Sweet Caress
Autor William Boyden Limba Engleză Paperback – 16 mai 2016
When Amory Clay was born, in the decade before the Great War, her disappointed father gave her an androgynous name and announced the birth of a son. But this daughter was not one to let others define her; Amory became a woman who accepted no limits to what that could mean, and from the time she picked up her first camera, one who would record her own version of events.
Moving freely between London and New York, between photojournalism and fashion photography, and between the men who love her on complicated terms, Amory establishes her reputation as a risk taker and a passionate life traveler. Her hunger for experience draws her to the decadence of Weimar-era Berlin and the violence of London's Blackshirt riots, to the Rhineland with Allied troops and into the political tangle of war-torn Vietnam. During her ambitious career, the seminal moments of the twentieth century will become the unforgettable moments of her own biography as well.
In "Sweet Caress," Amory Clay comes wondrously to life, her vibrant personality enveloping the reader from the start. And, running through the novel, her photographs over the decades allow us to experience this vast story not only with Amory's voice but with her vision. William Boyd's "Sweet Caress" captures an entire lifetime unforgettably within its pages. It captivates.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 1632863332
Pagini: 464
Dimensiuni: 137 x 208 x 30 mm
Greutate: 0.41 kg
Editura: Bloomsbury USA
Descriere
LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2017
THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
Amory Clay's first memory is of her father doing a handstand - but it is his absences that she chiefly remembers. Her Uncle Greville, a photographer, gives her both the affection she needs and a camera, which unleashes a passion that irrevocably shapes her future. She begins an apprenticeship with him in London, photographing socialites for magazines. But Amory is hungry for more and her search for life, love and artistic expression will take her to the demi-monde of 1920s Berlin, New York in the 1930s, the Blackshirt riots in London, and France during the Second World War, where she becomes one of the first women war photographers.
In this enthralling story of a life fully lived, William Boyd has created a sweeping panorama of the twentieth century, told through the camera lens of one unforgettable woman.
Recenzii
Sweet Caress is a rattling good "what will happen next?" story and, on another level, a meditation, in fiction, on women and the lens."Caress" is just the right word for the feel of this novel. Boyd deals with heavy themes with the lightest touch. We're lucky to have him writing for us
Boyd is as good as ever at capturing time and place, and at blurring the line between fact and fiction . A highly enjoyable read
One of Britain's best and best-loved storytellers . A skilfully plotted, cleverly constructed and highly entertaining novel. It's a book crying out for screen adaptation
Witty and resourceful, Boyd's heroine immediately appeals . This is the story of a life shaped and scarred by war and also by those accidents of fate over which none of us can exert power
William Boyd is a gifted chronicler of lives both enigmatic and artistic . Rich in psychological depth, zingy characters and period detail
Boyd is a gifted storyteller . This is his fourth novel with a female protagonist and depicts every stage of Amory's life - from first kisses and teenage passions through to the pain of infertility - so convincingly that I have to remind myself it's written by a man
Boyd is a gifted and intelligent story-teller, who possesses the charm to beguile us through a tale which, like all his novels, bears testimony to the damage inflicted on the human psyche by love and war
Boyd is a brilliant novelist . Sweet Caress is an audacious, sweeping, rich layer cake of a novel, at once a textual hall of mirrors and a brilliant tale of a life well lived
Clever and compelling . A thrilling piece of craft, a meditation on work and life and everything in between
Absorbing and life-affirming and further proof, if it were needed, that Boyd can always be relied upon to tell a good story
Beautifully written, perfectly paced
Boyd's latest novel only serves to justify his already impressive reputation . Boyd's skill is to take what is essentially a full - yet not necessarily extraordinary - life and make it into extraordinary fiction. Fiction that instinctively pulls you in and keeps you there without having recourse to ostentation or largesse . To borrow from Amory's favourite parlour game and sum this novel up in four adjectives, it would quite simply be: panoramic, evocative, captivating and accomplished
Amory Clay, a worthy companion of Logan Mountstuart of Boyd's epic Any Human Heart
Boyd excels at creating characters who are convincing despite their extraordinarily complex lives. Amory is, of course, invented, yet knowing this never detracts from the poignancy of her story
Boyd is an inventive writer, excelling at the minutiae of event and place that enable him to locate an individual in a particular era . Sweet Caress is a darker, more disturbing exploration of a woman's experience of damage and survival
I enjoyed this book very much indeed . It has an unobtrusively elegant prose style coupled to propulsive plot momentum; deft characterisation and intelligent commentary . supremely accomplished
'This latest tome only serves to justify his already impressive reputation . To borrow from Amory's favourite parlour game and sum this novel up in four adjectives; it would quite simply be: panoramic, evocative, captivating and accomplished' *****
Boyd is at his best in this sweeping story of a woman photographer on a quest for love and artistic expression, taking in jazz-age Berlin, 1930s New York and wartime London and France
Boyd's representation of a certain sort of female voice is pitch-perfect, chiefly because he is not trying too hard to signal Amory's femininity . The opening chapters of Amory's life are reminiscent of Doris Lessing's account of her parents, who were both damaged by the war . For those who appreciate a novel in which emotional life is sensed at the edges of what is said, this is a masterly portrait. And the final chapters, in which Amory tries, with typical courage, to take ultimate control of her life, and then finds further courage to recognise the limitations of control, are superbly written and desperately moving
Sublime storyteller William Boyd has made something wonderful here - a virtual complete life. This is the story of Amory Clay . So under her skin is Boyd, it takes a while to realise she isn't a real person
It gets better the longer it goes on