| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wise and Witty,
This review is from: After Hannibal (Hardcover)
Can the history of a region shape the lives of those who settle there? Barry Unsworth, winner of the Booker Prize for his novel SACRED HUNGER, suggests that may be so in his hypnotic and gorgeously written new novel about fantasy, deceit and betrayal.Set in "Golden" Umbria, a region made famous by painters like Raphael and Peruggino, AFTER HANNIBAL explores a brief spell of time for English, Italian, German, and American neighbors living along a dusty rural road. They all have their dreams, some elevated, some vicious, and reality crushes each of them in one way or another--or sets them free in unexpected ways. But that's not surprising, because they live in a dramatic, blood-soaked landscape, however dreamy and idyllic it may appear, and however filled it may be with cities that are "treasure-houses of art and history." Hannibal destroyed a Roman army there, and in the Renaissance, noble families jockeyed for power, defying each other and the Papacy in blood. The region's history is "a record of crime." All this background is ironically supplied by an Italian history professor who himself longs "to be detached from history, rescued"--but of course, that's not possible for him or his neighbors who are bound together in surprising ways. Though the author's couple from Michigan sounds more British than American, it's an easily forgiven lapse. AFTER HANNIBAL is wise and witty, infused with the warmth of a dazzling landscape, and tempered by a sad, deep knowledge of the human penchant for self-deception and self- destruction. It's a deeply moving book much like one of the tiny, ancient Umbrian towns the author describes: "undemonstrative, unclamorous--it makes no very loud or evident claim on your attention. It exists in its own right, in its venerable and richly layered past and harmonious present."
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, readable but not Unsworths best.,
This review is from: After Hannibal (Paperback)
Though entertaining - and deadly realistic in its portrayal of human weakness at its most mean - this is not the best of Mr.Unsworth's fiction. Its portrayal of the lives and struggles of isolated expatriates in Tuscany, and of their exploitation by an avaricious attorney, has much of the comic about it, and the observations are never less than sharply ironic and amusing, but the underlying theme is of tragedy, of small lives blighted by failures of spirit and generosity. There is no redeeming feature in this story of gloom and petty misery and the larger themes that dominate much of Mr.Unsworth's other fiction are missing here. It is a capable and readable work - but by the time one is half-way through one longs for something more. This said however, Mr.Unsworth in even his lesser work - the category this undoubtedly falls into - is still a better writer than many who are higher acclaimed and the aficionado of his work should not give this a miss.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Least favorite of a brilliant author...,
By
This review is from: After Hannibal (Paperback)
Barry Unsworth is one of my favorite authors, and I have read all his books. This was my least favorite. What "unites" the disparate characters are simply a road which passes by their houses and (ubiquitously) a lawyer whom they each consult. Although Unsworth's use of historical context and detail is usually one of the most enjoyable and well developed aspects of his novels, here we are dealing, peripherally, with battles involving both Hannibal (who craftily fought off the Romans) and the Fascists (who left this part of Italy devastated).Having spent time in the Italian countryside, I could relate somewhat to the details that Unsworth relates about the land and the feel of the environment however; the book itself just doesn't have a central core. Having said all that, however, I'd still rather read a lesser Unsworth book than most books on the bestseller list
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
See all 9 books this book cites
See all 32 books citing this book
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
