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Sto caricando le informazioni... Gods Without Men (2011)di Hari Kunzru
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. Engrossing novel, probably really 5 stars but I will have to think about it. The book is written across time with different characters (reminiscent of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and others, I think there is a name for this kind of fiction, but I can't think of it) all of whom have in common a single location in the desert (hence the book title, a fragment from Balzac's quote "In the desert, you see, there is everything and nothing....It is God without men.") The characters are all looking for something, the mystery of the world, something bigger than our lives, etc. The combination of the book being written as parts of a puzzle, when the characters are trying to assemble a puzzle, the characters being a large variety of searchers or pilgrims including several damaged war veterans, the use of American Indian mythology, and the maintenance of a persistent system of imagery throughout make this high quality heady stuff. Bottom line, God's without Men is an excellent read. Well written, compelling, intelligent, and thought provoking. It leads one to consider relationships, spirituality, parenting, history and ultimately the grey areas of reality itself. If you're hung up with easy resolutions, conclusive plots, and simple answers, this isn't a book for you. Not a "literary" work but that's not its intent. Well worth the reading and pondering experience. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Jaz and Lisa Matharu are plunged into a surreal public hell after their son, Raj, vanishes during a family vacation in the California desert. However, the Mojave is a place of strange power, and before Raj reappears inexplicably unharmed--but not unchanged--the fate of this young family will intersect with that of many others, echoing the stories of all those who have traveled before them. Driven by the energy and cunning of Coyote, the mythic, shape-shifting trickster, Gods Without Men is full of big ideas, but centered on flesh-and-blood characters who converge at an odd, remote town in the shadow of a rock formation called the Pinnacles. Viscerally gripping and intellectually engaging, it is, above all, a heartfelt exploration of the search for pattern and meaning in a chaotic universe. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)823.92Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 2000-Classificazione LCVotoMedia:
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Kunzru weaves the novel together using strands of story taken from different decades and centuries. We jump from 2008 to 1920 to 1971 to 1775. The largest piece of the action occurs in 2008. Jaz and Lisa Matharu are passing through on a vacation with their 4 year old autistic son Raj. On a trip to Pinnacle Rocks, Raj inexplicably disappears. A media circus descends on the parents. Months later Raj reappears in the desert, equally inexplicably, in the middle of a nearby secure Marine base. Or does he? When first seen he is described as the "glowing boy" who has appeared throughout decades. And Jaz is certain that the boy who has come back is not Raj, but "something wearing his skin".
This appears to allude to the changeling myth, as seen in novels like Keith Donohue's The Stolen Child. Lisa, for her part, thinks Jaz has gone insane. Unlike in Donohue's novel, Kunzru does not say a substitution has been made for certain. It is suggested, and would be in keeping with the coyote theme that is part of the local native mythology and which is woven through the novel (Coyote, that trickster figure that straddles the worlds of the living and the dead), but no more.
This brings up similarities to the film Picnic at Hanging Rock, where a group of Australian schoolgirls go out to a large rock formation on the outskirts of modern civilization. In the midst of strong tones of paganism and mysticism in connection to the rocks, several of the girls climb up them and are never seen again. The mystery of what happened to them is never solved. So here, the mystery of what happened to Raj Matharu is not resolved.
Most everyone in this novel could be termed an outsider or on the fringe. Jaz is from a rural Punjabi family, trying to fit in. Lisa is Jewish. Their son is autistic. Other contemporary characters include a disillusioned British rock star escaping from LA and a teenaged Iraqi girl sent to live with relatives in California after her intellectual father is murdered in the civil war there. A little further back are the Ashtar Galactic Command, talking about communicating with extraterrestrial intelligences and later moving into countercultural drug running. Further back is the Spanish priest, exploring the New World. And of course The People themselves, turned into outsiders in what used to be their land.
So we have a novel of people who largely don't fit in with their surroundings, connected to each other through this physical place that seems to exist outside the boundaries of its own surroundings. If it ends in a confused tangle of uncertain realities, well, that shouldn't be entirely unexpected.
Near the end of the novel, writing as Lisa's character, Kunzru indeed tells us to abandon our need for certain answers:
You don't know what happened here, Kunzru tells us. And that's as it is supposed to be. ( )