Thunder and Light [Hardcover]

Marie-Claire Blais (Author), Nigel Spencer (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0887841767 | ISBN-13: 978-0887841767

Thunder and Light is the much-anticipated second book in Marie-Claire Blais's spectacular and ambitious trilogy chronicling the mood of our apocalyptic age. It is the sequel to These Festive Nights, winner of the Governor General's Award for French fiction; a novel Le Devoir called the Divine Comedy of our time.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marie-Claire Blais has been the recipient of the Governor General's Award for French fiction three times, the Athanase-David Prize, the Médicis Prize, the Molson Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is the author of These Festive Nights. Nigel Spencer received the Governor General's Award for Translation for Translation for Thunder and Light.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 204 pages
• Publisher: House of Anansi Press (April 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887841767
• ISBN-13: 978-0887841767
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,671,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Governor General's Award Winner: Nigel Spencer, November 25, 2002

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thunder and Light (Hardcover)

"Nigel Spencer's translation, like Marie-Claire Blais' novel, gathers in rhythm and intensity as it draws the reader inexorably into its world. Spencer rises to the many challenges of Blais' prose with deftness and grace, teaching us to read in a new way."

The Jury: Governor General's Literary Awards.

5.0 out of 5 stars Governor General's Finalist., November 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Thunder and Light (Hardcover)

"Nigel Spencer (finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Translation) becomes our guide to the labyrinth of Marie-Claire Blais' fictional world. In so doing, the translator displays the same spirit of invention as the author."

The Jury--Governor General's Literary Awards.

5.0 out of 5 stars AN UNFORGETABLE AND STUNNING JOURNEY--U. of Rochester / ATTUNED TO OUR TIMES--Quill & Quire, September 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Thunder and Light (Hardcover)

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"TO READ HIM IS AN UNFORGETTABLE AND STUNNING JOURNEY."

--Three Percent / Open Letter: University of Rochester.

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"ATTUNED TO OUR TIMES"--Quill & Quire Magazine

THUNDER AND LIGHT is the sequel to THESE FESTIVE NIGHTS. [The latter] centres on a celebration; THUNDER AND LIGHT turns to death, its previews and versions and aftermaths.

Anyone who has reveled in modernism's canon--ULYSSES, and much of Gertrude Stein especially--will float into the reading rhythm...once the rhythm sets in, readers will be stunned and startled by Blais' prose. Like all true novelists, she is also a soothsayer.

In the narcissism of photographers and dancers and poets; in communities' resistance to immigrants and exiles and their origins; in the crazy hierarchies of of criminals and their judges, Blais attempts to define innocence.

While documenting cases familiar from media overkill, Blais predicts cultural hotspots. In Manhattan, a street girl released carelessly from a mental institution warns of apocalypse..."and what if that lunatic's predictions were dead-on, then the city of New York was going down in floods, buildings and skyscrapers crumbling."

Blais is a writer attuned to our times.

--Lorna Jackson: QUILL & QUIRE, November, 2001