Бернард Маламуд4.2 Знаменитый роман "Мастер" (1966, Пулитцеровская премия, Национальная премия) построен на документах, знании жизни и не иначе как пренатальной памяти. В основе его – "дело Бейлиса" (Киев, 1913 г.), когда был обвинен в убийстве с ритуальными целями невинный человек потому только, что имел несчастье родиться евреем. О внутреннем облике Бейлиса известно не так уж много, но можно предположить, что он был привлекателен в своей искренности, иначе присяжные едва ли бы его оправдали. Силой таланта Маламуд воссоздает прелестный характер немудрящего, но умного, внутренне интеллигентного и благородного мастерового. Страдания невинного человека, подвергаемого несправедливости и жестокостям, мужественное противостояние тюремщикам, безнадеждные попытки великодушного следователя вызволить невиновного, трагическая обреченность этих попыток, но рядом со всем этим – сложные перипетии отношений героя с женой, комически-милые споры с тестем и даже трогательные прения с бедной клячей создают волнующие перепады в движении фабулы. На сумрачном фоне диковатой, грязноватой, неуютной русской жизни проходят очень разные люди, евреи и русские, и на переднем плане мастер, Яков Бок – чистая душа, превозмогая все искушения и издевательства, блюдущая себя в чистоте.
Louis Auchincloss0.0 The Embezzler, first written in 1966, uses conflicting narrative voices and viewpoints to illuminate the fabled dimensions of American economic history as it was then understood. Inspired by the documented facts of the Wall Street fraud case that led the United States government to take control of the American stock market, Auchincloss then describes the case and its main players with credibility and skill, reinventing the facts of this historical event with skill. Given the financial crisis of 2008, and similar fraudulent schemes that have been exposed since, this is must reading.
The Embezzler tells the life story of Guy Prime, who was born into wealth, enjoyed his youth, and eventually ended up in prison after he tried to secure loans against money he did not have and his embezzlements were revealed. Whatever the reasons for his gradual lapse into crime and his eventual disgrace, Guy Prime remains one of Louis Auchincloss's most engaging characters. Guy's gravest flaw appears not to be greed but rather a chronic tendency to misread human character. The story itself is told from three different viewpoints and narrators. Auchincloss's multi-narrator technique allows the reader to have a vivid sense of what transpired. This is classic Auchincloss, on
Эдвин О'Коннор0.0 Set in Ireland, Italy and the corrupt old city of "The Last Hurrah" and told by an observant and sympathetic narrator (Jack Kinsella), cousin to a conspicuous Irish-American family whose name means power, influence and fabulous riches...all these, the achievement of one man. Jack's Uncle Jimmy is a tough, irascible little tycoon whose pride in his sons is matched only by his determination to get them what he wants: high political office! Aided by old Jimmy Kinsella's full resources, not least his willingness to twist any arm in the nation, his sons erupt into politics: Charles is to take the mayoralty, then the governorship, Phil is to act as campaign manager. And Jack, who once served as secretary to Frank Skeffington (of the "Last Hurrah"), is asked to join in. He refuses. Though their boyhood loyalty persists, it dates from the time when the warmth and spirit of his cousins' family life consoled Jack for the mysterious death of his mother & brother. (The radiance of his early years is evoked in the first chapter, a flashback which was published to wide acclaim in the "Atlantic".) Now, as a novelist, Jack is a solitary man - so much so that his exquisite wife, in her loneliness, has drifted away from him. When she returns, their slow, tactful, tender reconciliation so preoccupies Jack that he is unaware of the rift that has opened among the Kinsellas, that happiest, that most triumphant of families. The earthquake threatens not Charles & Philip, but an entire clan, a family legend, and a rocketing political career. The Kinsellas' answer is ruthless, brilliant, surprising - and tragic.
Walker Percy0.0 Will Barrett is a 25-year-old wanderer from the South living in New York City, detached from his roots and with no plans for the future - until the purchase of a telescope sets off a romance and changes his lifeforever.
Гарри Марк Петракис0.0 "A Dream of Kings" tells the tale of Leonidas Matsoukas, a half-charlatan and half-concerned adviser, who is by turns a compulsive gambler and adulterer. But Matsoukas's dreams are fixed on an ailing son, for whose cure everything must be sacrificed. A journey to the sacred land of Greece will restore the health of the child and, perhaps too, the dignity of the father
Уилфрид Шид0.0 The setting of Office Politics is the slightly worn-at-the-heels office of The Outsider, an influential journal of opinion with a small but dwindling circulation. When a sudden illness sends its dominating editor-in-chief, Gilbert Twining, into enforced retirement, the underground struggle among his editors to supplant him surfaces. The conflict is bitter because the stakes are so small. Everyone has his scheme and his day in the sun, and then, amidst this War of Succession, Twining returns...
Питер Гей0.0 The eighteenth-century Enlightenment marks the beginning of the modern age, when the scientific method and belief in reason and progress came to hold sway over the Western world.
In the twentieth century, however, the Enlightenment has often been judged harshly for its apparently simplistic optimism. Now a master historian goes back to the sources to give a fully rounded account of its true accomplishments.
