Anthology of Apparitions [Paperback]

Simon Liberati (Author), Paul Buck and Catherine Petit (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2005

Claude is a fallen angel from the hedonistic 1970s nightclubbing scene in Paris and St. Tropez. As Anthology of Apparitions begins, he is in his forties, destroyed by the mystery of his sister’s disappearance—he sits in a cafe drinking and day-dreaming. Only the ghostly appearances from his past make life tolerable. Claude is haunted by memories and visions of 1976, when he was 16 and his sister Marina only a child. Together they belonged to the world of wild young things living on the edge, but when Marina started to lose her way, Claude did nothing to save her.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"While this is a brutal and self-consciously referential work, it is also fascinating, well written and rewardingly different from the countless novels about people you think you recognise or, worse, think you are. Anthology of Apparitions is a valuable and at times tender examination of an unenviable, alien soul" Simon Baker New Statesman

About the Author

Simon Liberati, born in 1960, is a journalist and editor living in Paris. Anthology of Apparitions is his first novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Pushkin Press; 1 edition (January 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1901285588
• ISBN-13: 978-1901285581
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 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: #4,289,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Greatest books for 5 years, September 22, 2006

By 

Benjamin Cuq - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anthology of Apparitions (Paperback)

With his first novel, Simon Liberati (former Cosmopolitan editor) signs a great postmodern book. This guy is back from hell (drugs, alcohol, sex...) and his characters show it. Perfectly written : never trash always poetic.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pathology of the Pathaparitions, October 5, 2007

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anthology of Apparitions (Paperback)

We don't go as far as our fellow reviewer Benjamin who has stated his opinion as greatest novel of five years, but on the other hand for us, and the men of our generation, ANTHOLOGY OF APPARITIONS is a kind of bible on how to behave when caught up in the meaningless revolving door we call existence in our forties.

Claude is just like us in so many ways! We've been there, in the great nighclubs of postwar Paris, New York, Berlin, London and Tokyo. We too had a little sister, Marina, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances linked to the Heidu Fleiss scandal of some years ago. Simon Liberati, you are our hero for daring to speak through the murky truths of a forgotten echo, like the plink, plink, plink sound made by throwing three francs into the bottom of s deep well somewhere on the estate of the Marquis, in France. As an American boy growing up in France I knew many boys and girls like Claude and Marina, resourceful and gaminlike waifs who sullenly sold their bodies for a rind of cheese and a Gauloise, and who played aimlessly with needles--the hypodermic kind--the kind used at the millinery ateliers on the rue St. Anne near the Palais Royal--or the needle on the phonograph machine that, when applied to any of Francoise Hardy's or the Rolling Stones' numerous LPs, provided the ye-ye soundtrack to our lives.

Not since BONJOUR TRISTESSE has a book come along that we could adopt with our hearts like Angelina Jolie adopting the needy of the world. Wherever I go now, whatever corridor of life I flaneur through, I seem to see the fleeting figure of young, 16 year old debauchee Marina disappearing with a fleeting glance into the netherworld into which she vanished from Claude--not that he, or we, cared at the time.

We think we were all too busy with our own cares, our ceaseless need for cool, a need provoked by the extreme trauma brought on by French boyhood. For us, it was an existential thing; for the young readers of Liberati. for example Donal and Mike, who made us a present of this beautifully translated (by Paul Buck and Catherine Petit) book by London's noted Pushkin Press (and adorned with a remarkable, decadent photo by Thomas Nutzl), yea, for all of these, it is in the nature of a life-changing event for them. As Liberati so proudly states, it is the "humanist reader" who needs Marina to be alive, even if being dead is, in general, better, a happier state. Which camp are we in?