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Mar 12, 2009

Ken rated it:

smart book. interesting to see a relationship rise and fall through the belongings of the individuals. on one level, i was kinda hoping for more, i don't know, clues (?) in the belongings. like an AHA! moment (where an object could possibly explain why something was happening), and possibly there was (lots of song lyrics are referred to i was unfamiliar with), but perhaps i missed them. or else, if there weren't clues, that could prove to be interesting as well, where when all is said and done, More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Mar 08, 2009

Kristen rated it:

I was instantly in love with the concept behind this. And it was more more complex than her earlier book, which I also really enjoyed. Overall, really well executed. They seemed like the sort of people who really would end up together, and really wouldn't work out. (I did keep wondering whether their incompatibility would have been so obvious if we weren't told at the very beginning that it failed.) She did clearly have a mysterious supplemental income, or a nasty credit card habit, but that's s More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2009

Sarah rated it:

very clever and entertaining

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 01, 2009

Lexi rated it:

I love this so much. Yes, it is a novel written in the form of an auction catalog.

She did something so amazing here, and did it so exquisitely well.
It might seem like a gimmick, but it is so well done, it's past gimmick and into art.

In fact, I ordered this book for the library, because of an article I read in the NYT about it, and it sounded like something kind of new and interesting and clever. Then about a week later, I realized that some of the books from that More...

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Sep 06, 2011

Meish rated it:

Loved the concept that the story of a couple was told through an auction catalog of their possessions documenting their relationship, like gifts, clothes, photographs, postcards, and mixed CDs. But it came up short on execution. The descriptions only give a glimpse into their story and hinted at the problems they had. Even then, it felt too one-sided from Lenore's perspective. And there was something that seemed pretentious and unrealistic about this retro-vintage-cool couple. An epicurean colum More...

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Mar 12, 2011

Sarah rated it:

Illustrator and photographer Leanne Shaptonhas created a highly original and beautiful work of art with Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, a literary "auction" book detailing the four-year relationship of the people in question.

20-something Lenore Doolan is a cake-column writer for The New York Times, whereas Harold Morris is a freelance photographer in his 40s. Important Artifacts, et al. is a story told complete More...

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Jan 24, 2011

Elsje rated it:

De volledige titel:
Leanne Shapton - Important artifacts and personal property from the collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, including books, street fashion and jewelry. Saturday, 14 February 2009, New York

Het boekje ziet eruit als een veilingcatalogus, en... dat is het dan ook! Een virtuele dan wel, want het is eigenlijk een roman. Een roman in foto's waaruit je zelf het verhaal moet destilleren. Dat lijkt op het eerste gezicht simpel: Canadese (Lenore Doolan) ontmoet op More...

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Oct 17, 2010

Toeprint rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jul 09, 2010

Kirstyn rated it:

The novel tells the story of a four year failed relationship between the eponymous Lenore (a epicurean columnist specialising in cakes) and Harold (a photographer whose work has him constantly travelling the globe), rendered in the form of an auction catalogue with photographs of almost all the items up for sale accompanied by brief notations.

I saw this in a art/design shop and immediately snapped it up. I’m a sucker for strange books, for experiments in style and different ways of st More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 06, 2010

Kate rated it:

This book is designed to look like an auction catalogue, not one from Christie’s or Sotheby’s with their glossy pages and generous white space and their ample superlatives in the item descriptions, but rather a catalogue from a slightly lower-brow auction house, in this case, the fictional Strachan & Quinn Auctioneers. The items to be auctioned off: the personal memorabilia collected during the relationship of Lenore Doolan, a New York Times columnist, and Harold (Hal) Morris, a freelance photog More...

