- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: Dutton (Aug 19 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0525950613
- ISBN-13: 978-0525950615
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 16 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 567 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #472,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
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.
About the Author
Selden Edwards began writing The Little Book as a young English teacher in 1974, and continued to layer and refine the manuscript until its completion in 2007. It is his first novel. He spent his career as headmaster at several independent schools across the country, and for over forty years has been secretary of his class at Princeton, where he also played basketball. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
If you've been waiting for that 'magical reading experience'...,
By
This review is from: The Little Book (Hardcover)
.this ain't it.
I'll admit it up front: that's what I was hoping this would be. A magical reading experience that enthralled, bewitched, captivated. Word-of-mouth, blurbs, advance press seemed to indicate a chance of this...but in the end, Mr. Edward's novel suffers from the malady that many of the books I've read this year have been felled by: 'editor interruptus'. (Don't harrangue me for my Latin; I'm the only student in the history of my high school to have failed the course.) I'm not sure what Mr. Edwards is. He's a novelist, yes...but he's not a tried-and-true storyteller. He's an entertainer...but more one that performs simple card tricks than genuine magic. He can carry a tune well enuough...but he ain't no singer. 'The LIttle Book's premise is fascinating. The storyline threads are woven with a credible workmanlike execution. But there is no flair. (Which is surprising, considering the subject matter.) There are no moments of remarkable literary flourish. (Additionally surprising, considering the author's writerly heroes...and his profession.) And most all...there is no magic. This book will please some while frustrating others. (For the record, I would have scored it three-and-a-half stars, were I able) It is a wholesome, earnest effort, and I congratulate Mr. Edwards for completing the task, after so long a time. My wish for him is that the gestation period for his second novel be not quite as long...and that he corrals some faerie dust along the way.
4.0 out of 5 stars
An overreaching but entertaining story.,
By
This review is from: The Little Book (Paperback)
I'd probably give Selden Edwards' first novel a rating of 4-1/2 stars if I could. I don't give it 5 stars because, basically, I don't like science fiction, which this book is a little bit.
However, it's a great, if not convoluted, story, set in 1897 Vienna, the World War 1 and 2 war years, and the 50's and 80's. Many characters, all related in the ether of history. One sentence had me wondering if an entire plot line was considered and discarded. In the part of "Wheeler" Burden's true parentage, Edwards writes that he was the result of a brief affair between Flora (Wheeler's mother) and a "son of an ambassador, later killed in the war" [World War 2]. I was waiting for Edwards to reveal the "son of the ambassador" was Joseph P Kennedy, Jr. Anyway, it's well worth reading and then discussing. Good book-club selection.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (108 customer reviews) 107 of 124 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wild Ride for Book Clubs,
By Joanna Westley "book angel" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Little Book (Hardcover)
I am a self-admitted book-a-holic, and for a book to keep me up and guessing - that's saying a lot. For a book to completely surprise me - that is saying even more. For a book to challenge me intellectually and make me laugh out loud in parts - to be cerebral and totally cool at the same time - sheer delight! How did Selden Edwards pull THAT off? This book makes me want to sit down with the writer and ask a hundred questions about the obvious craft of turning such an outrageous idea (and it is that) into a cohesive story. I didn't want the book to end, and I miss the characters already. My book club is reading it, and I can hardly wait to hear everyone's favorite passage/character/scene/line. It's clearly my favorite book of the summer, and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a terrific movie in a summer to come; it plays (and stays) in the mind like the best kind of film.
44 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is one of the best books I have ever read,
By Karen - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Little Book (Hardcover)
The Little Book is impossible to describe and impossible to forget. The characters that Edwards creates- and the insights about different cultures and eras- are nothing short of remarkable. Just like Pat Conroy says on the cover, it forever changes you. I finished it and immediately began re-reading- and was still sad when it was over. It is a perfect book club choice, vacation read, or book to recommend to a friend. You won't be able to put it down!
46 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Eine kleine mess!,
By Matt Boisen "hounddoc" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Little Book (Hardcover)
I am a historical novel junkie, especially ones that include time travel (see Allen Appel, Jack Finney, etc.). I have visited Vienna, my grandfather was Austrian, and I dig Secessionism and anything having to do with fin de siecle Europe. That said, I was very disappointed with this book, especially when reading how it took 35 years to write. Oh, what a tangled, stilted, unintentionally funny story! The characters are wooden at best, they bob along like the marionettes at Schönbrunn Palace from one chapter to another. Despite all the Freudian discussions (yawn) of the Oedipus complex and sex, which provides the outline of the story, the actual intimate encounters are only coyly suggested by "sudden releases" and much clothing adjustment, as if the author was afraid his grandmother might pick up the book and read it. The narrative is confusing; ostensibly it is done by Wheeler's mother, but it contains many conversations, thoughts and details that no one, not even Proust, would have included in a journal. Edwards' encyclopedic (or shall we say Wikipedic?) references to 1897 Vienna are dropped in like sticky notes, and rarely fit the context of the story. And for Pete's sake, what's with the Frisbee??? Frisbees were the darling of postwar, flying saucer hyped America when baby boomers and play time were in great abundance. What happens when Wheeler discovers the grieving Empress in the Imperial Art Museum? He mumbles apologies about the death of her son and then solemnly gives her his wooden Frisbee! Why? So she can kick back, forget her troubles, grab a bottle of Boone's Farm and throw a few to old Franz Joseph in the Wienerwald? The Wham-O corporation should thank Edwards for the endorsement. Later, she appears while Wheeler and his dad are playing with yet another Frisbee, and solemnly hands him her son's ring wrapped in a handkerchief. Why? Maybe he didn't have enough bling for the fin de siecle. The twists and turns of the murky plot, the encounters with famous people and the hopelessly bland characters just went stale midway through the book, and I had to force myself to finish it. Too bad. Good thing it was a library book!
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