| Aberration of Starlight Contributor(s): Sorrentino, Gilbert (Author) |
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ISBN: 1564784398 ISBN-13: 9781564784391 Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press OUR PRICE: $11.66 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 1993 Annotation: Set at a boardinghouse in rural New Jersey in the summer of 1939, this novel revolves around four people who experience the comedies, torments, and rare pleasures of family, romance, and sex while on vacation from Brooklyn and the Depression. As the novel's perspective shifts to each of the four primary characters, four discrete stories take form, stories that Sorrentino further enriches by using a variety of literary methods--fantasies, letters, a narrative question-and-answer, fragments of dialogue and memory. Combining humor and feeling, balancing the details and the rhythms of experience, Aberration of Starlight re-creates a time and a place as it captures the sadness and value of four lives. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Historical - General |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 92029480 |
| Series: American Literature (Dalkey Archive) |
| Physical Information: 0.65" H x 5.7" W x 8.5" (0.65 lbs) 211 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1900-1949 - Chronological Period - 1930's - Cultural Region - Mid-Atlantic - Cultural Region - Northeast U.S. - Geographic Orientation - New Jersey - Seasonal - Summer - Topical - Family |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Set at a boardinghouse in rural New Jersey in the summer of 1939, this novel revolves around four people who experience the comedies, torments and rare pleasures of family, romance and sex while on vacation from Brooklyn and the Depression. Billy Recco, an eager ten-year-old in search of a father... Marie Recco, nee McGrath, an attractive divorcee caught between her son and father, without a life of her own... John McGrath, dignified in manner yet brutally soured by life, insanely fearful of his daughter's restlessness... Tom Thebus, a rakish salesman who precipitates the conflict between Marie's hopes and her father's wrath. What emerges is a sure understanding of four people who are occasionally ridiculous, but whose integrity and good intentions are consistently, and tragically, frustrated. Combining humor and feeling, balancing the details and the rhythms of experience, Aberration of Starlight re-creates a time and a place as it captures the sadness and value of four lives. First published by Random House in 1980, it is widely considered one of Sorrentino's finest novels. |