A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1995
Harriet Rose, twenty-six, is an American photographer just winning recognition for her work. A travel fellowship brings her to visit her best friend and former roommate, Anne Gordon, in Switzerland. In an ongoing letter to her boyfriend, Harriet reports on strange developments in Anne's life, most notably her affair with a much older married man, which seems to be leading to a disastrous conclusion. Before she can rescue Anne, events take a series of unexpected turns, and Harriet must reexamine her own life and past, and come to terms with the difficulties and possibilities of human relationships.
Weber's first novel shifts between past and present as a young photographer tries to rescue her best friend from a destructive affair. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Harriet is a photographer who has won a travel grant to Geneva. There, she stays with her former Eighth Street roommate, Anne, who is working for an international business whose function is unclear. Harriet writes to her lover, Benedict, about her concern for her friend: Anne has changed. She is having an affair with a married man who survived Auschwitz with her father and seems confused and sad. Harriet's picture-taking allows her to see through the lens what is not visible to the eye as she looks at her life and that of her friend. She reminds us that what is seen in mirrors may offer a distorted view of reality. This well-written first novel combines both tragedy and a happily-ever-after conclusion. Recommended.?Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Providence Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Katharine Weber's five highly-praised and award-winning novels have made her a book club favorite. Her sixth book, a memoir called The Memory of All That: George Gershwin, Kay Swift, and My Family's Legacy of Infidelities, was published by Crown in July 2011 and has already won raves from the critics, from Ben Brantley in the New York Times ("Ms. Weber is able to arrange words musically, so that they capture the elusive, unfinished melodies that haunt our memoires of childhood") to the Dallas Morning News ("gracefully written, poignant and droll"), the NY Daily News ("Old Scandals, what fun...the core of her tale is that of elegant sin and betrayal"), and the Boston Globe (a masterful memoir of the private world of a very public family"), among others.
Her most recent novel, True Confections, the story of a chocolate candy factory in crisis, was published in January 2010 by Shaye Areheart Books and was published in December 2010 in paperback by Broadway Books. Critics raved: "A great American tale" (New York Times Book Review), "Marvelous, a vividly imagined story about love, obsession and betrayal" (Boston Globe), "Katharine Weber is one of the wittiest, most stimulating novelists at work today...wonderful fun and endlessly provocative" (Chicago Tribune),"Succulently inventive" (Washington Post),"Her most delectable novel yet" (L.A. Times).
Katharine's fiction debut in print, the short story "Friend of the Family," appeared in The New Yorker in January, 1993. Her first novel, Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear (of which that story was a chapter), was published by Crown Publishers, Inc. in 1995 and was published in paperback by Picador in 1996. It will be published in a new paperback edition by Broadway Books in Summer, 2011.
She was named by Granta to the controversial list of 50 Best Young American Novelists in 1996.
Her second novel, The Music Lesson, was published by Crown Publishers, Inc. in 1999, and was published in paperback by Picador in 2000. The Music Lesson has been published in twelve foreign languages, and is being reissued in the U.S. by Broadway Books in January, 2011.
The Little Women was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2003 and by Picador in 2004. All three novels were named Notable Books by The New York Times Book Review.
Her fourth novel, Triangle, which takes up the notorious Triangle Waist company factory fire of 1911, was published in 2006 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and in 2007 by Picador.
Katharine's maternal grandmother was the songwriter Kay Swift. Since Swift's death in 1993, Katharine has been a Trustee and the Administrator of the Kay Swift Memorial Trust, which is dedicated to preserving and promoting the music of Kay Swift. This work includes the first Broadway musical with a score by a woman, "Fine and Dandy," and several popular show tunes of the era, among them "Fine and Dandy" and "Can't We Be Friends?" (www.kayswift.com)
Katharine is on the staff at Star, a foundation dedicated to offering personal growth retreats in the Arizona desert. (www.starfound.org)
Katharine has taught fiction writing at Connecticut College, Yale University (for eight years), and the Paris Writers Workshop. She was the Kratz Writer in Residence at Goucher College in Spring 2006. Katharine is currently Adjunct Assistant Professor in the graduate writing program in the School of the Arts at Columbia University.
Katharine is married to the cultural historian Nicholas Fox Weber (author most recently of The Bauhaus Group), and they have two daughters.
This review is from: Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear: A Novel (Paperback)
I had an intuition about reading this book and I was right. It's rich, dense, withstructural decisions with which one might not agree, BUT it is wonderfully memorable, complex, a rare great read. In addition, as said in my long title, above, reading this as a writer: it's a goldmine. Because Ms. Weber carries this book with a consciousness that mixes the mundane life we all live with a literary savvy we can also enjoy (what some of us live too). To put this simply: the plot can take anyone along but the real treat is to see how an "intellectual" can create an accessible world that has so many philosophical and photographic insights also dispersed throughout. I read the middle flashback section after the first and last because I needed to keep with chronology. But, however you choose to read this, do so. Recommended for those who love a good read and recommended especially for writers. Many many tricks of the trade are embedded if one reads this with a writer's eye. Thanks, Ms. Weber, for a book that seriously challanged this non-fiction writer to reach for more range in my own work. A marvel.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 starsStylish, Urbane, Perceptive, November 30, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear: A Novel (Paperback)
Ms. Weber's book has the convention of a young woman trying to come to terms with a new love, long-buried family secrets, and witnessing a dear friend's involvement in an unhealthy relationship. But she gives the conventions a twist that are very surprising, and the result is wholly satisfying. Nice work, and I look forward to reading more from Ms. Weber.
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18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 starsan under-recognized gem, October 9, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear: A Novel (Paperback)
Why isn't this book better known? What a wonderful first novel. I can't believe it didn't win prizes. It's a Harriet the Spy for grownups. And the wordplay is brilliant. Hats off! Now when is her third novel coming out?
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Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Van Loeb, New York, Miss Trout, Ruth Rose, Simon Rose, Rutland Close, Eighth Street, Henry Gordon, Vieille Ville, Anita Antler, Victor Marks, Gay Gibson, Girl Scout, Miss Gordon, Anne Frank, New Jersey, Oxbridge Gardens, Shippen Gallery, Sutton Place, Jersey City, Sonya Trout, Ann Arbor, Anne Gordon, Children Without Childhoods, Gloria Shippen
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