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Ladataan... Heaven Is Small (2009)Tekijä: Emily Schultz
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Kirjaudu LibraryThingiin nähdäksesi, pidätkö tästä kirjasta vai et. Ei tämänhetkisiä Keskustelu-viestiketjuja tästä kirjasta. Gordon Small is dead, a fact which escapes him as he applies for a job at Heaven Books, a sort of purgatory where his colleagues work away, oblivious to the fact that they are no longer alive. Slowly, Gordon becomes aware of his state and seeks to bring his colleagues to the same state of awareness as they continue to drone away at their jobs in an office environment straight out of Dilbert. The premise is intriguing and that is what initially captured my attention, but it went on too long to keep it. Gordon Small is dead. We think. He's not sure, as he's too busy prepping for a mysterious job interview with the Heaven Book Company. Gordon is quickly hired to proofread cheap and plentiful romance novels; terrible books written in prose so purple the "ardour of the reading material left a taste in his mouth like old coffee." The specifics of his position are vague, but then, so is the entire enterprise; no one seems to actually go home at night (resulting in a very creepy scene in a parking garage), Gordon can't remember the last time he went to the washroom, and pizza deliverymen are always nearby yet cannot seem to find the entranceway into the building. Schultz (whose novel Joyland is a real treat, seek it out) definitely enjoys traipsing about her central conceit, portraying the afterlife as not much different than life on this plane, full of office drones, unrequited sexual urges, and monotony. It wouldn't be fair to reveal every surprise the Canadian author lays for Gordon, but his dismay at his new digs quickly leads to a smartly realized scheme whereby his otherwise clueless fellow employees of Heaven "would realize that they deserved lives beyond what occurred at their desks." Read the rest of the review here. näyttää 3/3
Most of the novel takes place inside Heaven Books, where Gordon is posthumously hired as a proofreader. Schultz captures the staid, repetitious life of the office perfectly; she has a talent for honing in on the shoulder punches, the power bars, and the monogrammed mugs that make us cringe alongside Gordon. It’s here, in the descriptions of Heaven’s daily routine, that the novel is at its most scathingly funny. When Gordon meets Lillian Payne from HR, for example, he notes, “her face bore the pearl transparency of an embryonic sac.”
Award-winning author and poet Emily Schultz offers an immensely readable, funny, and sharp novel about a man who works for a Harlequin-like publisher, and gradually discovers that he has arrived in "heaven." Like Will Ferguson's international bestseller, Happiness, Heaven is Small is a smart, satirical novel from one of our best. Heaven is Small is the funny, layered, startling, and profound story of Gordon Small, a degree-clutching slacker and failed fiction writer. Gordon is also, we discover in the first paragraph, recently deceased - although this is "an event he failed to notice." When Gordon finds himself suddenly employed at the Heaven Book Company, the world's largest romance publisher, he begins to notice that something is odd: his routines within the company's walls, though familiar in some respects, have taken on a strange cast - stranger than is usual in the average suburban office. With sly deadpan humour, brilliant insight into the human condition, and exceptionally beautiful writing, Schultz explores what it means to be truly alive only after you're dead. Kirjastojen kuvailuja ei löytynyt. |
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Google Books — Ladataan... LajityypitMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Kongressin kirjaston luokitusArvio (tähdet)Keskiarvo:
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Spending eternity in the production of romance novels doesn’t really sound like the kind of heaven most people would like to partake of. And that is true for Gordon as well. So he sets about frustrating the plans of the corporation and working to make “contact” with the outside world and his former ex-wife, whom he still loves without reserve. Needless to say, hijinks ensue.
Emily Schultz has a vibrant imagination and gladly takes up the challenge of a tremendous literary conceit. That she doesn’t entirely succeed here is less important than the promise that her talent will produce better and funnier, yet still conceptually interesting, novels in the future. There are some glitches. For example, at times she writes as though she has never met a simile that she didn’t “like”. But that comes and goes, which is probably an indication that this is an early and not entirely consistent novel. She also wavers between irony and sarcasm as though she isn’t entirely certain what the difference is. But again, that’s a small complaint. I shall look forward to her future efforts, ideally with more professional typesetting than House of Anansi Press has provided for this novel. ( )