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One Hand Clapping
"Sometimes when I'm at work and waiting for customers I think about the two of us living like kings and not bothering about the future. Because there may not be any future to bother about, you know. Not for anybody, one of these days. And it's a wicked world."
Average couple Janet and Howard's lives begin to unravel when Howard's photographic memory helps win him a gameshow fortune. Janet doesn't want their lives to change that much. She's quite happy working at the supermarket, cooking for her husband three times a day and watching quiz shows in the evening.
But once Howard unleashes his photographic brain on the world, the once modest used-car salesman can't seem to stop. And what he sees as the logical conclusion to his success isn't something Janet can agree to.
Average couple Janet and Howard's lives begin to unravel when Howard's photographic memory helps win him a gameshow fortune. Janet doesn't want their lives to change that much. She's quite happy working at the supermarket, cooking for her husband three times a day and watching quiz shows in the evening.
But once Howard unleashes his photographic brain on the world, the once modest used-car salesman can't seem to stop. And what he sees as the logical conclusion to his success isn't something Janet can agree to.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
About the author
Anthony Burgess
361 books4,467 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Seriocomic novels of noted British writer and critic Anthony Burgess, pen name of John Burgess Wilson, include the futuristic classic A Clockwork Orange (1962).
He composed also a librettos, poems, plays, screens, and essays and traveled, broadcast, translated, linguist and educationalist. He lived for long periods in southeastern Asia, the United States of America, and Europe along Mediterranean Sea as well as England. His fiction embraces the Malayan trilogy ( The Long Day Wanes ) on the dying days of empire in the east. The Enderby quartet concerns a poet and his muse. Nothing like the Sun re-creates love life of William Shakespeare. He explores the nature of evil with Earthly Powers , a panoramic saga of the 20th century. He published studies of James Joyce, Ernest Miller Hemingway, Shakespeare, and David Herbert Lawrence. He produced the treatises Language Made Plain and A Mouthful of Air . His journalism proliferated in several languages. He translated and adapted Cyrano de Bergerac , Oedipus the King , and Carmen for the stage. He scripted Jesus of Nazareth and Moses the Lawgiver for the screen. He invented the prehistoric language, spoken in Quest for Fire . He composed the Sinfoni Melayu , the Symphony (No. 3) in C , and the opera Blooms of Dublin .
Seriocomic novels of noted British writer and critic Anthony Burgess, pen name of John Burgess Wilson, include the futuristic classic A Clockwork Orange (1962).
He composed also a librettos, poems, plays, screens, and essays and traveled, broadcast, translated, linguist and educationalist. He lived for long periods in southeastern Asia, the United States of America, and Europe along Mediterranean Sea as well as England. His fiction embraces the Malayan trilogy ( The Long Day Wanes ) on the dying days of empire in the east. The Enderby quartet concerns a poet and his muse. Nothing like the Sun re-creates love life of William Shakespeare. He explores the nature of evil with Earthly Powers , a panoramic saga of the 20th century. He published studies of James Joyce, Ernest Miller Hemingway, Shakespeare, and David Herbert Lawrence. He produced the treatises Language Made Plain and A Mouthful of Air . His journalism proliferated in several languages. He translated and adapted Cyrano de Bergerac , Oedipus the King , and Carmen for the stage. He scripted Jesus of Nazareth and Moses the Lawgiver for the screen. He invented the prehistoric language, spoken in Quest for Fire . He composed the Sinfoni Melayu , the Symphony (No. 3) in C , and the opera Blooms of Dublin .
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 22, 2024
fajne ale gdyby to byla powiesc amerykanska to byloby jeszcze fajniej👍🏻
March 14, 2019
Historia wydaje się prosta i na swój sposób jest prosta: Janet żyje spokojnie, chociaż może niezbyt dostatnie, ze swoim mężem Howardem aż do dnia, gdy Howard wygrywa pieniądze. Później ma ich jeszcze więcej. Ten uśmiech losu okazuje się jednak znacząco wpływać na ich życie.
Narracja jest bardzo charakterystyczna dla Burgessa - ma ten swój specyficzny styl pisania, postacie czasem dość nietypowo reagują na pewne sytuacje, jest coś na kształt parodii i gdzieś tam autor, wykorzystując tutaj głównie postać Howarda i dialog między nim a Janet, przekazuje nam swoje przemyślenia. Osobiście to uwielbiam.
Historia nie jest szczególnie długa, nie jest zbyt skomplikowana, a pod koniec wszystko nabiera interesującego obrotu. Postacie są na swój sposób wyraziste, ale mimo wszystko dalej, jak wspominałam, całość jest prosta, może nawet za prosta, a szkoda, bo to przeobrażanie bohaterów naprawdę miało potencjał i myślę, że wiele zadziwiających, zaskakujących scen można było dać w ciągu trwania książki. Polecam siadać do niej, nie mając żadnych konkretnych oczekiwań.
Narracja jest bardzo charakterystyczna dla Burgessa - ma ten swój specyficzny styl pisania, postacie czasem dość nietypowo reagują na pewne sytuacje, jest coś na kształt parodii i gdzieś tam autor, wykorzystując tutaj głównie postać Howarda i dialog między nim a Janet, przekazuje nam swoje przemyślenia. Osobiście to uwielbiam.
Historia nie jest szczególnie długa, nie jest zbyt skomplikowana, a pod koniec wszystko nabiera interesującego obrotu. Postacie są na swój sposób wyraziste, ale mimo wszystko dalej, jak wspominałam, całość jest prosta, może nawet za prosta, a szkoda, bo to przeobrażanie bohaterów naprawdę miało potencjał i myślę, że wiele zadziwiających, zaskakujących scen można było dać w ciągu trwania książki. Polecam siadać do niej, nie mając żadnych konkretnych oczekiwań.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews