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Indlæser... Niagara Falls All Over Again (2001)af Elizabeth McCracken
   Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog.   ) sherribrari | Feb 24, 2024 |  amyem58 | Jul 30, 2023 |  ) christinedux | Jun 7, 2017 | Although it isn’t obvious from the outset, this is a story of a long life — more than 70 years. But in a way it is surprisingly uneventful. Tragedy, as you might expect in any story about comedians, abounds. But it doesn’t always move us as readers. I think it is because we never get fully on board with Mike, who is also our narrator. Or maybe it’s because Mike is quintessentially a straight man. It is rather Hattie who is funny and tragic, or Mimi who is funny and tragic, or Rocky, or Penny, or any one of the other characters who people these pages. Enough so that when Mike experiences truly tragic circumstances such as the death of his young daughter, we find ourselves looking to the others around him to reveal the meaning of this event rather than him. McCracken’s writing is steady and workmanly. She keeps the story ticking along but never seems to generate either the raucous laughter that a tale of comedians might offer or the sadness that all too often underlies comedy. In the end we are left with a curiosity, a tale about comic men told in a voice that is not entirely believable. Sadly, not recommended. (  ) RandyMetcalfe | Jun 30, 2015 |  ) porch_reader | Oct 14, 2013 |
 In the end, the men’s success on the big screen is no match for the offbeat appeal of vaudeville as told in the first half of the book.  How frustrating, then, that everything about ''Niagara Falls,'' from its title on down, feels forced and self-conscious, like a pair of baggy pants that are worn but never inhabited. Get, with regret, the hook.  Given Elizabeth McCracken's abilities, you can't help wishing that in a future book she would fully deploy not only her powers of invention but also her talent for observation -- to grace her larger-than-life characters with inner and outer lives that are complexly detailed and difficult. Even so, this novel provides plenty for which to be thankful -- a sense of play, a nervy willingness to imagine a wide range of characters and situations, estimable powers of empathy and the enjoyment of watching a talented writer beginning to come into her own.  In the vernacular of vaudeville, a successful act was called a Riot, a Panic, a Knockout and -- the final accolade -- a Wow, in an ascending order that suggests a brawl ending with a victor, his foot planted on the other fellow's chest. Elizabeth McCracken's new novel, Niagara Falls All Over Again, is a Wow. Only the novel's conclusion feels slightly unsatisfying, in that some questions never even get asked (let alone answered). Overall, though, tagging along with straight man Mose Sharp, from the time of vaudeville through the age of television, is flat-out fun -- a heartbreaking and exhilarating ride. Tilhører Forlagsserienbtb (73011) HæderspriserDistinctions
By turns graceful and knowing, funny and moving,Niagara Falls All Over Againis the latest masterwork by National Book Award finalist and author ofThe Giant’s House, Elizabeth McCracken. Spanning the waning years of vaudeville and the golden age of Hollywood,Niagara Falls All Over Againchronicles a flawed, passionate friendship over thirty years, weaving a powerful story of family and love, grief and loss. In it, McCracken introduces her most singular and affecting hero: Mose Sharp — son, brother, husband, father, friend ... and straight man to the fat guy in baggy pants who utterly transforms his life. To the paying public, Mose Sharp was the arch, colorless half of the comedy team Carter and Sharp. To his partner, he was charmed and charming, a confirmed bachelor who never failed at love and romance. To his father and sisters, Mose was a prodigal son. And in his own heart and soul, he would always be a boy who once had a chance to save a girl’s life — a girl who would be his first, and greatest, loss. Born into a Jewish family in small-town Iowa, the only boy among six sisters, Mose Sharp couldn’t leave home soon enough. By sixteen Mose had already joined the vaudeville circuit. But he knew one thing from the start: “I needed a partner,” he recalls. “I had always needed a partner.” Then, an ebullient, self-destructive comedian named Rocky Carter came crashing into his life — and a thirty-year partnership was born. But as the comedy team of Carter and Sharp thrived from the vaudeville backwaters to Broadway to Hollywood, a funny thing happened amid the laughter: It was Mose who had all the best lines offstage. Rocky would go through money, women, and wives in his restless search for love; Mose would settle down to a family life marked by fragile joy and wrenching tragedy. And soon, cracks were appearing in their complex relationship ... until one unforgivable act leads to another and a partnership begins to unravel. In a novel as daring as it is compassionate, Elizabeth McCracken introduces an indelibly drawn cast of characters — from Mose’s Iowa family to the vagabond friends, lovers, and competitors who share his dizzying journey — as she deftly explores the fragile structures that underlie love affairs and friendships, partnerships and families. An elegiac and uniquely American novel,Niagara Falls All Over Againis storytelling at its finest — and powerful proof that Elizabeth McCracken is one of the most dynamic and wholly original voices of her generation. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Indlæser...GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit: (3.63)
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