Dazzling in its structure and shattering in its emotional force, Graham Swift's Ever After spans two centuries and settings from the adulterous bedrooms of postwar Paris to the contemporary entanglements in the groves of academe. It is the story of Bill Unwin, a man haunted by the death of his beautify wife and a survivor himself of a recent brush with mortality. And although it touches on Darwin and dinosaurs, bees and bridge builders, the true subject of Ever After is nothing less than the eternal question, "Why should things matter?"
"Ever After is explicitly concerned with historical investigation, love, death, family affairs.... It moves quickly, and it vibrates with feeling and thought."--Wall Street Journal
From Publishers Weekly
Musing on a set of Victorian diaries and reminiscing about his own life, the quirky academic who narrates Swift's latest novel fails to capture the reader's imagination. A BOMC alternate selection in cloth. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
While struggling to reconstruct his life after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, middle-aged narrator Bill Unwin confronts his inescapable past. Numbed by the deaths of his wife and his mother, Bill had become a reluctant and skeptical academic researching notebooks written by a Victorian ancestor named Matthew Pearce. These notebooks provide a narrative vehicle for traveling backward and forward in time, giving Bill abundant opportunity to expound on such diverse topics as academia, dinosaurs, Darwin, railroads, death, and, ultimately, the enduring and life-sustaining power of love. Swift, the talented author of Waterland (Pocket Bks., 1984) and Out of This World (Poseidon Pr., 1988), has created a marvelous character whose wry humor and perspicacity uncover the elusive relationship between history and fiction. Poignant, astute, heartwarming, and welcome. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/91. - Jacqueline Adams, Carroll Cty. P.L., Westminster, Md. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
Dazzling in its structure and shattering in its emotional force, Graham Swift's Ever After spans two centuries and settings from the adulterous bedrooms of postwar Paris to the contemporary entanglements in the groves of academe. It is the story of Bill Unwin, a man haunted by the death of his beautify wife and a survivor himself of a recent brush with mortality. And although it touches on Darwin and dinosaurs, bees and bridge builders, the true subject of Ever After is nothing less than the eternal question, "Why should things matter?"
"Ever After is explicitly concerned with historical investigation, love, death, family affairs.... It moves quickly, and it vibrates with feeling and thought."--Wall Street Journal
From Publishers Weekly
Musing on a set of Victorian diaries and reminiscing about his own life, the quirky academic who narrates Swift's latest novel fails to capture the reader's imagination. A BOMC alternate selection in cloth.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
While struggling to reconstruct his life after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, middle-aged narrator Bill Unwin confronts his inescapable past. Numbed by the deaths of his wife and his mother, Bill had become a reluctant and skeptical academic researching notebooks written by a Victorian ancestor named Matthew Pearce. These notebooks provide a narrative vehicle for traveling backward and forward in time, giving Bill abundant opportunity to expound on such diverse topics as academia, dinosaurs, Darwin, railroads, death, and, ultimately, the enduring and life-sustaining power of love. Swift, the talented author of Waterland (Pocket Bks., 1984) and Out of This World (Poseidon Pr., 1988), has created a marvelous character whose wry humor and perspicacity uncover the elusive relationship between history and fiction. Poignant, astute, heartwarming, and welcome. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/91.
- Jacqueline Adams, Carroll Cty. P.L., Westminster, Md.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.