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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Gift, December 24, 2005
This review is from: The House of Paper (Hardcover)
This small novel is big in spirit and imagination. Beautifully illustrated and delightfully translated, it is a cautionary tale of a bibliophile who moves into his obsession. Its Kafka meets Conrad literary devices are splendid. But they do keep the tale cerebral-- leaving the reader to find their own emotional reaction and provoking an exploration of one's devotions, life and loves. That is this little story's big gift.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"To build up a library is to create a life.", November 14, 2005
This review is from: The House of Paper (Hardcover)
This short literary novel explores themes which academicians have discussed for generations--the relationship between reality and language, the belief that creating a library is akin to creating a life, the idea that books can take on a life of their own, and the obsessive collection of books and reverence for them. Creating an allegory of the literary world and its complications, Dominguez tells what appears to be a simple story--part mystery, part satire, and part quest.
When Bluma Lennon, a professor at Cambridge and a Joseph Conrad scholar, is hit by a car while crossing the street, she had been reading Emily Dickinson. Several months later, a copy of Conrad's The Shadow Line, coated in cement, arrives at her former address from "Carlos," a man she had met at a conference in Latin America. The unnamed narrator of the story, originally from Buenos Aires (as was Jorge Luis Borges), returns to Buenos Aires and eventually travels to Montevideo in search of Carlos Brauer, a former lover of Bluma, and the owner of an extraordinary collection of books.
As the narrator travels to meet scholars and antiquarian book sellers, he acquires additional information about Brauer, who has apparently gone mad. After accidentally setting the index of his books on fire and being unable to find anything in his weirdly organized collection, he moves to the sea and builds a house from bricks pressed from the waterlogged books in his collection. Conrad's The Shadow Line, the book he has returned to Bluma, is obviously from this damaged collection, and the symbolism of this book and its themes of a man's rejection of his youthful illusions, the belief in the sea as a healer, and the search for self-knowledge help explain Brauer's life.
Though the novel is carefully written, its self-consciously literary approach and its use of allegory and satire keep the attention on the intellectual, rather than emotional, level. The themes dominate the novel, and the reader must constantly ask what the unfolding events mean or represent as the parallels and conflicts between "real life" and the life of books unfold. Characters are more symbolic than real, and their behavior often becomes a satire of their academic lives. Erudite and clever, the novel exists on its own terms, rather than through any emotional connection with the reader, and it sometimes feels ponderous. n Mary Whipple
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bibliomania at its literary best, November 30, 2005
This review is from: The House of Paper (Hardcover)
This novella begins with a singular example of how books change people's fates. Bluma Lennon, an academic, is killed as she steps from a sidewalk immersed in a volume of Emily Dickinson's poems. Her nameless replacement, the narrator of the story, receives by mail a copy of Joseph Conrad's The Shadow-Line, encrusted in cement, and inscribed to a certain Carlos, whose last name is Brauer, as is later discovered. Wishing to return the book to its sender, the narrator embarks on a quest to find him, and is ultimately led to Delgado, who recounts his tale.
Brauer is a bibliomania in its purest sense, and his library, which overtook his first house, rules his life. The only thing that allows him to command his books is the index he created, which burns in an accidental fire and leaves him at a loss to find anything. He despairs and begins his descent into madness, selling his abode and creating another which uses his precious books as bricks. Delgado does not finish the story, and the narrator is left on his own to uncover the rest.
The House of Paper is a book by, for, and about book lovers. Dominguez describes from experience how the passion for reading is all-engrossing, in literal and figurative ways. When rendered inaccessible, they lose their meaning and purpose, which is to enhance the human experience. Without that, they could only serve in a utilitarian way, for their sheer physicality.
This slim volume, ornamented with delightful illustrations, is a wonderful read, particularly if you find yourself afflicted, even if mildly, by bibliophilia.
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