alienate his girlfriend Esther, and--possibly--forge the rare autograph of his idol, the 1950s movie star Kitty Alexander. Will his friends save him from the embarrassment of trying to sell this suspect autograph? Will they pull him together in time to perform Kaddish on the 15th anniversary of his father's death? Although not as enthralling or politically resonant as <I>White Teeth</I>, Smith's hallowed debut, <I>The Autograph Man</I> amply demonstrates her ability to juggle several main characters, several themes, and a host of plots and subplots, with the occasional purely comic episode thrown up in the air beside them like a chainsaw or a cheesecake. Readers will want to step away to a safe distance during the chaotic final scenes. 1196277 2002 The Autograph Man total:2496|5:201|4:661|3:955|2:509|1:170| 2496 7702 3298 258 3 1 false false Sat Nov 22 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 18 14:04:57 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 22 03:17:56 -0800 2008 1
I would have lik...more...]]> 1 1 false false Sun Feb 17 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 31 19:17:59 -0800 2007 Tue Feb 26 07:54:01 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 09 05:05:58 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 19 02:27:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 11 11:15:11 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 25 14:17:23 -0700 2007 concentration of pain. Hospitals are unique in this concentration. There are...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Aug 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 05:19:55 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 05:20:13 -0700 2009 he's been obsessed with for years: the autograph of 50's film icon
Kitty Alexander. If he hadn't been on some unusually potent drugs the
night before, he'd swear his dreams had come true. As it is, most of
his...more...]]> 0 1 false true Mon Mar 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 11 08:19:54 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 16 10:14:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 11:34:27 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 16:56:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu May 28 18:44:32 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 18:44:41 -0700 2009
I don’t subscribe to the notion that the main...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 09 13:43:06 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 17 14:10:48 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed May 23 11:25:40 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 09 08:55:43 -0700 2007 White Teeth to everyone who ever asks me about my intercultural experiences and my overt antagonism towards people who belittle me by calling me "a foreigner". So I was excited to read The Autograph Man, hoping that it would give me an insight into another section of the world,...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Sep 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 15:19:37 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 04:38:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jul 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 23:41:10 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 26 11:27:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Mar 25 05:41:32 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 27 10:16:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri May 30 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Tue Aug 11 07:20:33 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 07:21:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jul 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 22:15:15 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 07:25:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Dec 27 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Oct 31 03:17:46 -0700 2007 Fri Dec 26 18:24:28 -0800 2008 The preface was great, but I have read 'White Teeth' by the same author and know better then to expect the book to stay on that level. But where 'White Teeth' got gra...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 16:08:55 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 16:14:40 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 29 15:05:51 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 01 12:44:48 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 28 08:06:43 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 16 14:36:22 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sat Aug 11 16:23:40 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 10 12:32:19 -0700 2007 more...]]>