Customer Reviews

Box of Matches

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

There are 33 matches in a box, hence the 33 chapters in this book. Every morning (each chapter), Emmett, a medical textbook editor (with a pet duck), lights a match to start a fire in the fireplace. Each chapter starts with a 'Good morning', and then minute observations on minutiae of life from an ordinary man.

Nicholson Baker's prose is effortless and light. He's probably one of the most elegant prose stylists writing today, and he clearly has written a gem with this one. His comic sensibility is sneaky and fun, and I found myself laughing out loud in public places while thinking about passages from this book.

The contemplation of details of life and the tangential fantasies that spring from mundane activities lead to subtle and touching refletions on life itself. This book is, above all, about what makes life worth baring. And the book's ultimate accomplishment is that it bares the beauty of life without resorting to building a dramatic resolution or an epiphany, but rather shows life as is, quietly and truthfully. One of the most pleasurable reads of this past few years.

I had never read anything of Nicholson Baker's before this book, primarily because I remembered reading a review of his earliest book, Mezzanine, in which, as I recall, the whole book takes place in the mind of someone while they're riding an escalator. I thought to myself that, after almost forty years of listening to stream-of-consciousness as a psychiatrist, I didn't need to read it, too. And so Baker was on my To Be Avoided list. But something about this book called out to me and I got it. I'm grateful that I did.

The book has no plot - it is simply the thoughts of a middle-aged man moving about his house in the dark very early each morning as he makes a fire and then sits in front of it before anyone else in the family is awake. And since I tend to potter around my house in the dark, very early, thinking my own thoughts, that appealed to me. What I didn't expect was that Baker's character, Emmett - who is, of course, Mr Baker himself - was thinking MY thoughts, or very often so. I had so much 'shock of recognition' here that it was eerie.

His character's thoughts are not the neurotic sort made famous - and slightly repellent - by Proust or Joyce. They are the thoughts of a basically normal, healthy middle-aged family man. Beyond that, Baker's ability to notice usually unnoticed and unremarked things, and then describe them not only accurately but in evocative language has now made it necessary for me to go back and read everything he's written. I look forward to it.

Scott Morrison

This is a beautiful little story. Early every morning for 33 mornings a man, Emmett, gets up, makes a cup of coffee, lights a fire and thinks. As a reader, we get to participate in Emmett's simple, yet detailed, musings on his life. While doing so we develop a picture of a man with more clarity than most characters in modern fiction. This is a story well worth reading.

Unfortunately, it is difficult for me to get past the fact that I spent [$$] on what is basically a short story. A small book with widely spaced lines of 178 pages--I didn't do a word count but I would have been much happier if I had read this as part of an anthology of other stories.

I am a big fan of Nicholson Baker. I think he is one of the best writers of prose in America today. Therefore, I ultimately don't regret having purchased and read this story. But if I were not a fan of Baker, I might feel a little ripped off. It might be better to start with one of his other books like Nory or Double Fold.

Every time I read a Nicholson Baker book I find myself wondering things he might wonder: Why was this particular typeface selected? What kind of writing reads best with sans serif type? Why do editors tell you the name of the font at the end of some books? What is the rationale of putting the page numbers on the top versus the bottom of the page? Is there a maximum weight for a book? Or, in this case, a minimum? Why so many blank pages at the end?

But halfway through A Box of Matches I began to wonder about larger questions, almost none of them good: Is this literature? Is it even fiction? Can a story exist without conflict? Without antagonists? With no plot? Only one multi-dimensional character?

I have always applauded Baker for pushing the boundaries a little more each time out, but he went too far in A Box of Matches. As a writer, he has a world-class gift for describing minor events perfectly and crisply. But isn't there a limit to how minor minor can get? Couldn't he have found something more worthwhile to use his talents on?

I kept waiting for some kind of O Henry ending or the sudden realization that Emmit, the self-absorbed main character, had somehow evolved. Anticipating what might happen made the book pass faster, but those sorts of developments aren't Baker's style. In retrospect, the book seems like the literary equivalent to recording an Opera star singing scales before a show.

