fiction - general

Item Description

In March 1913, Frank Reid's wife abruptly leaves him and Moscow for her native England, leaving him to raise their three young children alone. Frank's routines drift into disorder as he tries desperately to take charge of life at home and work. Even his printing plant is suddenly confronted by the specters of modernization and utter instability.In Penelope Fitzgerald's fiction, affection and remorse are all too often allied, and desire and design seem never to meet. Frank wants little more than a quiet, confident life--something for which he is deeply unsuited, and which Russia certainly will not go out of her way to provide. As ever, Fitzgerald makes us care for--and want to know ever more about--her characters, even the minor players. Her two-page description of Frank's chief type compositor, for instance, is a miracle of precision and humor, sympathy and mystery. And the accountant Selwyn Crane--a Tolstoy devotée, self-published poet, and expert at making others feel guilty--is a sublime creation. As she evokes her household of tears and laughter, Fitzgerald's prose is as witty as ever, rendering the past present and the modern timeless. 

"Delicate, intelligent, and readable. One of the outstanding novels of the year." -- The Guardian

"Fitzgerald writes with humor and an apparently gentle absurdity.... Her books are archaic smiles, the corners turned down, devoid neither of compassion nor of distance. The Beginning of Spring is a comedy lit by writing so precise and lilting that it can make you shiver, and an elegy that nods at what passes without lamentation or indifference." -- Los Angeles Times

"She is that refreshing rarity, a writer who is very modern but not the least bit hip. Ms. Fitzgerald looks into the past, both human and literary, and finds all sorts of things that are surprisingly up to date. Yet as The Beginning of Spring reaches its triumphant conclusion, you realize that its greatest virtue is perhaps the most old-fashioned of all. It is a lovely novel." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Some truth about human nature lies in the midst of all the male characters in this book, just as some truth about love is hinted at through the diverse behavior of the children and the women.... One of the outstanding novels of the year." -- The Times Literary Supplement

"Whether this novel contains a latent moral or allegorical message, or whether it is simply a tour de force of craft and imagination I have not the faintest idea. I only know that it is one of the most skillful and utterly fascinating novels I have read for years. I cannot imagine any kind of educated reader who would not get a thrill from this gloriously peculiar book." -- The Independent

Used - Very good

Published 1988. 187 pages.  8-1/4 x 5-/12 x 1/3"  Paperback

 

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