The Mandibles
Autor Lionel Shriveren Limba Engleză Paperback – 20 iun 2017
Recomandăm acest roman cititorului care caută în literatură o oglindă cinică și extrem de lucidă a fragilității sistemelor noastre economice. „The Mandibles” nu este o distopie cu monștri sau catastrofe naturale, ci una a cifrelor și a rafturilor goale, potrivită celor care au găsit fascinantă analiza prăbușirii sociale din lucrări precum Founders de Rawles. Ritmul narativ amintește de realismul brutal din Tomorrow War de J L Bourne, însă Lionel Shriver înlocuiește accentul pe tactici militare cu o analiză psihologică tăioasă a modului în care declinul financiar erodează legăturile de familie. Suntem de părere că forța acestui roman rezidă în felul în care transformă macroeconomia în dramă domestică. În anul 2029, când Statele Unite intră în incapacitate de plată, familia Mandible vede cum averea patriarhului lor de 97 de ani se evaporă peste noapte. Observăm o transformare radicală a personajelor: de la Avery, revoltată de dispariția produselor de lux, la Florence, care încearcă să mențină un simulacru de normalitate într-o casă suprapopulată. În contextul operei sale, Shriver continuă explorarea disfuncțiilor umane începută în „We Need to Talk About Kevin”, dar extinde scara de la micro-universul parental la cel societal. Dacă în Double Fault autoarea analiza competiția prin prisma sportului, aici competiția devine una pentru supraviețuire biologică. Stilul este, așa cum ne-a obișnuit, unul provocator și lipsit de sentimentalism, transformând o criză monetară într-o explorare profundă a valorii umane atunci când banii încetează să mai existe.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 006232828X
Pagini: 416
Dimensiuni: 137 x 203 x 30 mm
Greutate: 0.32 kg
Editura: Harpercollins
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De ce să citești această carte
Această carte este o lectură esențială pentru cei interesați de scenarii „what-if” economice și de dinamicile familiale sub presiune extremă. Veți câștiga o perspectivă inconfortabilă, dar fascinantă, asupra vulnerabilității lumii moderne. Este un roman care nu doar prezice un viitor sumbru, ci analizează cu umor negru cum demnitatea și generozitatea se pot reinventa atunci când confortul dispare definitiv.
Despre autor
Lionel Shriver (născută Margaret Ann Shriver în 1957) este o scriitoare și jurnalistă americană stabilită în Regatul Unit, recunoscută pentru curajul de a aborda subiecte tabu sau extrem de politizate. A devenit celebră la nivel mondial după ce romanul său, „We Need to Talk About Kevin”, a câștigat Orange Prize for Fiction în 2005. Stilul său se caracterizează printr-o observație socială ascuțită și un refuz al corectitudinii politice, trăsături vizibile și în colecția sa de eseuri Abominations sau în romane precum A Better Life.
Descriere scurtă
From New York Times bestselling author Lionel Shriver, a near-future novel that explores the aftershocks of an economically devastating U.S. sovereign debt default on four generations of a once-prosperous American family
In 2029, the United States is engaged in a bloodless world war that will wipe out the savings of millions of American families. Overnight, on the international currency exchange, the “almighty dollar” plummets in value, to be replaced by a new global currency, the “bancor.” In retaliation, the president declares that America will default on its loans. “Deadbeat Nation” being unable to borrow, the government prints money to cover its bills. What little remains to savers is rapidly eaten away by runaway inflation.
The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when their ninety-seven-year-old patriarch dies. Once the inheritance turns to ash, each family member must contend with disappointment, but also—as the U.S. economy spirals into dysfunction—the challenge of sheer survival.
Recently affluent, Avery is petulant that she can’t buy olive oil, while her sister, Florence, absorbs strays into her cramped household. An expat author, their aunt, Nollie, returns from abroad at seventy-three to a country that’s unrecognizable. Her brother, Carter, fumes at caring for their demented stepmother, now that an assisted living facility isn’t affordable. Only Florence’s oddball teenage son, Willing, an economics autodidact, will save this formerly august American family from the streets.
The Mandibles is about money. Thus it is necessarily about bitterness, rivalry, and selfishness—but also about surreal generosity, sacrifice, and transformative adaptation to changing circumstances.
Recenzii
“….[A] powerful work...Prescient, imaginative and funny, it also asks deep questions.” — The Economist
“Hilarious, brilliant new novel...” — Elle
“Known for tackling big contemporary issues head-on, Shriver deals skilfully here with the implications of economic meltdown. The novel, set in a near-ish future, tells of the plight of the once wealthy Mandible family and the decline of four generations into penury, thieving and prostitution.” — Financial Times (A Summer Pick of 2016)
“[Shriver has] a sharp social eye and a blistering comic streak, and her focus on nailing down the economic nitty-gritty of her plot is only one piece of the great, disconcerting fun she has in sending the world as we know it so vividly to hell.” — The New Yorker's Page-Turner Blog
“Shriver has always seemed to be at least a few steps ahead of the rest of us, but her new novel establishes her firmly as the Cassandra of American letters….I don’t remember the last time a novel held me so enduringly in its grip.” — New York Times Book Review
“It’s scaring the hell out of me.” — Tracy Chevalier
The world that the Mandible family must negotiate is evoked in seamless detail… One thing I really like is her coining of made-up slang for her younger generation of characters and her resolutely materialist analysis of what could be coming. — Jane Smiley, The Guardian
“Distinctly chilling.” — Independent (UK)
“This is a sharp, smart, snarky satire of every conspiracy theory and hot button political issue ever spun; one that, at first glance, might induce an absurdist chuckle, until one realizes that it is based on an all-too-plausible reality.” — Booklist (starred review)
Descriere
The brilliant new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk about Kevin.
It is 2029.
The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when their 97-yearold patriarch dies. Yet America’s soaring national debt has grown so enormous that it can never be repaid. Under siege from an upstart international currency, the dollar is inmeltdown. A bloodless world war will wipe out the savings of millions of American families.
Their inheritance turned to ash, each family member must contend with disappointment,but also — as the effects of the downturn start to hit — the challenge of sheer survival.
Recently affluent Avery is petulant that she can’t buy olive oil, while her sister Florence isforced to absorb strays into her increasingly cramped household. As their father Carterfumes at having to care for his demented stepmother now that a nursing home is tooexpensive, his sister Nollie, an expat author, returns from abroad at 73 to a country that’sunrecognizable.
Perhaps only Florence’s oddball teenage son Willing, an economics autodidact, can savethis formerly august American family from the streets.
This is not science fiction. This is a frightening, fascinating, scabrously funny glimpse into the decline that may await the United States all too soon, from the pen of perhaps the most consistently perceptive and topical author of our times.
Notă biografică
Lionel Shriver's fiction includes The Mandibles; Property; the National Book Award finalist So Much for That; the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World; and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin, adapted for a 2010 film starring Tilda Swinton. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. She's a regular columnist for the Spectator in Britain and Harper's Magazine in the US. She lives in London and Brooklyn, New York.