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Autograph Man (Paperback)

by Zadie Smith (Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product Details

Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Penguin UK; New edition edition (Feb 3 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0140276343
ISBN-13: 978-0140276343
Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 3.2 cm
Shipping Weight: 323 g

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #118,437 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From Amazon.co.uk

In her second novel, The Autograph Man, Zadie Smith has set herself the unenviable task of following up a certain segment of recent literary history. Her first novel, the bestselling, award-laden and much-hyped White Teeth wore its ambitions lightly: an exuberant comic foray into the lives of three disparate families living in suburban north London, it dealt simultaneously--and deftly--with wider multicultural and political motifs.

The Autograph Man has a similar ebullience and an equally dazzling panoply of characters. Its hero Alex Li-Tandem is "one of this generation who watch themselves", a Chinese-Jewish north Londoner who is first introduced as a child accompanying his father to a wrestling match between those two larger-than-life scions of 1970s Saturday afternoon television--Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks. When Alex's father dies in the pandemonium surrounding the pursuit of Big Daddy's autograph, the twin themes of the novel are launched--one is the bereaved Alex's search for a replacement to fill the gulf, the other his obsession with tracking down, buying and selling autographs. Alex seeks one autograph in particular and seemingly in vain--that of Kitty Alexander, a fading film star. The route he follows in his search has much to say about the nature of celebrity and the privacy of souls, of fantasy and reality--all narrated in Smith's breathless prose.

The Autograph Man plays on many strands and clever observations--in particular Jewishness, goyishness and Zen Buddhism. Smith is a superbly assured writer whose images stick in the mind; for example, Alex's girlfriend Esther has "hair plaited like a puzzle". The dialogue is vivid and there is much humour but at times the convoluted plot threatens to spill over into anarchy and the humour can be self-conscious. Though this does not diminish the entertainment value of The Autograph Man, it does--frustratingly--make it appear insincere. --Catherine Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

'The novel is a pleasure from the first page to the last' - David Sexton, "Evening Standard". Alex-Li Tandem sells autographs. A small blip in a huge worldwide network of desire, it is his business to hunt for names on paper, collect them, sell them, occasionally fake them, and all to give the people what they want: a little piece of Fame. "The Autograph Man" is a deeply funny, existential tour around the hollow things of modernity - celebrity, cinema, and the ugly triumph of symbol over experience. Pushing against the tide of his generation, Alex-Li is on his way to finding enlightenment, otherwise known as some part of himself that cannot be signed, celebrated or sold.

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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	97% buy the item featured on this page: Autograph Man 4.0 out of 5 stars (1) CDN$ 14.60
	3% buy White Teeth 3.7 out of 5 stars (223) CDN$ 13.86

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4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent novel, April 5 2006

By	M R M (Toronto) - See all my reviews

Smith's second novel seems to have fallen under the radar but shouldn't have been. Fans of her work will recognize the lyrical beauty of her prose - crisp, clear and witty - in The Autograph Man. It's not a sprawling family drama like WT, but an intimate portrait of an almost 30 yr old man and his life's obsession/work.

Alex, the main character, is written with all the years of pain and confusion and neediness that comes with losing a loved one. And his friends, the other brilliant characters in this book, revolve around him as satellites, all trying to help in their own way. Captivating from the start, if you liked White Teeth, you should definitely read The Autograph Man.

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