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Indlæser... Primitive Peopleaf Francine Prose
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Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. This book was fairly tedious and found humor in people who had major problems, something that does not amuse me. Of course the woman who had lived a very difficult life and had very little material sustenance was the person who best understood life and its circumstances. It was truly a book of despair that did not appeal to me. ( ) Somewhat funny story of a Haitian immigrant working as a nanny for a kooky, wealthy family living in the "country" outside NYC. As the family fractures, the nanny's outsider point of view points up the foibles of these privileged but miserable Americans. The family's pretenses and flaws are overly obvious, but the nanny's perspective is sometimes insightful. Like an updated (but much sharper and less lyrical) John Cheever tale. Francine Prose’s Primitive People cuts the reader with all of its all sharp angles and razor edges, drawing blood with each new sentence, each new word. Described as a comedy of manners, the story follows Simone, a Haitian native, as she immigrates illegally into the United States and takes a job as a nanny for two confused and disturbed children. Desperate to fit in, Simone dissects each encounter and experience of her new life in hopes of deciphering the secret codes of a completely foreign culture. But what she finds is a more chaotic and dangerous landscape than the native land she escaped; a place of emotional and psychological violence where every word and deed seems designed to wound. Obsessed with carving sculptures of distended and grotesque tribal figures, the mother of Simone’s two charges decompensates towards madness a little more each day. The two children float through their days, their psyches disintegrating. And the rest of the town slices through life, scalpel sharp in their intentions to manipulate and destroy each other. Prose may well have intended a pointed satire of an economically wealthy but morally bankrupt and emotionally rudderless class of people, but the bilious characters oozing off the page overpower any possible message. Without any redeemable human qualities, the tiresome characters wobble about, one-dimensional and stereotypical, incapable of stirring any emotion but contempt. Simone, surely created by Prose as the humane, caring soul of the story, never reaches beyond her own bewilderment, apparently clinging to the hope of gaining understanding and, eventually, admission into the venomous tribe. What saves the novel from a lower rating is Prose’s fine writing. If you are able to read simply for the joy of well written prose, this Prose is not completely lost. Although, I enjoyed Bigfoot Dreams, a more soulful, captivating story, much more. 3 bones!!! ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
A Haitian émigré's exposure to shallow suburbanites is "social satire at its slyest and best" from the New York Times-bestselling author (Kirkus Reviews). When the heartbroken Simone flees her native Haiti, her best option to start a new life is a quick paper marriage to a Brooklyn cab driver and a job as an underpaid caregiver to two spoiled young children in the small community of Hudson Landing, New York. But her new boss is nothing like what she's been led to expect. The self-absorbed amateur sculptor Rosemary Porter and her morose, eccentric children George and Maisie--deserted by their philandering husband and father--rattle aimlessly around their crumbling suburban mansion. The people of Hudson Landing seem welcoming at first, but as Simone settles into this new home, her sense of unease grows. Rosemary's sarcastic best friend, Shelly, seems as suspicious of her as her shallow boyfriend, Kenny, a children's hair salon owner who appears eager to befriend the new au pair. A neighbor known only as "The Count" strings dead animals from trees for no reason anyone can understand. As the local community roils with secrets and attempts to outdo each other with self-importance, Simone begins to wonder just where on earth she has fled to--and if it's any better than the violence and betrayal she left behind. As always, National Book Award finalist Francine Prose "has a wickedly sharp ear for pretentious American idiom, and no telling detail escapes her observation" as Simone struggles to make sense of these odd people and this strange, new world (The New York Times Book Review). Ingen biblioteksbeskrivelser fundet. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
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