| The Tale of a Dog: Novel Contributor(s): Geddes, Tom (Author), Gustafsson, Lars (Author), Geddes, Tom (Translator) |
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ISBN: 0811213951 ISBN-13: 9780811213950 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation OUR PRICE: $10.76 Product Type: Paperback Published: January 1999 Annotation: Fiction. "Lars Gustafsson has an uncompromising vision of the utter complexity of modern life ... He loves to play with possibilities and solutions in a manner that is refreshingly affirmative" (Eric O. Johannesson, The New York Times Book Review). The subtitle of Lars Gustafsson's newest novel refers to one Erwin Caldwell, a Texas judge, who leads the reader through a wildly discursive romp that is also a meditation on the abiding presence of evil in the human heart. This roman noir involves a death by drowning of a Belgian philosopher-semanticist and an appearance by Douglas Melvin Smith, "The Most Intelligent Man in America." Lars Gustafsson is one of Sweden's leading men of letters. New Directions has published six of his novels, most recently a Tiler's Afternoon. This translation is by Tom Geddes. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 98-7350 |
| Physical Information: 0.52" H x 5.21" W x 7.96" (0.47 lbs) 182 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1950-1999 - Chronological Period - 1990's - Cultural Region - Gulf Coast - Cultural Region - South - Cultural Region - Western U.S. - Geographic Orientation - Texas |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The judge and protagonist of this roman noir is Erwin Caldwell. The year is 1992, and the rivers in and around rain-soaked Austin are flooding their banks. The life of the city is thrown into confusion, and Judge Caldwell, a comfortably married man for thirty years, has an affair with the owner of a small bookstore. His stepdaughter returns home after being denied tenure at Harvard, her little boy in tow, and Judge Caldwell learns of the death of drowning of the Dutch philosopher-semanticist Jan van de Rouwers, revered by a generation of Texas university students. Murder or suicide? Van de Rouwers has been discovered to have been not a World War II Resistance fighter as supposed, but a Nazi collaborator and anti-Semite apologist. Caldwell, who is Jewish, ponders the disconcerting turns of history and life in Texas. And what does this all have to do with a dog? Thereby hangs the tale... |
Contributor Bio(s): Gustafsson, Lars: - Lars Gustafsson is one of Sweden's leading and most prolific poets. |