Aberration of Starlight [Paperback]

Gilbert Sorrentino (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2005

A HUMOROUS AND HEARTFELT RE-CREATION OF A TIME AND A PLACE AS IT CAPTURES THE SADNESS AND VALUE OF FOUR LIVES Set at a boarding house in rural New Jersey in the summer of 1939, this novel revolves around four people who experience the comedies, torments and rare pleasures of family, romance and sex while on holiday from Brooklyn and the Depression. Billy Recco, an eager ten-year-old in search of a father; Marie Recco, nee McGrath, an attractive divorcee caught between her son and father, without a life of her own; John McGrath, dignified in manner yet brutally soured by life, insanely fearful of his daughter's restlessness; Tom Thebus, a rakish salesman who precipitates the conflict between Marie's hopes and her father's wrath. We follow these individuals through the events of thirty-six hours, culminating in Tom's disastrous near seduction of Marie. As the novel's perspective shifts to each of the four primary characters, four discrete stories take form, stories that Sorrentino further enriches by using a variety of literary methods - fantasies, letters, a narrative question-and-answer, fragments of dialogue and memory. Strong and unforgettable, each voice is compelling in itself, yet in the end is only part of a complex, painful pattern in which dreams go unfulfilled and efforts unrewarded.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The daring format devised by poet-novelist Sorrentino creates striking effects here, helping him to bare the realities behind the postures of vacationers at a New Jersey resort during the 1930s.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Wonderfully entertaining. Mr. Sorrentino's imagination is rich and fine." - New York Times Book Review "Lively with narrative ingenuity - yet right to the heart of ordinary life." - Philip Roth"

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Product Details

• Paperback: 211 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press; 2nd edition (September 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564784398
• ISBN-13: 978-1564784391
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,494,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 4 people + 1 night = a brilliant, funny, heartrending novel., August 14, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Henderson NV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aberration of Starlight (Paperback)

At a boardinghouse in New Jersey in 1939, four people come together: a ten-year-old boy, his mother and grandfather, and a salesman on the make. As each relates his or her own version or their meeting in a series of superbly-constructed yet vibrant vignettes, the pathos & hilarity build to a climax that both delights & instructs, leading to laughter that hurts. Sorrentino has contrived an elegantly-patterned narrative that also manages to transcend its own schematic, creating 4 living souls whose shared dreams, defeats, memories & actions can enrich those of us who get to know them, seeing in their lives much of our own. In this way, Sorrentino works as a literary alchemist, forging living gold from the base metals of his masterly technique & insight. This is a book that deserves to sit on the same shelf as Faulkner, Hemingway, Woolf, and Joyce. It is a classic and will live long after its more popular brethren have been buried in the dustbins of literary history.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Four Part Dis-Harmony, March 28, 2008

By 

Dick Johnson (Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aberration of Starlight (Hardcover)

The same story told by the four main characters - and all four are unreliable! Po-mo to the fourth power, as we try to construct the truth through such disparate eyes.

I suppose each reader will come up with what we hope the future held for the four of them, but the only clue I have to what Sorrentino might have had in mind is the order in which he told their stories. But I'm probably wrong considering it's G. S. I wouldn't be surprised if he had no idea in mind at all.

This is a quick read with long lasting wonder.