Book
The promise of elsewhere
Record details
- ISBN: 9780525655039
- ISBN: 0525655034
- ISBN: 9780525564126
-
Physical Description:
print
330 pages ; 25 cm - Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2019.
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Architecture -- Study and teaching -- Fiction College teachers -- Fiction Midlife crisis -- Fiction Humorous stories |
| Genre: | Love stories. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at BC Interlibrary Connect.
- 1 of 1 copy available at Castlegar Public Library. (Show)
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castlegar Public Library | FIC LEI (Text) | 35146002176063 | Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 March #1
*Starred Review* The latest offering from Leithauser, a long-revered poet and novelist, is a serene piece of travel fiction starring Louie Hake, an art-history professor who teaches at an unremarkable college in Ann Arbor. Louie has had a rough few months: he has recently been diagnosed with a degenerative vision disorder, his students seem disinterested, and his second marriage has collapsed in tragicomic fashion. To escape the perceived public shame, he jets offâin the face of fierce opposition from his overbearing older sisterâto see the wonders of the architectural world found in Rome, India, and Japan. In Italy, however, he throws out his spectacular itinerary to instead head to the drearier surroundings of London, where he drifts in and out of the lives of some wonderfully fascinating fellow travelers. As he restlessly keeps moving, Louie is pulled in numerous contradictory directions: he wants complete isolation, away from all digital connectivity, but simultaneously wants to reconnect with his first wife, get his current wife back, and possibly find new love. Like Andrew Sean Greer's Pulitzer Prizeâwinning Less (2018), Leithauser's journey novel wonderfully mixes pathos and comedy, and Louie, as he struggles for a sense of value and self, is endearingly and wonderfully human at every moment. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2019 January #1
A Michigan art-history professor sets off on a journey to see the world's finest architecture and perhaps forget some of life's trials in this keen-eyed comic work. Five months ago, Louie Hake's second marriage collapsed after his wife, a third-grade teacher and amateur actress, was arrested for "gross indecency" with her director in a Honda Odyssey. Three months ago, Louie learned he had an illness that could lead to blindness. So in June 2018, the 43-year-old "untenured fixture" at a third-rate Michigan college embarks on his own odyssey, "the Journey of His Life," aiming to view great buildings in Italy, Turkey, India, and Japan. But Louie, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 10 years earlier, is sidetracked in ways small and large, perhaps because he has stopped taking his lithium (while still taking Ativan, Wellbutrin, and trazodone). After Rome, he breaks his itinerary and heads to London, site of his first honeymoon, where he almost sleeps with a woman alone on her first honeymoon after being jilted by her fiance but persuaded by the cad's mother (a travel agent!) to take the trip. Following London he seeks out cathedrals of ice among Greenland's glaciers while staying with strange children and their combative father in a dilapidated inn. Leithauser (The Art Student's War, 2009, etc.) shifts affectingly from present-day comic encounters and observations to fraught memories (though how reliable sifted through so many meds?), from Louie's first experience of transcendence at age 9, in the delightful opening, and again in Ely Cathedral, to first love and various brushes with shame and failure. Leithauser, a poet, novelist, and MacArthur Fellow, recalls Stanley Elkin, Wilfrid Sheed, and Richard Ford in this complex anatomy of a midlife crisis and then some. An exceptional glimpse of the human comedy marked by sometimes dazzling prose. Copyright Kirkus 2019 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2018 October #2
A professor at a modest college in Michigan who's nearing both a second divorce and a possibly disastrous medical diagnosis, middle-aged Louie Hake decides to get relief by touring the world's most stunning architectural sites, from Rome to London to the Arctic (icebergs are the big draw there). From MacArthur Fellow Leithauser (
Copyright 2018 Library Journal.A Few Corrections ). - LJ Express Reviews : LJ Express Reviews
In an environment in which humanities education is devalued in favor of "work force development," manic-depressive art history professor Louie Hake (who is also losing his eyesight and going through his second divorce) embarks on a journey to find some sanity. Initially on tour to research significant architecture, Louie, through a series of chance encounters, ends up detoured: from Rome, home to timeless architecture, he heads to London and finally to Greenland, where architecture is just a seldom-used word. While Leithauser (The Art Student's War) burdens his main character with much baggage, that Louie has failing eyesight and has stopped taking his bipolar disorder medicine never seem factors in his journey. Nevertheless, the novel is an artful, sometimes humorous exploration of one man's struggle to "see," despite his faltering vision, what is truly important. To accomplish this, Louie must travel physically and spiritually, moving from places of high culture and memories that cannot be relived to a remote, primitive, gelid outpost whose frozen beauty provides the inspiration of which he initially despairs. VERDICT For fans of contemporary, reality-based, character-driven fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 9/24/18.]âMichael Russo, Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge (c) Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2019 January #4
In this charming and moving ramble of a novel from Leithauser (
Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly.The Art Student's War ), 43-year-old bipolar Louie Hake is going through a rough patch. Teaching architectural history at a college in the academic backwaters of Michigan, his second wife, Florence, has just left him for another man, and he has been diagnosed with a degenerative macular disorder. The latter propels him to leave his job and embark on a tour of the world's great architectural sights before he can no longer see them. His first stop is Rome, where he meets Louie Koepplinger, a widowed dentist from Philadelphia who has philosophically adjusted to the indignities of old age. From there, Louie Hake moves on to London, where he is approached by another American, Sophie Pfister, who has been jilted by her husband-to-be and decided to enjoy their honeymoon itinerary on her own. Louie's final destination is Greenland, where he makes the acquaintance of an argumentative Dane named Bendiks Overgaard and follows him to his home in the remote village of Qaqqatnakkarsimasut, there to be dazzled by nature's architecture in the form of calving glaciers. Leithauser's novel offers civilized comforts of beguiling characters, witty dialogue, and trenchant observations about modern life that enshrines the visceral pleasures of armchair travel. (Mar.)
