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Chargement... The Canvas (2010)par Benjamin Stein
Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Six-word review: Memory and identity, smoke and mirrors. Extended review: The twists and turns of this book include literally turning the book upside down to read the half that goes in the opposite direction, like a bilingual instruction manual with two fronts and no back. The ends of the two narratives meet in the middle. Deciding how far to read in one half before switching to the other is up to the reader, placing this book somewhere within the wider reaches of the category of ergodic literature. Ordinarily I dislike gimmicks in books, and I'm not sure how necessary this one was to the realization of the author's intention, but it does enhance the sense that nothing in this story is straightforward and linear. Some books achieve that sort of circularity without special effects; one that I can think of is The God of Small Things. Nevertheless, I do see the physical configuration of the hard copy as a meaningful contributor to the experience of reading the novel. I've given it four stars because it's a well-written and original treatment of an endlessly fascinating theme, that of memory and identity, with many layers and interesting story elements and complex characters. It also sent me off for a reread of The Picture of Dorian Gray (and that's not a spoiler, or if it is, I have yet to figure out how). I enjoyed letting the author lead me through this hall of mirrors. But as for what actually happened in there, I'd have to read it again before I could form a coherent hypothesis. For now, I'm content to entertain the questions. The primary themes in this tale are memory and identity. Memories can change, identities can be forgotten. Identities can be chosen, memories can return. Memories can be shared, memories can come in dreams. Identities can be forced upon one, identities can be faked. Two characters, Amnon and Jan, struggle to live their lives and the intersection of their lives in this psychological novel. The backdrop for the book is Orthodox Jewry, with a touch of Kabbalah mysticism. I am left with the profound desire to discuss this book with someone else who has read it, because I do not think I can fully grasp its meanings without some shared conversation. I think anyone who reads this will have a similar experience. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
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Loosely based on the true story of Binjamin Wilkomirski, whose fabricated 1995 Holocaust memoir transfixed the reading public, The Canvas has a singular construction, its two inter-related narratives begin at either end and meet in the middle. Amnon Zichroni, a psychoanalyst in Zurich, encourages Minsky to write a book about his traumatic childhood experience in a Nazi death camp, a memoir which the journalist Jan Wechsler claims is a fiction. Years later, a suitcase arrives on Wechsler's doorstep, allegedly lost in Israel, a trip he has no memory of. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)833.914Literature German literature and literatures of related languages German fiction Modern period (1900-) 1900-1990 1945-1990Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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I did read the book by alternating chapters between the two tales, but it didn't really add much until the very end. There is a little interrelated imagery that echoes between the earl chapters of the two texts, but there's so few actual events described by the two equally out of whack narrators until the final chapter(s), that it seemed like it might have had more impact reading each of the narratives straight through one after the other. ( )