- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (Sep 9 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0618343970
- ISBN-13: 978-0618343973
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 612 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #767,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
It takes sangfroid and skill to write a contemporary love story featuring the metaphysical poetry of John Donne and the art of calligraphy, but British writer Docx, in his debut novel, carries it off with wit and sophistication. His protagonist, Jasper Jackson, is a Londoner whose current job is to transcribe the Songs and Sonnets of John Donne for a wealthy client. Like Donne, Jasper is also a relentless womanizer, a charming cad who lives for love affairs. When the woman of his dreams appears in his own garden, Jasper succumbs to real love for the first time and slowly begins to realize what it feels like to be the pursuer rather than the pursued. In a clever reversal of chick-lit roles, the lovely Madeleine, a travel journalist, plays the part of the rakes of yore, while Jasper pours his woes into the willing ear of his best friend. There are many contrasts here, between ancient art and contemporary manners, between ribald conversation and metaphysical elegance of expression, between the intellectual and the erotic. Docx prefaces each chapter with the sonnet Jasper is working on, and close reading reveals that the subject of each poem corresponds to Jasper's emotional state. Using sites in London, Rome and New York, he allows Jasper to fulminate about the meretricious standards of 21st-century culture (scenes in the Tate Modern are deliciously on target). Readers of conventional romantic comedy may find more to chew on here than they're expecting, but the double surprises that end the narrative are diabolically satisfying.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Two passions animate Jasper Jackson's life. The twentysomething Brit is a dedicated womanizer, unable and unwilling to ever commit, and always on the hunt. Jasper is also a talented calligrapher, hard at work these days transcribing Songs and Sonnets, by John Donne (another serial seducer), for a wealthy client. After a particularly ugly breakup with his current girlfriend, Jasper falls truly, madly, and deeply in love for the first time, with beautiful, sexy, and intelligent Madeleine, who seems to reciprocate his feelings yet is at the same time somehow elusive and evasive. The novel ends with two delicious plot twists, and Jasper, to his sorrow, learns what it's like to be the one in a relationship who loves the most. Docx's intelligent and humorous first novel succeeds beautifully on a number of levels--the writing is confident without calling attention to itself; even the most minor characters, like Jasper's grandmother (who only appears in one scene) and his best friend, William, are fully developed and probably worthy of novels of their own. Nancy Pearl
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
This guy can write!,
By
This review is from: The Calligrapher: A Novel (Hardcover)
Sometimes when I finish a book that has been particularly engrossing and rewarding, I feel a deep void. I don't want it to end, ever. I could roll along, lost in the wit and harmony of the writing, the plot, the thinking going on. The Calligrapher was just such a book: witty, elegant in its description of the thoughtful outsider who poses as a trendy insider, archaic yet modern, the man/woman obsessed with sex who falls in love, the ambiguity of love, sex, the possibility of a developing relationship. I keep thinking about the characters. I laughed, sometimes out loud, I empathized, I felt a kindred soul in the mix even though I'm a female. Jasper, a man, was the narrator but I connected--I like to cook, choose fine wines, look at great art, travel, enjoy my friends, and learn about life, too--and it's all much more fun when infused with good company and great sex. John Donne knew all about these things and wrote about them, eloquently. But life is a puzzle. So is Donne's poetry. And The Calligrapher falls right in line. Things haven't changed much in the intervening centuries. The basics are still the same and able to turn, upside-down, inside-out, on a dime, depending on the perspective. A page turner, The Calligrapher is extremely well written with very funny observations about the way we live today and think about love, art and relationships. I was reminded of Nick Hornsby--the writing was quick, irreverent, sociological in its focus on one quirky individual. So much of the time, the world does seem totally run by our perceptions of who and what are sexy. And such superficiality (or are these reallly deep, necessary feelings?)can often get turned inside out in a hurry. Great reflection, indeed illustration, of the multiple levels of Donne's insights, poetry and the complexity of life itself. I loved this book. Docx can write! I can't wait for more.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Overly Verbose,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Calligrapher: A Novel (Hardcover)
This author basically spends the entire novel writing to "hear" himself write. There would be PAGES of babbling that had nothing to do with the plot in the middle of a chapter, which I would simply skip because they bored me so much. After I got about 200 pages into it, I had found that my mind wandered throughout the entire book and I decided to just put it away and not finish it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant construction,
By
This review is from: The Calligrapher: A Novel (Hardcover)
London Lothario thinks he can construct his love life as carefully and meticulously as he does his calligraphy. Needless to, he's in for a big surprise. The real fun of this novel is the writing and the lovable arrogance of the character who believes he can charm a local beauty by carefully orchestrating all of his interactions with her. As other reviewers have noted, the analysis of Donne's poems and the weaving of the content of each poem at the outset of a chapter into that chapters' plot developments is remarkably clever. Reading this book is a joy ride. If you like it, I strongly recommend David Nicholls' A Quiet Attraction -- it's a marvelous read as well.
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