- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: WW Norton; Reprint edition (Nov 14 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0393329089
- ISBN-13: 978-0393329087
- Product Dimensions: 20.9 x 14.1 x 1.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #918,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Lasdun's acclaimed first novel, The Horned Man, followed three short story collections and several books of poems. This second full-length outing seductively and stylishly dissects a life of Cold War fabrication told in flashback. Stefan Vogel, a narrator as insinuatingly unreliable as one of Patricia Highsmith's blithe psychopaths, grows up in the grim fantasyland of Brezhnev-era East Germany, the son of parents whose scuttled diplomatic ambitions for a "better life" in the West consume him. A minor dissident, he is sprung, along with wife-to-be Inge, from an East German prison by a West German government intent on making a showpiece of him. Instead, he and Inge emigrate to the U.S. In the picaresque process of realizing his dream of America, his succession of identities and impostures eerily shadow that of the waning Cold War: eager apparatchik, exotic poet, noble dissident;and last year's news. Of course, America turns out to be as ridden with mendacity as his vanished homeland, and after five years in New York City and 15 in self-imposed upstate exile, the labyrinth of lies (the seven of the title come from Martin Luther) begins to close in on his orderly life and marriage. Sly, witty and just allegorical enough to make one reflect on one's own deceptions, Lasdun's latest is a bracing and accomplished entertainment. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
This chilly, psychologically chilling cold war artifact contemplates the ways in which a totalitarian state can constrict one's heart and pollute one's soul. Stefan Vogel's domineering mother, a social climber in officially class-free East Germany, echoes and reinforces the state's implicit messages to its citizens: You are being watched; there is no escape; conform to the prescribed ideology at all costs. Is it any wonder, then, that young Stefan plays along when his mother announces him as a budding poet, subjecting himself to abuse at the hands of the building superintendent in exchange for access to a collection of Western poetry from which he can crib? His deceptions and betrayals--of others, certainly, but mostly of himself--lead Stefan to the America he has secretly yearned to embrace, with the woman he has not-so-secretly coveted. But although one may escape the iron curtain, one never can quite escape oneself. So when a stranger at a Manhattan party throws a glass of wine in his face upon hearing his name, Stefan starts a diary that finally brings his internal corrosion painfully, poignantly to the surface. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The anatomy of corruption, Oct 19 2005
By Brendan Bernard - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Seven Lies (Hardcover)
After reading (and re-reading) Lasdun's first novel "The Horned Man", I was eager to see what he would do in his next outing. The astonishing "Seven Lies" has exceeded my expectations. It is the most complete and powerful dramatization of the corruption of an individual human being that I have ever encountered, in fiction or non-fiction. The process of this corruption -- in a world where lies are rewarded and truth must be hidden at all costs -- is the novel's central concern. The plot, with its satisfying twists and intricacies, I will leave for you the pleasure of discovering on your own.The action takes place in New York and East Berlin shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Though beautifully rendered, the Berlin that Lasdun creates transcends the specific place and becomes a state of mind -- the poisoning of narrator Stefan Vogel's soul could be taking place anywhere, and probably is.
The great, added pleasure of reading Lasdun is his extraordinary and unique mastery of the English language. His writing has the effect of a camera in close up, only in this case the camera illuminates thought and emotion as well as life's surface. When Lasdun zeroes in on a detail, he seems to stop time. There is no one today, to my knowledge, who writes with quite this subtlety and command.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Where is the audience for this masterpiece!!, Mar 14 2006
By Kellen Berndt - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Seven Lies (Hardcover)
I can't believe that there is only one review for this book. Lasdun is one of our truly beautiful modern authors. But his style timeless. This read will truly take you along the downward spiral into the rotted soul of a battered man. You can see the corrosion of his being progress from a young age during the middle of the Cold War in East Germany. It has a snowball-affect that takes you through the rest of the novel. All the way through, as in the Horned Man, it is a pychologically gripping read. Recommended to all who would like to introduce a very worthy new author into their catalog. Read, and then spread the word of the beautiful writing that you have witnessed.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful structuring, July 21 2007
By wbjonesjr1 - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Seven Lies (Paperback)
Picked this up after a strong review in the Economist, and found this a wonderful novel. The impeccable plotline structure and beautiful writing call for re-reading the novel immediately after finishing it. Characterization is a delight, as is the psychological depth and rendering of post-war East Germany. I will most definitely be reading more of Lasdun in future
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