Mitz: The Marmoset of Bloomsbury [Paperback]

Sigrid Nunez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2007

In 1934, a "sickly pathetic marmoset" named Mitz came into the care of Leonard Woolf. After nursing her back to health, he was rarely seen without the amusing monkey on his shoulder. A ubiquitous presence in Bloomsbury society, Mitz moved with the Woolfs between their homes in London and Sussex. She developed her own special relationships with the family's cocker spaniels and with the various members of the Woolfs' circle, among them T. S. Eliot and Vita Sackville-West. Mitz even played a vital role in helping the Woolfs escape a close call with Nazis in Germany just before World War II. Blending letters, diaries, and memoirs, acclaimed novelist Sigrid Nunez reconstructs Mitz's life, painting it against the fascinating backdrop of Bloomsbury in its twilight years. Tender, affectionate, and filled with humor, this novel offers a striking look at lives shadowed by war, death, and mental breakdown, as well as the happiness and productivity this plucky creature inspired.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Drawing on memoirs, letters, diaries and her imagination, Sigrid Nunez (A Feather on the Breath of God, 1994) has written a fanciful account of the everyday lives of Leonard and Virginia Woolf in the 1930s--centered on Leonard's pet marmoset, Mitz. The book profiles the Woolfs in sickness and in health, during creative periods and dry spells, at their London apartment and their countryside home, Monk's House, and on an automobile jaunt around the continent in which they stubbornly, if not foolishly, travel to Nazi Germany--accompanied by Mitz. Then there are the various ruckuses Mitz causes (such as biting T. S. Eliot's finger). Using broad strokes, Nunez reconstructs a fading Bloomsbury, whose surviving members are in physical decline and for whom the hint of tragedy is ever present. Like Mitz, who, being a tropical creature, is doomed to a short life in the Northern Hemisphere, Bloomsbury and prewar Europe, both remnants from a gentler time salvaged from the First World War, gallantly face the end of their own heady eras. Frank Caso --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

From letters and memoirs, the versatile Nunez (Naked Sleeper, 1996, etc.) shapes a small, curious contribution to the greater glory of Bloomsbury, in the form of a story based on Leonard and Virginia Woolf's pet monkey. The sickly Mitz entered the Woolfs' lives in 1934, when a pet-sitting arrangement blossomed into something more permanent: genuine affection between Leonard and his charge. Tucked into her master's waistcoat, the tiny, pampered Mitz soon overcame infirmities brought on during confinement on the voyage from South America and on subsequent neglect. Befriending the Woolfs spaniel Pinka meant having a warm bundle of fur to sleep next to, as well as an alternate grooming partner whenever the absentminded Leonardwith his pockets full of slugs and head full of dandruffwas unavailable. On the odd occasion at their country house in Sussex when Mitz would escape into the trees, Leonard's simple stratagem of openly displaying affection toward Virginia would be enough to bring the jealous marmoset back to her perch on his shoulder. The literary life continued apace with Mitz part of the routine, but her unique role didnt fully emerge until a driving trip to Italy in 1935, when, in Bonn, she charmed a beet-faced storm trooper long enough for Virginia and Leonard to make their getaway. Her charms, however, couldnt save them, or herself, from the shadows lengthening over Bloomsbury on their return: Leonard's frailty, Virginia's depression, and the gathering thunder of war, which in Spain claimed the life of their nephew Julian Bell. Mitz's own departure, the result of a winter chill, foreshadows further tragedies about to befall the extraordinary couple. Domestic vignettes here are nicely turned, but the details of social and literary history are obtrusive, rendering dense and merely illustrative what might have been a quirky, modest tale. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press (February 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193336856X
• ISBN-13: 978-1933368566
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,388,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sigrid Nunez was born in New York City, the daughter of a German mother and a Chinese-Panamanian father, whose lives she drew on for part of her first novel, A FEATHER ON THE BREATH OF GOD (1995). She went on to write five more novels, including THE LAST OF HER KIND (2006) and, most recently, SALVATION CITY (2010). She is also the author of SEMPRE SUSAN: A MEMOIR OF SUSAN SONTAG (2011). Her honors include a Whiting Writers' Award, a Rome Prize, a Berlin Prize, and the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Learn more at www.sigridnunez.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Discovered by accident, relished with joy, January 6, 2000

By 

Alice Sebold (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mitz: The Marmoset Of Bloomsbury (Hardcover)

I was on vacation and came upon this book the day before leaving Santa Cruz. I picked it up and something said "buy me" (had read no reviews, author interviews, been 'told to' 'she's hot' etc.). As my friend drove us back to L.A. I began reading Nunez's book aloud. I kept on doing so. I read for 4.5 hours until finishing. My throat hurt and I developed pains from talking aloud so long but... I could not stop, nor did my driving partner want me to (I read past the point where we were to switch!). MITZ is an inventive, intelligent, throuroughly researched and alive creation. Unlike Kirkus, I felt the historical positioning and the awareness of the times deepened the tale and made it, at times, an absolutely miraculous achievement of intellectual imagination. And can I say, that Nunez babe can write write write. Clean, pure, prose. I got on Amazon to write this and to order every other thing she's written. Nunez you are great! and HarperCollins put together a great looking book as well, a too often neglected part of the modern reading experience. Viva MITZ!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely, March 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mitz: The Marmoset Of Bloomsbury (Hardcover)

Her prose is elegant and pleasurable, her scholarship particular, and her imagination delicate. After I read this book I wanted to rush out and read more Woolf and Nunez (and did). Please read to the end, it's so simple and resonant.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Biography of a Marmoset, April 19, 2002

By 

Catherine M. Dorkin "willow100cm" (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mitz: The Marmoset Of Bloomsbury (Hardcover)

No, I am not talking about Ross' monkey Marcel from Friends. This Marmoset is Mizt, adopted by the literary giants Virginia and Leonard Woolfe. Through there richness, elegence and love for one another (and Mitz) we read a book detailing the biography (life) of Mitz. Via trips, memoirs and entries of diaries detailed by the authors in the written work. This is a delightful little book where we find that Mitz has a personality and is not just a monkey.
It is a charming, witty fun read, well worth a second or third read. Definetly a must for all.