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After his wife, Lucy, dies in a plane crash, something compels Anthony to visit Lucy's ex-husband, Darryl Bob, who lives in the middle of a Nevada desert in a trailer filled with audio and video evidence of Lucy's tantalizing and occasionally adulterous sexuality. What prompts the visit? Grief? Anger? A desire to reconnect with the past? We don't know, exactly, and neither does Anthony--nor is he sure why he brought a gun with him. But contrary to all rules of Chekhovian drama, he leaves, shaken and scarred after a particularly disturbing stroll down memory lane, without using the revolver.
Shortly after Anthony leaves the trailer, Darryl Bob is found dead, and the police hone in on Anthony as their prime suspect. But this novel is not a mystery, not a police procedural, not a thriller. Dibdin pays scant attention to the plot twist he's created (which works itself out in a distracted sort of manner, receding politely into the background), preferring to concentrate instead on Anthony's struggle to come to terms with Lucy's death and with the idea that in death, even her life is receding from his grasp.
The initial encounter between Anthony and Darryl Bob is probably the novel's strongest moment. The two men circle one another warily, feinting with acerbic humor, like lions around a carcass (the metaphor has eerily literal overtones). Darryl Bob's open acknowledgement of their bizarre, post-mortem competition doesn't lessen its impact; the men are struggling to lay claim to a dead woman, seeking to reclaim the past and possess Lucy by appropriating her life and (re)inscribing themselves within and over it.
Thanksgiving is the kind of book that lends itself to refined and scholarly discussion (shall we untangle the threads of patriarchal narrative, looking for the palimpsest of a woman's voice?), but that isn't in the end very satisfying to read. The book may wish to be as challenging and austere as an '82 Château Petrus, but in (or under) the glass, it reveals itself as a thin, relatively unimpressive vin ordinaire. --Kelly Flynn
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.5. Seller Inventory # G0571205720I3N00
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.5. Seller Inventory # G0571205720I4N00
Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Trade Paperback. 179 pages. *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Faber and Faber, UK, 2000. *** CONDITION: This book is in very good condition. More specifically: Covers have no creasing. Corners of covers are lightly bumped. Spine is uncreased. . Pages are lightly tanned. *** ABOUT THIS BOOK: A darkly erotic novel of jealousy and obsession. After his wife's death, British journalist Anthony Baines becomes obsessed with her life before he met her, and travels to the Nevada desert in search of her first husband. Dibdin's first novel after the "death" of Aurelio Zen. *** Quantity Available: 1. Category: Fiction; General; ISBN: 0571205720. ISBN/EAN: 9780571205721. Inventory No: 16070833. Seller Inventory # 16070833
Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: Near Fine. First U.K. Edition. 179pp. Colour illustrated wrapper is clean and without wear. Binding square and tight, showing soft crease to spine. Small octavo: 215 x 136mm. First printing. Seller Inventory # 046096
Book Description Perfect Paperback. Condition: Good. Book is in good condition. Scuff marks to the cover. Seller Inventory # G0066933
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: F-. First Edition. 8vo. original printed paper wraps (a trifle rubbed & creased); pp. [viii (last blank)], 180 (last blank). A near fine copy. Seller Inventory # 029890
Book Description Couverture souple. Condition: bon. RO60079351: 2000. In-8. Broché. Bon état, Couv. convenable, Dos satisfaisant, Intérieur frais. 179 pages. Annotations en page de garde. . . . Classification Dewey : 420-Langue anglaise. Anglo-saxon. Seller Inventory # RO60079351