A House in Istria: Novel
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Book Overview
Never before translated into English, the wonderfully comic novel A House in Istria concerns marriage, a man's desperate desire to acquire the house next door, and what can happen when West meets East. In formerly communist Eastern Europe, there are many empty houses. Inhabited in turn by very different familiesJews, fascists, communiststhe houses now stand empty, decaying, the objects of countless lawsuits. Richard Swartz's quirky and marvelous first novel revolves around one such house and the Western European man obsessed with it. Narrated by his wife, the action takes place over just seven blazing hot days in Istria, formerly Yugoslavia. His obsession drags his poor wife, a native of Istria, into long burlesque conversations with lawyers and owners; her out-of-control husband (who doesn't speak the language) involves them in surreal scenes with nearly insane characters. Since everything the husband knows (and everything the reader knows) must be channeled through the wife, we enter a world in which nothing is directly intelligibleand everything is skewed. The unusual, antic, hilarious style calls Capek, Gogol, and Kafka all to mind.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0811215016
ISBN13:9780811215015
Release Date:October 2002
Publisher:New Directions Publishing Corporation
Length:215 Pages
Weight:0.94 lbs.
Dimensions:0.9" x 6.0" x 8.5"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
interesting style
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
Interesting style of writing, monologues and stream of thoughts. One man's obsession with a house nicely coupled with some details about life in Croatia.
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