Friday, February 20, 2009

Minor Masterpiece

http://www.nybooks.com/shop/product?product_id=28

How rare a thing it is - the succesful novella. But that is what I uncovered - just last week - when sitting down to J.L. Carr's A Month in the Country. Published by NYRB and shortlisted for the Booker, Carr's lean, but endlessly poignant, account of one man's experiences following the First World War left me with a renewed appreciation not only for the novella, but for those with the ability to capture that complex relationship between memory and silence. Carr's work - like a number of NYRB titles - is well worth the afternoon's read. It is, as Rolling Stone said of Joseph Roth's Flight Without End, a "minor masterpiece."

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations on joining the "Books, Inq. -- The Epilogue" team, Jesse. (If you've been around before, I apparently missed your posts.) Your comments sent me to the local Barnes & Noble and I actually found a copy of A Month in the Country. thanks for the recommendation.

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  2. Dear Hedgie: Thank you for your post. I hope that you enjoy the Carr. You'll have to let me know what you think. --Jesse

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