No, no, no. Go back and read The Fermata, The Mezzanine, U &I, even Double Fold (his wonderful non-fiction debut) and save yourself from this Book of Matches. If Baker wants to publish his writing exercises, nothing says we have to read them.

Nicholson Baker's
A Box of Matches is based on a very simple premise. Emmett, a text-book editor nearing middle age, decided that every morning, he will wake up very early just to think. He ponders his life, and life in general, while burning a fire in his fireplace. When the box of matches used to light the fire is finished, so is his habit of waking up early just to think.

Sound simple? It is. Sound too simple? It isn't. This deceptively simple plot actually makes for an exciting, yet relaxing read. The novel flows smoothly and quickly. While the reader reads about Emmett's thought, she or he also learns intimate details about his personal life. We see his close relationship with his wife Claire. We see his daily interactions with their teenage daughter, young son, and pet duck. Baker also adds funny comments to Emmett's thoughts, which allow us to get to know his quirky and witty personality.

The novel is short, which adds to its eligibility as a summer reading choice. Admittedly, no one would want to read a 400 page book about one man's thoughts. As a short novel, however, the book is a well-written literary portrait of one man's life and character. The book also tends to inspire readers to get up earlier, to read and write more often, to enjoy life, and most importantly- to simply stop and think.

If you are looking for an enjoyable and relaxing book to read this summer,
A Box of Matches is one book you are sure to like. It is a perfect book to read while at the beach, in the bathtub, on an airplane, or simply during your own early morning "think time."

At first I didn't have much hope for this novel, as other stories about nothing (to which I was exposed through school) were nearly the death of my love of reading, but this was a book apart. I flipped through it several times on different visits to the book shop, each time thinking to myself that there was no point to reading it, yet inexplicably I kept picking it up. When I got it home I just couldn't put it down. It is original and well observed, and it is also deeply moving and strangely poetic. I found the subject matter and writing style very soothing-- like reading "Goodnight Moon" as a child. The pureness of emotion was amazing; who'd have thought that reading about somebody drawing the curtains could make you cry? If you open your mind to it, this book will rekindle your appreciation for life's little things.

Nicholson Baker's A Box of Matches is a novel that has no plot. It's a creative and provocative book that has to do with nothing but also everything. Emmett is a 44-year-old medical textbook editor who has a wife Claire, two children Phoebe and Henry, a cat and a duck Greta. Now Emmett contemplates an interesting idea. Inspired by Claire who took him to see the first emerging blade of sunrise on New Year's day, he decides to get up very early before dawn, when the sky is still a conceivable blue and pitch-dark, strikes a match and lights a fire and meditates before the kicking off of the day.

The book has no plot but hinges on a theme: Emmett wants to know what life is about. Sitting in front of the orange cavern, in a bathrobe, eyes barely lubricated, Emmett thinks. Nothing really compelling about the daily petty anecdotes, the paltry conversations, and the inveterate, perfunctory house chores. What makes the book so compelling is Emmett's fiery zest with which he relays his most ordinary anecdotes.

1.The toe-hole in the sock of his foot becomes intolerable at night.
2.The double-flush plunger with a narrow tip comes in rescue to lunge the bathtub drain and clears the clog.
3.Greta, the duck, makes whimpering noise when she pecks at some snail stuck in the bottom of a log.
4.Absent-minded Emmett loses his key, which is later found frozen under a piece of raw meat in the freezer.
5.Hose winder spares the hands from the mulchy things and snail slime attached to the hose when being winded manually.
6.Emmett prefers a soap that is not brain-shriveling with perfumes but heavy with soap material.
7.His toes learn, by trial and error, to arch and lift up from the tub to avoid the impact of collision when the bar of soap slips out of his hand and drops.
8.The most effective method to clean a baking pan that previously holds a casserole is to let it soak overnight, squirt and trail soap in the baked-on atolls and the suds will give away.
9.The fire should be made by feel, feeding slab of junk mails, supermarket circulars, and pieces of pizza box into the slot made by two logs.
10.In an inquisitive state, one should never turn over a cup and see if the Hollerbee chinaware logo is imprinted, and thus sending a gush of hot tea onto the trousers.
11.Men should sit on the toilet for their business in the middle of the night should they have bad aiming.
12.Be careful with cutting apple woods. They could leap up and whack in your face in a nick of second.

