- Paperback
- Publisher: Grove Press (1991)
- ASIN: B000X6EGG0
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mesmerizing tale of a squandered past and bleak future,
This review is from: An Explanation of the Birds (Antunes, Antonio Lobo) (Paperback)
As Rui S., 33 year old professor of political science and failed husband, son, and lover, looks back on his limited accomplishments, he contemplates his future and finds it particularly bleak. The son of a powerful and wealthy industrialist, Rui turned his back on the family business, studied the liberal arts, and joined the Communist Party. He married Tucha, a beautiful shrew, and fathered two children. We spend the entire book following a torrent of memories that washes over and around and through glimpses of the present. What distinguishes An Explanation of the Birds from other novels of its type is the manner of the telling. Past and present inter-mingle on the page with no markings or divisions acting as cues to the reader. Scenes from the past share space with scenes from the present within the same paragraph. It's a remarkable strategy that demands the reader remain ever attentive, but the effect is mesmerizing and works in a manner reminiscent of the magic realism of Garcia Marquez or Donoso. The novel is also cynically critical of modern Portugal, and of politics in general. Rui S. emerges as pathetic, his female companions as heartless, and his family as emotionally vapid and effete. Not a pretty picture. It is a novel worth reading for its brilliant technique, not necessarily for the warmth of its characterizations.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A ironic tale,
By Pedro (V.N.Gaia Portugal) - See all my reviews
This review is from: An Explanation of the Birds (Antunes, Antonio Lobo) (Paperback)
This is a ironic tale of a ordinay fellow on a particular situation. The life of Rui is a very ordinary one, divorced and married again, college professor, communist or maybe not, an ordinay wife. Rich son married with a communist lower-class wife. Now he tries to change this. Get a new life but how?
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
ONE OF THESE DAYS I'll beach right here, devoured by fish like a dead whale," he told me on the street in front of the clinic while looking at the neighborhood's sad and faded buildings, the unlit neon signs like monograms on a napkin, the glittery remnants of season's greetings in the windows, and a single dog, this January morning, nosing through the remains of a demolished row house: dust, rubble, wood scraps, and soulless shards of tile. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
musical sister, illustrated postcards, receiving keys, national guardsman, hair cream Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Azedo Gneco Street, Liberal Arts, Mme Simone, Dona Almerinda, Vouga River, Ravel's Bolero, Donald's Condoms, Sidonio Pais, Dona Sara, Haunted House New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
ONE OF THESE DAYS I'll beach right here, devoured by fish like a dead whale," he told me on the street in front of the clinic while looking at the neighborhood's sad and faded buildings, the unlit neon signs like monograms on a napkin, the glittery remnants of season's greetings in the windows, and a single dog, this January morning, nosing through the remains of a demolished row house: dust, rubble, wood scraps, and soulless shards of tile. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
musical sister, illustrated postcards, receiving keys, national guardsman, hair cream Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Azedo Gneco Street, Liberal Arts, Mme Simone, Dona Almerinda, Vouga River, Ravel's Bolero, Donald's Condoms, Sidonio Pais, Dona Sara, Haunted House New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 2
books:
10
books
cite this book:
See all 10 books citing this book
- Fado Alexandrino (Antunes, Antonio Lobo) by Antonio Lobo Antunes in Front Matter
- Citizen Kane (Screenplay) by Orson Welles on page 215
- The Return of the Caravels (Antunes, Antonio Lobo) by Antonio Lobo Antunes in Front Matter
- Lisbon (Footprint - Pocket Guides) by Caroline Lascom on page 232
- The Inquisitors' Manual by Antonio Lobo Antunes in Front Matter
- Act of the Damned by Antonio Lobo Antunes in Front Matter
- Women's Vision in Western Literature: The Empathic Community (Contributions in Women's Studies) by Laurence M. Porter in Back Matter
See all 10 books citing this book
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