"A man called Berg, who changed his name to Greb, came to a seaside town intending to kill his father. . . . " So begins Ann Quin's first novel, a bleak and gritty story of three charaters--Alastair Berg, his father, and their mistress. Written in a style that vacillates between dirty realism and surreal comedy, BERG chronicles the interrelations between these three characters as they slowly circle one another in an ascending spiral of violence.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
Review
"A marvelously warped book. . . .' -- New York Times
"A vividly intense and almost palpably immediate work of imagination." -- Irish Times
"I think BERG is an excellent answer to all those who think reading novels is a waste of time." -- Books & Bookmen
"If you don't read it then you're not interested in the present and possible future of the English novel." -- Scotsman
"The style is eclectic enough to remind the reader of the New Wave, Beckett, Pinter, and Freud with a headache." -- Library Journal
"A vividly intense and almost palpably immediate work of imagination." -- Irish Times
"I think BERG is an excellent answer to all those who think reading novels is a waste of time." -- Books & Bookmen
"If you don't read it then you're not interested in the present and possible future of the English novel." -- Scotsman
"The style is eclectic enough to remind the reader of the New Wave, Beckett, Pinter, and Freud with a headache." -- Library Journal
About the Author
One of the best kept secrets of British experimental writing, Ann Quin has garnered comparisons to such diverse writers as Samuel Beckett, William Burroughs, and Nathalie Sarraute. Before her death in 1973, she published four novels, including THREE and TRIPTICKS. In 1964 she became the first female recipient of the D.H. Lawrence Fellowship.
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By Alvaro Lewis
Format:Paperback
I do recommend this novel, but only to those who will not desperately flee some miserably twisted circumstances. This novel continues the experimentation of the English novel as a form that Beckett put a halt to when he became French. Berg really is tremendously dark, but it has an oddity or eccentricity that makes it not only memorable but meaningful. In addition to the story indicated in the editorial reviews above, it does something to resemble in content an almost Graeco-tragedian structure puttied with a more domestically modern flesh. This novel is one that totally disturbed me in ways that did not make me love it but I find that the author is wonderfully comic, creative, pleasingly dark and intelligent. For such an odd book, I do not know how to say I recommend it, but for a continuance in one's education of novelistic recourses this may be one book that makes you happy in a rather uncomfortable way. If for no other reason, pick this novel up to read the first sentence.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars
2 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
bent up triangle
Sep 21 2002
By Alvaro Lewis
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I do recommend this novel, but only to those who will not desperately flee some miserably twisted circumstances. This novel continues the experimentation of the English novel as a form that Beckett put a halt to when he became French. Berg really is tremendously dark, but it has an oddity or eccentricity that makes it not only memorable but meaningful. In addition to the story indicated in the editorial reviews above, it does something to resemble in content an almost Graeco-tragedian structure puttied with a more domestically modern flesh. This novel is one that totally disturbed me in ways that did not make me love it but I find that the author is wonderfully comic, creative, pleasingly dark and intelligent. For such an odd book, I do not know how to say I recommend it, but for a continuance in one's education of novelistic recourses this may be one book that makes you happy in a rather uncomfortable way. If for no other reason, pick this novel up to read the first sentence.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ann Quin's First Novel
Jun 13 2006
By hj
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
A man tracks down the father he never knew and, concealing his identity, befriends him and has an affair with his mistress.
Ann Quin's first novel was a big success in 1964 & remains her best known book. The plot is a characteristic 60s mix of lowlife absurd (Beckett, Pinter) & symbolism (Freud, Laing). In one scene the drunken father tries to rape the son who has dressed up in the father's mistress's clothes! And then there's some creepy perversity concerning a ventriloquist's dummy.... Although of its time & betraying some of the over-ripe awkwardness of a first novel, the extraordinary quality of Ann Quin's writing retains its disturbing power today. If you find the attempts of today's Brat novelists to write "on the edge" laughably obvious & shallow, then read some Ann Quin for the real thing.
Ann Quin's first novel was a big success in 1964 & remains her best known book. The plot is a characteristic 60s mix of lowlife absurd (Beckett, Pinter) & symbolism (Freud, Laing). In one scene the drunken father tries to rape the son who has dressed up in the father's mistress's clothes! And then there's some creepy perversity concerning a ventriloquist's dummy.... Although of its time & betraying some of the over-ripe awkwardness of a first novel, the extraordinary quality of Ann Quin's writing retains its disturbing power today. If you find the attempts of today's Brat novelists to write "on the edge" laughably obvious & shallow, then read some Ann Quin for the real thing.
›
Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