Of course you will have to join Emmett's early-bird ritual and take joy in his life meditation. The book is graciously divided into 33 short chapters and each chapter represents each of the 33 matches from the box Emmett strikes every morning. He always starts off with "Good Morning, it's _:__am" and he would rebuke himself for getting up late in a couple mornings.

The amazing thing about this book is however thorough the observations and wise the subjects Emmett observes, the narrative always confines in his home, in front of the fireplace and moves no further than the backyard where Greta the duck takes residence in a doghouse. This is a celebration of life ordinariness. The writing is daft, thoughtful and crisp. Beautifully written. 4.1 stars.

Emmett is forty-four years old, an editor of medical textbooks, married to Claire, with two growing children. The story begins when he decides to get up early each morning, light a fire in the pitch-black darkness, and spend time in quiet reflection. And he does so through a whole box of matches--thirty-three matches--thirty-three frigid mornings, thirty-three delightful short chapters.

This is not a traditional novel with a plot. It is more like a journal, in which a man shares his inmost thoughts--small thoughts, anecdotes, observations about matches and fires and how to find things in the dark; and about his family, his troubled thoughts about his father, the children he dearly loves; his sense of time slipping away; his surprising discoveries about his pet duck... and so much more. It is the story of a man's life, not in chronologic order but as the network of meanings and experiences that life is made of.

So little seems to happen, so little seems to change from one day's musings to the next, that I would call this minimalist fiction. And yet, much is revealed. You come to know Emmett and his family in a deep and touching way.

I enjoyed this little book and I recommmend it highly. There is more to it than meets the eye. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

This should have been the most boring book in the history of writing. The plot: a man wakes each morning at 4:00, and we get a couple of pages of his thoughts while he is making a fire. The Things he talks about: his pet duck, needing to pee, the best way to shave, and how well belly-button lint burns. Yes, belly-button lint. This should have been either a really boring novel or a really irritating one, but it was neither. Nicholas Baker finds in this world of minutia a lot to live for and a lot to write about.

A Box of Matches is at turns humorous, touching, and wise. It's quick and light and entertaining, and you come away with a little greater appreciation for the smallest things in life. It's a truly worthwhile and life-affirming read.

This creative piece of fiction by Nicholson Baker is really more than just that. Baker's main character, Emmett, runs a parallel, rural life not unlike the authors own. Baker throws all his own feelings about the tiny things around him and their vast impact on his life into his character's daily ritual. It all starts out with the flare of a match. "Good Morning, it's 4:45 a.m."

If you think an ordinary man with an ordinary life has nothing to say at four o'clock in the morning, you couldn't be more off-base. While sitting in the dark and sipping hot coffee, Emmett explores everything from the nuisance of having a hole in his bedtime sock, to the perplexity of life "passing him by". The beauty of this book is that Baker takes these thoughts and pushes them one step further, bringing the eating habits of a pet duck or a root beer-stained brief case full circle. This kind of writing always bring validation to our normal lives.

"I've just ridden my tricycle, gone to school, greased my bearings, gotten a job, gotten married, had children, and here I am."

Each chapter starts out with Emmett's familiar greeting, a quick, usually comical, quibble of his morning run-down, and then a thoughtful stream of whatever is on the top of his mind. Whether he reminisces about his youth or contemplates the lives of chimney sweeps, he wraps each section up in a pointedly keen observation about the meaning of these things in life.

While this book is categorized as a `novel' I find it really hard to thing of in such a way. If it weren't for the fictional name of the character I would've just assumed this was a personal memoir. Also, besides the message that the everyday coming's and going's of our lives make up who we are, I felt this book didn't carry a very strong theme. I fully believe in Bakers underlying philosophy, but was hoping that there would be some kind of a story line to tie all these vignettes together (there were a couple of chapters where Emmett battles an illness that I thought would lead to something, but it never did). Even so, there's so much to enjoy in this book. Anyone who's raised a family, gotten married, or lived an `ordinary' life would thoroughly enjoy reading this.