Story of Mr Sommer [Hardcover]

Patrick Suskind (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1992

From the author of "Perfume and "The Double Bass" and "The Pigeon", this story is a celebration of childhood and of the joys of growing up.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A master of the deceptively simple tale. Suskind meditates on the nature of the most basic emotions, weaving a remarkable imagination into the strangest of half-didactic, half-humorous fables' The Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Ltd, London; First UK edition edition (October 15, 1992)
• ISBN-10: 0747513082
• ISBN-13: 978-0747513087
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,951,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a easy book with a deep meaning, June 8, 2000

By 

ChienChih Chi (Buffalo, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Story of Mr Sommer the - Pbk (Paperback)

This book is written in a childish style, using normal words and some great artist pictures to describe some deep meanings, which are impressed me very much. I always send this book to a friend as a gift, because I believe it is absolutely interesting to them. After reading this book, the feeling is just like that: I finished a taoist dream.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Also a story of a young boy -- Don't miss it., August 15, 2006

By 

bottle - See all my reviews

This review is from: Story of Mr. Sommer (Paperback)

Mr. Sommer was a strange person, who, whenever be seen, was always walking, day and night. Why was he endlessly walking? Nobody seemed to know and later nobody seemed to care. It's a story about Mr. Sommer, narrated by a person, who recalled few encounters he had with Mr. Sommer in his childhood. Those "encounters" are told in combined with some important events happened in his young days, like the first love, the first bicycle, and the piano lessons. From these, you also learn about the narrator himself. These pieces of memoirs were so funny (or bitter sweet) that made me laugh out loud. That they were until the last encounter with Mr. Sommer, which led me ponder how it would affect a teen like this narrator.

It's a tiny book with illustrations by Sempé (whose works appeared in New Yorker several times). The US edition (Mr. Summer's Story) has been out of print for a long time. Fortunately, Bloomsbury in UK reprinted it in Nov. 2003. The book doesn't give you some "moral" behind the story explicitly -- you can have your own by yourself. In any case, it's really worth reading.