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Sep 08, 2009

Trena rated it:

This was a really clever idea--using an auction catalog format to tell the story of a relationship--and the execution was just as clever as the idea which is a real coup. I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of the objects, but I loved that they were mostly just ordinary objects like playbills and polaroids. The story really comes through and it's fun to think of the catalog/relationship as a living thing (the "item removed" designations near the end). At first it made me feel like More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 14, 2010

Lizzie rated it:

The story of a relationship told in objects, as an auction catalog. I think we could all write a book like this: the ticket stubs, the books we gave each other in the first blush of love, the dumb love notes and couple jokes, the things we bought to furnish our apartment together. After the break up those things are still around - a lot of times that's all's left - and sometimes it feels like they're sitting there taunting us with what's lost.

I liked this, but didn't find it brilliant. More...

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Feb 09, 2011

Matthew rated it:

After reading this book, I'm not sure if it would have been harder for the author to actually write a novel or did what she has done. This is a story of a couple that falls in love, stays with each other for a handful of years, and then breaks up. The story is told through pictures and set-up as an auction catalog of their belongings that I guess are all getting auctioned off after the break-up. The piecing together of the plot for yourself is stimulating. However, if you take the book as what i More...

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Apr 26, 2009

Anna rated it:

You’ve (almost certainly) never heard of the movie “Repo! The Genetic Opera,” so let me elucidate: it’s a gory horror musical, the magnum opus of the director of the first four “Saw” flicks, set in a near-future dystopia where designer organs are available on the installment plan—but if you don’t make your payments on time, the repo man (played by Anthony Stewart Head of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and 80s Taster’s-Choice-commercial fame) comes a-callin’, to extricate the defaulted-upon pound or More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 13, 2009

Angie rated it:

I LOVED this book. It's an inventory written as an auction book of the detritus of the life of a relationship. It includes notes in margins of books, hats with photographs of the happy couple modeling the hats. It was interesting to see everything all lined up, gifts exchanged, activities shared, journal entries, correspondence.

You could tell it was going to end, it was just a matter of when. And it was sad the way the couple clung to the relationship long after it was good and More...

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Mar 13, 2011

Jamie rated it:

torn between reviewing the concept and reviewing the story. loved the concept. loved the delivery of the concept. realistically conjured. thought it a brilliant way to tell the story of a relationship. what a great idea, in fact, to recall a love affair - beginning, middle, and end - through a catalog of items for an upcoming auction. poignant moments throughout. also, a statement on our consumerist identity and how we show appreciation for one another through goods. best of all is the reader-kn More...

2 comments like

Feb 06, 2012

Jessica rated it:

Took me a while to make up my mind about this; it's an auction catalog listing the belongings of two people in a failed relationship. It's their relationship's mementos, and it's weird. It's voyeuristic and also allows you to assume whatever you like about this (fictional) couple. These days, it's just as easy to do this with Facebook.

At the same time, perhaps it's a sort of psychological test to your own thoughts on relationships and on the manuevers of this one in particular. When More...

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Nov 28, 2011

Teresinha rated it:

UPDATE: http://mundo-da-teresinha.blogspot.com/2...

Tahle knížka je pro mě fakt velkým překvapením, nečekala jsem, že bude tak dobrá. Popsat lásku pomocí aukčního katalogu je sice zajímavý a originální nápad, ale říkala jsem si, jak to sakra bude fungovat? Bude mě bavit číst si popisky k nějakým fotkám? Bude to vůbec dávat smysl? A světe div se, vše zapadlo kam má...
Leanne Shapton dovede z mála vykřesat maximum. Dovedla popsat vztah dvou lidí do nejmenších detailů pomocí strašně má More...

4 comments like

Oct 28, 2009

Hannah Jo rated it:

I want to write to this author right now and tell her "Thank you for blowing my mind." This book is truly like nothing else I’ve ever read, which is the greatest experience in the world for a librarian.

It’s a book of photographs with text, meant to look like an auction catalog of artifacts. Every item is identified and described as if it were going up for auction, with a price--everything from salt and pepper shakers stolen from restaurants to pieces of clothing to books t More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 21, 2010

Allie rated it:

I remember there is an episode of This American Life where someone talks about how objects are witnesses to the events of our lives. This took that idea and made it into the story of Lenore and Harold's relationship, from beginning to end. And it's no surprise that it ends, the clues are all there, from the inappropriate birthday gifts to the different brands of clothing they buy. I think anyone who's tried to rid their life of all the object reminders of an old relationship can relate to this b More...

