Astoria: A Novel (Prose Series) - Softcover
Astoria is an original and powerful vision of the Great Migration, full of startling angels and unexpected daggers of truth. The narrator is a man deranged by history and grief. For him, the real capital of the world is a place called Astoria, the Italian neighborhood in Queens where his mother was a child in the 1920s. Now it is 1986, two years after her death. He has gone to teach literature at the University of Paris. At the tomb of Napoleon, he discovers she has not left him. For the narrator, she is Napoleon. No matter where he goes, he finds himself still in Astoria, her revolutionary empire. From Paris to New York to Rome, he meets her monuments at every turn. To break her hold on him, he weaves theory after theory, writes one history after another. His struggle reveals her as the will, the incest, and the magic of the Great Migration, its fury, its rage, its unappeasable desire. Astoria is an experiment in what Robert Viscusi calls speculative history. In his first book, Max Beerbohm or The Dandy Dante (1986), Viscusi developed the theory of a history of what might be, rather than what has actually been.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Robert Viscusi is Professor of English at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York, where he has directed The Wolfe Institute for the Humanities since 1982.
From Library Journal:
Readers may ask what makes this work a novel; it could be called an autobiographical/philosophical treatise, a reminiscence, or a "voyage of discovery." Viscusi (English and American literature, Brooklyn Coll.) is teaching in Paris when be begins to compare his new environment to his "hometown," Astoria, Queens. Reflecting at length about the past while hoping to explain it in terms of the future, he recalls his childhood days, considering how his early surroundings have affected him. An extremely cerebral work with long, convoluted sentences, this book will appeal to readers who relish extensive philosophical ruminations.?Ellen R. Cohen, Rockville, Md.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherGuernica Editions
- Publication date1995
- ISBN 10 0920717934
- ISBN 13 9780920717936
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages313
- Rating
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Astoria: A Novel
Published by
Guernica Editions,Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(1995)
ISBN 10: 0920717934
ISBN 13: 9780920717936
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Softcover
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Book Description Softcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket. Second Printing. A Good Read ships from Toronto and Niagara Falls, NY - customers outside of North America please allow two to three weeks for delivery. LIght tip wear, faint rubbing/soiling to wrapper. ; 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. Seller Inventory # 33850
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Astoria: A Novel (Prose Series, No 26)
Published by
Guernica Editions
(1995)
ISBN 10: 0920717934
ISBN 13: 9780920717936
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Book Description TPB. Condition: G+. GOOD-PLUS TRADE-PAPERBACK. EX-LIBRARY WITH TYPICAL MARKINGS. COVERS NICELY LAMINATED IN STIFF PLASTIC. Seller Inventory # 57936
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Astoria
Published by
Guernica, Toronto
(1995)
ISBN 10: 0920717934
ISBN 13: 9780920717936
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Soft cover
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Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Very Good ++. Hono Lulu (cover) (illustrator). First Edition. The book of 313 pages of fiction, takes its title from an Italian neighbourhood in Queens. Much of the action takes place in Paris - where the narrator has gone to teach. Read more about : hotel particuler, crested chimneys, Les Invalides, La Maiella, bag of wind, marble lobbioes, slavery lane, wooden Indians, Ecole Militaire, and `per ragioni di studio indipendente'. UNillustrated. Cond : Black paper wrapper, with white lettering. I see Napoleon on horseback in the cover art. Tight, bright, square, crisp and clean. Minimal wear. No names nor marks. Giftable ! ! QUote (p. 216) : " My head was full of revolution. I thought, when I arrived in Italy, Was there an Italian revolution? Was the migration a revolution ? These were the leading questions. Under them were arranged huge families of others. Did Browning really believe in ._._._. ? " Size: 12mo. Seller Inventory # 014247
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