Specify Regarding Books The Little Book
| Title | : | The Little Book |
| Author | : | Selden Edwards |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 416 pages |
| Published | : | August 14th 2008 by Dutton Adult (first published 2008) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Science Fiction. Time Travel. Fantasy |
Selden Edwards
Hardcover | Pages: 416 pages Rating: 3.73 | 4496 Users | 994 Reviews
Chronicle Conducive To Books The Little Book
An irresistible triumph of the imagination more than thirty years in the making, The Little Book is a breathtaking love story that spans generations, ranging from fin de siècle Vienna through the pivotal moments of the twentieth century. The Little Book is the extraordinary tale of Wheeler Burden, California-exiled heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens, philosopher, student of history, legend's son, rock idol, writer, lover of women, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero. In 1988 he is forty-seven, living in San Francisco. Suddenly he is - still his modern self - wandering in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: fin de siècle Vienna. It is 1897, precisely ninety-one years before his last memory and a half-century before his birth. It's not long before Wheeler has acquired appropriate clothes, money, lodging, a group of young Viennese intellectuals as friends, a mentor in Sigmund Freud, a bitter rival, a powerful crush on a luminous young American woman, a passing acquaintance with local celebrity Mark Twain, and an incredible and surprising insight into the dashing young war-hero father he never knew. But the truth at the center of Wheeler's dislocation in time remains a stubborn mystery that will take months of exploration and a lifetime of memories to unravel and that will, in the end, reveal nothing short of the eccentric Burden family's unrivaled impact on the very course of the coming century. The Little Book is a masterpiece of unequaled storytelling that announces Selden Edwards as one of the most dazzling, original, entertaining, and inventive novelists of our time.List Books Supposing The Little Book
| Original Title: | The Little Book |
| ISBN: | 0525950613 (ISBN13: 9780525950615) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Dilly Burden, Wheeler Burden |
Rating Regarding Books The Little Book
Ratings: 3.73 From 4496 Users | 994 ReviewsCritique Regarding Books The Little Book
So far this isn't looking promising. I'm only on page 16, but have had no problem putting it down multiple times already. There's a lot of "if he had only known then what he knew later" talk in it. That's already becoming irritating. I'll give the book until page 50. If it doesn't grab me by then, it's outta here.ETA: At page 54, I'm done. I don't care about anyone in the book. I was beat over the head with the "if he had only known" SEVEN times in the first 22 pages. I can read, therefore, IFirst of all, BEWARE of reviews that give away too much of this plot (that's you, amazon!) because it will ruin your reading to know too many of the intricate details of this novel. I'm intentionally vague below because key plot elements were given away in some reviews I read.The time-travel aspect makes you think it's sci-fi, but it's really more of historical fiction in the exhaustive detailing of 1867 Vienna. It also touches on psychology, romance, and philosophy (those who love the
Well, I had high hopes for this one, but the book didn't measure up. An interesting idea -- a son and father time-travel (separately, from different decades) back to Vienna 1897 and meet up with their grandmother/mother. Unfortunately, I think the author was just working way too hard to create Vienna of 1897 -- Mahler, Freud, the philosophers, the "apex of civilization" before the shame/fall of rampant anti-Semitism. The protagonist (Wheeler) was just too "too" -- eccentric (in a very attractive
I'm hoping my book club people aren't in Goodreads, or at least not obsessively checking my reviews. From time to time a book won't be on our official list but people will pass it around because they liked it so much. This is one of those books. So I happily took it home and moved it to the top of my reading list. I read a few chapters but it was about baseball (ugh) and I wasn't pulled in, but as I approached the end of 2015 I wanted to get in-process books off my reading list.Things to like
Dilly Burden was a legend and a hero. He excelled at his Boston boys' school and at Harvard, was a star baseball player and gave his life in World War II when he was tortured and killed by the Gestapo in France. His only son, Wheeler, has no memory of his Dad but has spent his life living up to the legend.Where Dilly was an icon, Wheeler is more eccentric. He followed in his father's footsteps to the Boston boys' school and despite guidance from a much beloved teacher, the Haze, (who had also
I started reading this book awhile ago and decided to finish it. I'm a little torn as I liked the history but it can be confusing with the back and forth, and the switch of characters and narrator. The book also never really explained how they went back in time. They just did. The history is interesting, though. I am curious enough to attempt reading the sequel.
I really wanted to give this book three stars but I just can't. To me itseemed like a case of a wonderful idea, sort of Jack Finney Meets JohnIrving, coming unfortunately to someone who just doesn't have the skill orthe ease to realize it effectively. The writing itself is perfectly soundand literate, but for me the author didn't have the command to carry off hisridiculously complicated structure - featuring multiple narrative lines,multiple time periods, and constantly changing angles of view,
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