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Dec 08, 2009

Leslie rated it:

Shapton's book is a successful experiment in re-imagining the epistolary novel as a catalog for the auction of a couple's effects. The story of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris' relationship is told entirely through the photographs of various objects, books, clothing, photos, and letters with the accompanying captions, including excerpts from notes and letters written by the couple. Shapton evokes pre-September 11th New York and two people of a certain social circle intimately through describin More...

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Apr 04, 2009

Janet rated it:

Points for cleverness of concept and voyeuristic pleasure, but this story about the arc of a relationship (as viewed through the auction catalog of the ex-couple's possessions) was disappointingly slight. I suppose if I'm going to read a narrative told via sweaters, hats, menus and knick-knacks, I ought to expect a certain lack of depth. But I was hoping for more intrigue, more subtle clues among the artifacts (or maybe the clues were just too subtle for me...?), more reason to care about the More...

1 comment like

Apr 01, 2009

Sarah rated it:

This is the first book that I've bought new in a very long time--I was intrigued by the concept of telling a story through items in an auction catalog instead of through a more standard narrative.

Overall, I thought the conceit worked pretty well, though in order to succeed, the characters had to have some strange habits, like writing relevant song lyrics on the flyleaves of books, leaving unfinished letters tucked into books, and just sending and receiving a lot of handwritten letter More...

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Oct 03, 2011

SarahC rated it:

This is a unique telling of the death of a relationship. This book touches me on several levels as life has shown me over the years that the death of a person and the death of a relationship are so similar. The auction catalog format of this novel speaks of that idea, as we so often see the collections of people long past to be the subject of auctions. What a way to link the concepts of a deceased relationship. It also points to the idea of what is left to us after the relationship -- the small More...

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Jun 02, 2009

Catherine rated it:

The library taped a red sheet of paper across the cover of this book with the notation "experimental fiction." Hmmm, I thought, because I had forgotten what was in the book review that led me to put it on hold. This book covers the life of a relationship by presenting it as an auction catalog offering notes and personal items from the relationship for bid. The reader really does get a sense of the personalities involved, but the "experimental" method is definitely distracti More...

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Dec 20, 2010

Yellowoasis rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jan 09, 2010

shannon rated it:

A great book for a voyeur like me. What's more fun than peering in strangers' windows as you drive by their house at night? Looking at their stuff! Unlike other books I've reviewed, this is one in which the execution actually lives up to the concept. It's so fascinating to look for clues in all of the little photos. I feel like a forensic scientist. In addition to being the brains behind this project, Leanne Shapton is an incredible artist whose work I admired before I ever read her book. I rece More...

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Apr 30, 2009

Jamie rated it:

It's an interesting concept, learning about a relationship through the owners' items. Primary observations about this book:

1. This couple writes more letters than anyone I've ever met.

2. There isn't much depth here. At least delve into the actual split, if you're headed that way. Lots of buildup with no payoff.

3. So....? It reminded me of watching the movie "The Break-Up". Yeah, that's pretty much what it's like to break up. Good luck with that.
More...

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Mar 02, 2010

Patty rated it:

This has to be one of the oddest books I have ever read. It is the whole story of a relationship told through the possessions of the two people involved. It is a catalog of their life as if everything associated with their love affair has been put up for auction.

Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris meet at a Halloween party and so the artifacts start with that invitation. The catalog progresses through the highs and lows of Morris' and Doolan's life for the next few years.

I More...

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Nov 25, 2009

Theresa rated it:

The concept of this book is what got me hooked: the book is a catalog of items up for auction. These items belonged to Lenore and Harold and give you clues as to what kind of relationship they had. Postcards, notes, e-mails, clothes, planners, photographs, gifts, etc. I liked it because it made me think of the physical remains of relationships and how they literally echo moments of life. The book has a sweetly subtle sadness as it reminds you of the impermanance of life and the ever-changing rhy More...

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