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| Special Topics in Calamity Physics |
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List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $9.75
You Save: $ 5.25 (35%)
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Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780143112129
ISBN: 0143112120
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 528
Publication Date: 2007-04-24
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Editorial Reviews:
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“Dazzling,” (People) “Exuberant,” (Vogue) “marvelously entertaining,” (The Dallas Morning News) Marisha Pessl’s mesmerizing debut has critics raving and heralds the arrival of a vibrant new voice in American fiction. At the center of this “cracking good read”4 is clever, deadpan Blue van Meer, who has a head full of literary, philosophical, scientific, and cinematic knowledge. But she could use some friends. Upon entering the elite St. Gallway school, she finds some—a clique of eccentrics known as the Bluebloods. One drowning and one hanging later, Blue finds herself puzzling out a byzantine murder mystery. Nabokov meets Donna Tartt (then invites the rest of the Western Canon to the party) in this novel—with “visual aids” drawn by the author—that has won over readers of all ages.
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| Spotlight customer reviews: |
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Details to distraction
Comment: The author made a short story long. Tedious and distracting details slow the reader's flow. I was worn out by the time I reached the 2/3 point in the book and the ending suggests that the author shared my weariness.
Paladin
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brevity. Please.
Comment: There's nothing to add to my review that has not already been said very well by others on this site. The book is too long and way too convoluted. I stopped caring about Blue and her absolutely worthless excuse for a father less than halfway through.
The story could have been good except for the apparent desire of the author to try to impress us with her literary knowledge and give us the impression that she had read and was familiar with every movie, documentary, book, periodical, and reference work ever published. The ego of the author far surpassed her ability to write a novel that is inherently readable and worth my time to recommend.
I'm sorry I spent valuable hours on it and would urge anyone who must read it to borrow, not buy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining
Comment: Enjoyed this book, was a work involving many interesting characters and was an entertaining yet thoughtful book. I really enjoy her writing style- nice to read a book by someone who has a knowledge of the English language. Will be passing this book on to my daughter and recommending it to her.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A very enjoyable read
Comment: I really enjoyed this book, and despite the length it was a quick read, so don't let the number of pages intimidate you.
Yes, the author's use of cultural references was a bit too much, but it did not take away from the story itself, which keeps building and and pulling you in the further you read. I read the last 100 pages in one evening because I could not put the book down (and as the parent of a young child, I generally take any opportunity I can to catch a few zzzzzs). When I finished the book, I started flipping back through it to see where certain clues hinted at the ending (in retrospect).
You are left with genuine feelings for Blue (our heroine), and unlike most novels, everything is not tied up in a neat box. People can use their imagination to fill in the blanks, which makes each reader's experience a bit different.
All in all, a very enjoyable read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Take this book----please (Youngman, Henny, 1935)
Comment: Pessl needed an editor to require her to cut at least 100 pages and to get rid of most of the literary allustions and citations, real and unreal. Less is more.
I wanted to like this book. I really did. I liked the chapter titles and I liked the premise and I liked the big nod to Nabokov. I am certainly that Nabokov would NOT have nodded back, however. As I approached page 200 I realized that I really did not have to finish this book and that it had failed to capture my interest. I returned it to the library with the guilty relieved sense of liberation of somebody leaving the scene of a hospital vigil.
I like long books. I thrive on the Victorian triple-decker. I like a good mystery. I even like some young writers (Zadie Smith and Jonathan Frantzen--I'm talking about you!)
But this book did not take me away. I kept on thinking that the father could in no way have earned so many one-year job contracts. I kept on seeing the author being clever and cute. I want to be caught up in clever and cute and not feel as if a performance is being forced upon me.
That being said, if Pessl continues to write and if she learns how to revise (or to revise better) I think I would look at her future works. Find youself an excellent editor. Take advice. Learn to prune your preciousness so that the reader is not caught up in a trecly thicket of it but rather can see and enjoy each shining moment. Don't hit us over the head with a plank--get yourself a little hammer and repeat the words "lapidarian" and "riparian" and apply them to your work.
See how annoying it can be when somebody tries to be cute?
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