- Hardcover: 496 pages
- Publisher: McClelland & Stewart; 1st edition (April 22 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0771006691
- ISBN-13: 978-0771006692
- Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 16.2 x 3.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 853 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#370,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #48 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Canadian > African Canadian
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
Praise for Childhood
“André Alexis is a genuine talent.” — Richard Bachmann, A Different Drummer Books
“Alexis [has an] astute understanding of the madly shimmering, beautifully weaving patterns created by what we have agreed to call memory.” — Ottawa Citizen
“Although Canada boasts many promising young writers, the most promising of all may be André Alexis. . . .” — London Free Press
“Alexis already knows what it takes many grey wise men a lifetime to realize: that neither memory nor history is a straight line.” — Edmonton Journal
“André Alexis is a genuine talent.” — Richard Bachmann, A Different Drummer Books
“Alexis [has an] astute understanding of the madly shimmering, beautifully weaving patterns created by what we have agreed to call memory.” — Ottawa Citizen
“Although Canada boasts many promising young writers, the most promising of all may be André Alexis. . . .” — London Free Press
“Alexis already knows what it takes many grey wise men a lifetime to realize: that neither memory nor history is a straight line.” — Edmonton Journal
Product Description
Alexis’s long-awaited second novel follows his award-winning Childhood.
Set in Ottawa during the Mulroney years, Asylum is André Alexis’s sweeping, edged-in-satire, yet deeply serious tale of intertwined lives and fortunes, of politics and vain ambition, of the building of a magnificent prison, of human fallibility, of the search for refuge, of the impossibility of love, and of finding home. Whether he is taking us into the machinations of a government office or into the mysterious workings of the human heart, Alexis is always alert to the humour and the profound truth of any situation. His cast of characters is eccentric and unforgettable, all recognizable in one way or another as aspects of ourselves or people we know well. At the centre of the story, which covers almost a decade, is a visionary project to build an ideal prison, a perfect metaphor for the purest aspects of artistic ambition and for all that is great and flawed in the world.
André Alexis is a true original, one of the most talented and astute writers writing in Canada today. This dazzling novel is filled with tragedy, dry wit, intellectual grist. It is playful, linguistically accomplished, and psychologically profound. Its yearnings constitute the highest level of human concerns and pursuits. Alexis has written The Great Canadian Novel, with a twist.
Set in Ottawa during the Mulroney years, Asylum is André Alexis’s sweeping, edged-in-satire, yet deeply serious tale of intertwined lives and fortunes, of politics and vain ambition, of the building of a magnificent prison, of human fallibility, of the search for refuge, of the impossibility of love, and of finding home. Whether he is taking us into the machinations of a government office or into the mysterious workings of the human heart, Alexis is always alert to the humour and the profound truth of any situation. His cast of characters is eccentric and unforgettable, all recognizable in one way or another as aspects of ourselves or people we know well. At the centre of the story, which covers almost a decade, is a visionary project to build an ideal prison, a perfect metaphor for the purest aspects of artistic ambition and for all that is great and flawed in the world.
André Alexis is a true original, one of the most talented and astute writers writing in Canada today. This dazzling novel is filled with tragedy, dry wit, intellectual grist. It is playful, linguistically accomplished, and psychologically profound. Its yearnings constitute the highest level of human concerns and pursuits. Alexis has written The Great Canadian Novel, with a twist.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
A very boring book,
By
This review is from: Asylum (Hardcover)
I absolutely agree with the previous review, this has got to be the slowest moving book I have ever read, and it took a lot of pushing myself to reading it. The scenario of Ottawa is great but all that politics - that is something I certainly don't need to read about. There are a few sex scenes thrown in for good meassure, and some of those seem to be out of place - put in there as an afterthought to keep you interested.
I am going to donate my copy to the local library and let somebody else suffer.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Really slow moving,
By
This review is from: Asylum (Hardcover)
Ever read a book and when you're done reading it you wonder what the fuss was all about? Well that pretty much sums up my feelings on this book.
I read this book because it was recommended as one of THE books to read from 2008. But really, I can't see why. The book just drags. It's like a slow moving train with no way off. Only fitting, I suppose, that the novel is set in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and involves people associated with the government. After all, it is said that government doesn't move very quickly; and neither does this book. I will say this for the book though. The characters are well developed. Author Andre Alexis goes to great lengths to provide background stories for all of the major characters and he does a fantastic job of it. In fact I took greater interest in the backgrounds of some of his characters than what they were actually engaged to do in the story itself. So if you like books that are focused on government and the people associated with them, and you enjoy slow moving plots that take forever to unfold, then this book is for you. However if you're looking for a real page turner, then I'd suggest looking elsewhere.
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