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End of the Road
 
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End of the Road (Paperback)

by John Barth (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)


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Product Details

  • Paperback
  • Publisher: Bantam Books; Reissue edition (December 1983)
  • ISBN-10: 0553242768
  • ISBN-13: 978-0553242768
  • Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #835,239 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #17 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Barth, John

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book, September 23, 1999
By A Customer
This Tom Bodett book ought to be an American treasure and an instant classic. Perhaps the only obstructions to this happening are a lack of good distribution and increasing apathy towards reading. This collection of stories outshines the cassette version with its completeness and the liberty that it affords readers in portraying the characters as they wish to see them. Tom Bodett's reading is top notch, but his writing is even better. His stories are of small town people. Some have a clue, others don't have so much as a prayer of getting a clue, but they all hold your attention while shedding new light on life, love, happiness, and the ever present confusion that goes along with them.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Barth roars out of the starting gate, December 13, 2002
This review is from: The end of the road
When you pick the book up you think to yourself, "There's no way this is John Barth" after all after holding the book for several minutes, your muscles aren't aching at all from the weight. Heck the novel is almost pocket sized. Yes, kids, early on Barth was reasonable concise in length (not that I don't like his longer stuff), at least for his first two novels (I think his third was the Sot-Weed Factor) so this makes a good place for novices lacking the stamina to jump right in. And actually for a first effort this is remarkably good and remarkably daring, considering that it was published in the late fifties. It's the story of Jake Horner, a young guy recently hired to teach grammar at a small college, and the infidelity he gets involved in with one of the other professor's wives and what happens because of that. The fairly standard story is completely changed by Horner's narration though. Cynical and uncaring, but somehow oddly admirable, Barth manages to make him seem almost likeable, even when his behavior verges on being that of a total monster (emotionally at least). His verbal sparring with his fellow professor Joe, who's outlook on life is equally extreme as Horner's is nonexistant (you could probably make a case and say that the story is existential in nature but I don't know enough about the philosophy to say for sure). But while the story remains at its heart a tale of infidelity, toward the end it takes a decidedly dark turn as Barth shows that everything has consequences. If the tone and nature of the story was daring for its time, its unsparingly frank view of abortion must have been absolutely shocking and even today is probably enough to turn people off. It shouldn't. While not his best book, it shows a master beginning to stretch his muscles (or at least realize he had muscles to stretch) and announced the entrance of a new literary talent with a voice that could be both uproariously funny and starkly grim all in the same story.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars NOT Hyperbole! The FUNNIEST Book I've ever read, March 21, 2000
By S. Chesnut (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
This Book was required reading for class, and I am so grateful it was! That was nearly 6 years ago, and I still read this book almost every 2 months, or whenever I feel down--It ALWAYS cheers me up. My only complaint is that it is so hard to find. My original copy fell apart because I read it so many times, and I had a heck of a time finding a new copy. I Wholeheartedly recommend this book. IT's a treasure.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Must have been a sensation in those times
I read it in 2007, i.e. more than 30 years after it was written, so it somehow may seem dated.
But the style is nice, peculiar, sometimes even funny and the issues must have... Read more
Published 16 months ago by B. Andrea

4.0 out of 5 stars A finely tuned novel
This was Barth's second novel; if THE FLOATING OPERA was a nihilist comedy, this novel is a nihilist catastrophe, ending in a fatally botched abortion. Read more
Published on August 8, 2005 by Bomojaz

5.0 out of 5 stars Barth 102: An Introduction to the Master, continued
"The End of the Road" shares a central plot element (a love triangle) with Barth's first novel, "The Floating Opera", but in TEOTR the relationship is about as far from consensual... Read more
Published on June 27, 2004 by cs211

5.0 out of 5 stars A moral essay on personal responsibility
This book is oddly melancholic. It tells all of the failings of human beings in conducting relationships. Read more
Published on July 23, 2002 by Ventura Angelo

5.0 out of 5 stars A Really Good Laugh
If you've ever heard Tom's radio program of the same name, "End of the Road" will be a real treat. I could almost hear his voice coming from the pages. Read more
Published on January 30, 2002 by Maxwell Smart

2.0 out of 5 stars does not have the complete collection of stories from book
I heard some of the stories over PBS years ago and decided to buy the collection. I am disappointed that the two tape set does not have the complete book as I was expecting... Read more
Published on December 5, 1998 by isddlcday@gci.net

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful description of unforgetable small town characters
Tom Bodette establishes himself as one of the best story tellers of our lifetime with his description of the interesting characters in his fictional small town in Alaska. Read more
Published on November 7, 1998

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