- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: House of Anansi Press (April 25 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0887842232
- ISBN-13: 978-0887842238
- Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 14.2 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 408 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #327,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
Quill & Quire
According to Emily Schultz, Heaven is located somewhere in North Toronto – among packing houses and printing plants in a mirrored, 70-storey behemoth. This isn’t the prototypical hereafter with the pearly gates and cherubs. This is Heaven Books, publisher of romance novels – and it’s where Gordon Small ends up after he dies. Schultz’s second novel is a darkly comic portrait of a man confronting his insecurities in life (a brilliant ex-wife, a lacklustre literary career) only after he is dead. Schultz creates an endearing protagonist in Gordon, who never pines after what could have been. Instead, he focuses on making things right, despite his inconvenient circumstances. 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.” Schultz juggles the monotony, humour, and futility of Gordon’s predicament with ease, and the combination often produces quiet, touching scenes between Gordon and his co-workers. Soon after Gordon accepts his death, he mischievously encourages others at Heaven to acknowledge their own deaths as well. When Georgianne Bitz realizes she’s been dead for eight years and her little girl is now a teenager, she starts washing her bras with dish detergent in the staff kitchen. “Well, where are you washing your clothes?” she asks. “I mean, if I haven’t been home in eight years, I’m obviously not washing them there, so.…” In an effort to console her, Gordon goes to the underground shopping concourse beneath Heaven, where the dead do their shopping, and buys her several new bras – white, of course, to avoid any inappropriate innuendo. As it turns out, Heaven, despite its moniker, has a lot in common with purgatory. And Schultz has created a delightful cast of lost souls to toil within its glittering structure. Heaven Is Small is a keen examination of life and the afterlife, brimming with intelligence and wit. Gordon Small reminds us that, even if you can’t take it with you, there just might be something worth looking forward to on the other side.
Review
[Emily] Schultz's voice is stronger than ever, her storytelling tighter and her writing still replete with those trademark ziplines, surprising little protons of description that vault the reader into Schultz's unique narrative universe. (Globe and Mail 20090409)
Heaven is Small marks a big league jump for Schultz that could translate into wide mainstream appeal. (Broken Pencil 20090809)
Don't let the presence of the grim reaper scare you: Heaven is Small is a fantastical comedy. (National Post 20090509)
Don't let the presence of the grim reaper scare you: Heaven is Small is a fantastical comedy. (Weekend Post 20090409)
In her comic novel Heaven is Small, Toronto author Emily Schultz takes a light-hearted approach to the hereafter. (Catholic Register 20101206)
Schultz has created a delightful cast of lost souls...Heaven is Small is a keen examination of life and the afterlife, brimming with intelligence and wit. (Quill & Quire 20100826)
Schultz's latest is a satire of office life, romance novels, and afterlife narratives. She has accomplished something quite remarkable here, deftly juggling all this social commentary and a rather blandly sympathetic protagonist with a sharp command of language. (Publishers Weekly 20090409)
Kafkaesque . . . Sly and witty, Schultz's writing has the power to cut me up and reduce me to stitches. (MJ Stone The Hour 20110801)
...captivating...hilarious...seems tailor-made for a Hollywood adaptation. (Flare )
. . . an enjoyable, fast-paced ride . . . nothing can beat Schultz's frenetic, surprising, and genuinely funny writing. (Naomi K Lewis Fiddlehead )
Heaven is Small marks a big league jump for Schultz that could translate into wide mainstream appeal. (Broken Pencil 20090809)
Don't let the presence of the grim reaper scare you: Heaven is Small is a fantastical comedy. (National Post 20090509)
Don't let the presence of the grim reaper scare you: Heaven is Small is a fantastical comedy. (Weekend Post 20090409)
In her comic novel Heaven is Small, Toronto author Emily Schultz takes a light-hearted approach to the hereafter. (Catholic Register 20101206)
Schultz has created a delightful cast of lost souls...Heaven is Small is a keen examination of life and the afterlife, brimming with intelligence and wit. (Quill & Quire 20100826)
Schultz's latest is a satire of office life, romance novels, and afterlife narratives. She has accomplished something quite remarkable here, deftly juggling all this social commentary and a rather blandly sympathetic protagonist with a sharp command of language. (Publishers Weekly 20090409)
Kafkaesque . . . Sly and witty, Schultz's writing has the power to cut me up and reduce me to stitches. (MJ Stone The Hour 20110801)
...captivating...hilarious...seems tailor-made for a Hollywood adaptation. (Flare )
. . . an enjoyable, fast-paced ride . . . nothing can beat Schultz's frenetic, surprising, and genuinely funny writing. (Naomi K Lewis Fiddlehead )
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nobody does metaphors like Emily Schultz,
By Judy Wearing (Ontario) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Heaven Is Small (Hardcover)
It has been four days since I finished Heaven is Small, and I am still missing its protagonist, Gordon Small. He's a bit like Larry (Larry's Party, Carol Shields) except more endearing..and dead. Schultz did many things with this novel: she created a quirky world of corpses that is somehow believable and intriguing, she took the brief few seconds that separate life from death/ waking from sleep and expanded them into a lifetime, she reminded me of the miracle of defecation at the same time as instilling creepy imagery of what dead employees do after hours, and she made wicked fun of romance novels and office culture (which had me laughing out loud). At times I was racing ahead as though it was a murder mystery, desperate to know what happened next, but Schultz's clever prose kept me at a slower pace, locked in her magic world. The only negative thing I can say about the book is that Schultz seemed to chose language sometimes purely because of its beauty or wit, with that result that it occasionally detracted from a sentence rather than adding to it. Still, not only do I find myself wishing I believe in ghosts, I sometimes even find myself wishing I could be a ghost, just like one of her characters - not needing sleep, blinking only by habit, and "living" deliciously oblivious to reality. A truly entertaining read!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Clever and charming,
By
This review is from: Heaven Is Small (Hardcover)
What a terrific, quirky book. It's all about Gearge Small who dies and gets a job in Heaven - a romance publishing company. But this is no chick-lit. It's a humourous, satirical look at the romance publishing industry and office work in general. And it's set in Toronto (where Harlequin is headquartered) which makes it especially entertaining if you're from Toronto. I read it in a day. A rainy Sunday well spent.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sarcastic and Funny,
By Rich Cain (Scarborough) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Heaven Is Small (Hardcover)
I didn't really know what I was getting into when I started this book which was recommended by a friend. I'm not much for the romance stories (I'm a guy) so I pleasantly surprised with Heaven is Small. This book's savage sarcasm aimed at the formulaic romance industry is fantastic. She absolutely carves the corporate coffee sippers that deserve it while shows compassion and tenderness for the lonely outsiders in office life. All of this with a literary styled story telling plot.You should read this review and know the book will be funny and unlike anything you have ever read before. the author must be a quirky fun sensitive person to write such a beautiful story. This book is a safe bet if you're looking for a new author. Enjoy
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
