Items related to A Quiet Life (Virago Modern Classics)
Seventeen-year-old Alan can't stand rows. But, though the Second World War has ended, peace hangs by a fine thread at home: his troublesome sister Madge creeps off for night-time liaisons with a German POW; their ineffectual father - broken by the hardships of war and an unhappy marriage - can't put food on the table despite the family's middle-class manners. Meanwhile, his mother pursues her escapist fantasies in romantic novels and love affairs. Obedient, faithful Alan is trapped among them all, the focus of their jibes and resentment, as inexorably the family heads towards disaster. Beryl Bainbridge's classic early novel is a vintage story of English domestic life, laced with sadness, irony and wicked black humour.
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About the Author:
Beryl Bainbridge (1932-2010) wrote eighteen novels, two travel books and five plays for stage and television. Five of her novels were shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Every Man for Himself and Injury Time won the Whitbread Prize, The Bottle Factory Outing won the Guardian Fiction Prize and Master Georgie won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Four of her novels including An Awfully Big Adventure were adapted for film. In 2011, Bainbridge was honoured posthumously with a special Best of Beryl Man Booker Prize in recognition of her outstanding career. Her final novel, The Girl in the Polka-dot Dress, was published in 2011.
From AudioFile:
It doesn't seem to be working for 17-year-old Alan. His mother, living in a romantic world of her own, has grown to despise his ineffectual father, who barely manages to keep food on the table, while his 15-year-old sister sneaks off nights to visit her German soldier before he is sent back. Nothing makes sense, and Alan can't even concentrate on his own studies. The glue that keeps the family from disintegrating, however, is the intense love and faith that Alan lavishes on each of its members. Mark McGann's reading is alive with their myriad voices--shrill, gruff, and petulant by turns--and Alan's world takes life from McGann. But most of all the reading resonates with the narrator's deep affection. It is the earnest cockney voice of a schoolboy pained at his family's collapse but helpless to prevent it. Bainbridge has created a quiet life that moves the heart. P.E.F. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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- PublisherVirago
- Publication date2013
- ISBN 10 1844088634
- ISBN 13 9781844088638
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages176
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Seventeen-year-old Alan can't stand rows. But, though the Second World War has ended, peace hangs by a fine thread at home: his troublesome sister Madge creeps off for night-time liaisons with a German POW; their ineffectual father - broken by the hardships of war and an unhappy marriage - can't put food on the table despite the family's middle-class manners. Meanwhile, his mother pursues her escapist fantasies in romantic novels and love affairs. Obedient, faithful Alan is trapped among them all, the focus of their jibes and resentment, as inexorably the family heads towards disaster. Beryl Bainbridge's classic early novel is a vintage story of English domestic life, laced with sadness, irony and wicked black humour. Beryl Bainbridge's classic early novel of English domestic life after the War, A Quiet Life is laced with irony and wicked black humour, and was praised by Hilary Mantel as 'one of the funniest books I have ever read'. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781844088638
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