|
|
Nicholson Baker Fan PageThe Everlasting Story of Nory (1998)
Opening Sentence:Eleanor Winslow was a nine-year-old girl from America with straight brown bangs and brown eyes. Book Jacket Copy:Nicholson Baker, known for his exuberantly detailed comedies of ordinary life, now turns his attention to the inner landscape of a nine-year-old American girl, Eleanor Winslow, who is spending a semester at an English school. In this good-natured and very entertaining book, Nory reawakens our images of childhood and captivates us with sophisticated insights. Her observations are hilarious as she tells herself stories, defends a classmate, has nightmares about cows, and generally does her best to make sense of life's particulars, noting it all down with innocence and candor. Other:According to Baker (quoted in the London Daily Telegraph, October 4, 1997): "It's about a nine-year-old American girl -- one not unlike my own daughter -- who comes to England and spends a few months at a school in a cathedral town" "Each book is the next book I was able to write or felt pressingly that I must write. With this new novel, I simply felt the need to capture the way a nine-year-old looks at the world. But I must admit that I was looking for something different to write about -- something not like The Fermata. I was sexed out after that book and felt that I couldn't even write the word 'sex' again." Links: |
This isn't my favorite Nicholson Baker
book. In fact, I would have to admit that I really don't care much for this book. It has
its moments but, by and large, it just doesn't do it for me. If Baker's name weren't on
the cover I probably wouldn't have made it past the first 20 pages.