- Hardcover: 1 pages
- Publisher: New Press (Jun 29 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1565848713
- ISBN-13: 978-1565848719
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 14.2 x 2.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 313 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #30,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Goncourt-winner Echenoz offers a cheeky take on the dubious pleasures of the afterlife in this slim, sly novel, which tracks the adventures of a musician after he dies. Max Delmarc is a talented Paris concert pianist burdened by a terrible case of stage fright, unrequited love for a vanished woman named Rose and a weakness for the bottle. On the way home from a benefit concert, Delmarc is mugged and stabbed; he wakes in an afterlife "Orientation Center," part hospital, part hotel, part jail. In his weeklong stay, he gets plastic surgery to repair his stab wound; enjoys a romantic interlude with Doris Day, a nurse at the facility; and is then assigned to "the urban zone"â€""I mean, to Paris, you understand," he's told. There's a brief side trip to South America, but soon Delmarc is back in the City of Lights, under orders not to contact anyone from his former life or play music. Delmarc quickly violates both rules by leaving his job as a hotel bartender to take a position as a lounge pianist in a more upscale hotel and by embarking on a search for Rose, whom he saw as the love of his life despite his inability to connect with her. Echenoz's satiric style makes the somewhat limited afterlife concept work, and he includes some surprisingly effective plot twists. The result is a quirky, slight novel that offers an original take on human potential and folly.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"'Cool, sly, both amused and amusing. The reader is left entranced' Times Literary Supplement"
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful...until the last page., Jan 15 2008
By Jed Verity - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Piano (Paperback)
This is a fun story, told in a straightforward and lively manner. A lonely pianist chases after opportunities for love without success, dies, and spends some time in purgatory while his fate is decided. Echenoz maintains an intriguing plot throughout, his brief character sketches are elegantly rendered, and the prose is tight, accessible, and, at times, poetic. My only complaint, and the only thing that kept this from being a five-star review, is the last page -- the last paragraph, even! A successful ending that satisfies everyone can be brutally difficult, if not impossible, to write, but the worst kind is the one that feels tacked on, unnecessary. In this case, it's as if Echenoz felt he hadn't explained himself well enough. In the process of explication, he undoes the subtlety and intrigue he so deftly delivered throughout the rest of the book.Overall, however, a very enjoyable read. Better than expected!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Piano: A Novel, Aug 15 2010
By Carlotta di Como "kittykitty" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Piano (Hardcover)
Just the book to give the man who doesn't appreciate what he has (and who may or may not get the point of this subtle tale, but at least you can say you tried). Beautifully written prose to savor, daring premise. A fine read by one of France's premier writers.
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