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Fabrication : Essays on making things and making meaning
 
 
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Fabrication : Essays on making things and making meaning [Paperback]

Susan Neville (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Book Description

February 1, 2001
We are a nation of consumers. But where does what we buy come from? And how are these things made? In this meditation on manufacture, Susan Neville journeys to factories and plants in the heart of Indiana, looking for the sources of things.

From these journeys, Neville learns how the process of canning tomatoes is similar to the process of making metal caskets. Watches thousands of blue globes spin through a room like planets. Learns how, and by whom, and how well, and why things are made, whether they be dolls or insulin, gyroscopes or glass. And, by focusing on process and production, Neville gives us new, uncommon perspectives from which to view our world, and ourselves.


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Who hasn't held some strange object, like a paper clip or a breath mint, and wondered how it came to be shaped, shipped and merchandised? Neville, short story writer and essayist, acts on that curiosity by embarking on a series of factory tours, some planned and others impromptu, to observe the manufacture of all sorts of objects, including globes, caskets, cookies, glass, dolls and even gyroscopes. Her inclination toward fiction and personal essay lend context and a literary flavor, as she describes her sometimes melancholy thoughts and feelings while watching a doll-factory worker write "baby" on each plastic head, or hearing a tobacco auctioneer sigh about a recently lost dog. Sometimes her propensity to wax philosophical works against her, making some passages too lavish for the material. For example, in the chapter about coffins, the spare, clear prose that works well through much of the tour gives way to dreaminess: "I think about the people I love so desperately. I think about their living eyes. Like kindling. Bless the life inside of them. Like kindling." But most of the time, the work truly shines. Readers who appreciate long riffs on meaning and family will be happy to gaze out at these factory floors from their armchairs. (Mar.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Susan Neville is the author of four collections of stories and essays including The Invention of Flight, winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and In the House of Blue Lights, a Chicago Tribune Notable Book of 1998. A lifelong resident of Indianapolis, she wrote Fabrication in what was once a Stutz Bearcat Factory.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 293 pages
  • Publisher: MacMurray & Beck; 1ST edition (February 1, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1878448080
  • ISBN-13: 978-1878448088
  • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #574,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Factories in the Heartland, April 17, 2006
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Hoosier Girl (Indianapolis IN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fabrication : Essays on making things and making meaning (Paperback)
I agree with Michael Feldman's take on this book: fascinating! The author takes you into the world of how things are and were being made at the end of the twentieth century in the American Midwest: dolls, insulin, gyroscopes, caskets, steel, veneer, cookies, globes, glass, and cars. In the process she fabricates essays of lyrical beauty, a fitting tribute to the well-made objects she explores.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book, August 6, 2010
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This review is from: Fabrication : Essays on making things and making meaning (Paperback)
This is one of my favorite books. I actually bought this copy for someone else, but I'll leave a review anyway. This book is all about making things, mostly as done by companies from the American Midwest. The stories are all interesting, but the writing itself is the best part of this book. It is so evocative and engaging, you can feel the same excitement and wonder that the author felt when working on the book initially. The very first section, called "How the Universe is Made", is one of my favorite pieces of writing of all time. It's too bad this book has not had a wider audience, I would love for Oprah to discover it.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
My next-door neighbor owns seven white dogs. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Director of Safety, New York, Paper Chase, North Carolina, Walam Olum, Governor O'Bannon, Ralph Teetor, Stutz Bearcat, Thank God
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