Away: A Novel
by Jane Urquhart
List Price:
Our Price: $1.44
You Save: $14.56 (91%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Jane UrquhartEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1995-07-01
ISBN: 0140249265
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of Away: A Novel
Book Review: Stay Away......From Chapters Two And Three
Summary: 3 Stars
This novel is ultimately a disappointment because it starts off with such potential. Indeed, if Ms. Urquhart had simply made a novella out of the first chapter and entitled it A Fish On A Pool, it would be a first rate artistic achievement. Instead, she drones on in two subsequent chapters in a lyricism that eventually fails through repetition, a plot that grates through being, well, the same blasted plot repeated three times and a theme that becomes not a little over the top in its literary feminism.
This review is not the place to go into all of Ms. Urquhart's gifts and how she has wasted them after the first, astounding chapter. She has a lyrical gift that owes much to Yeats. -In fact, the words "changed utterly" occur twice in this book-which, if you are a lover of Irish poetry and, ergo, a lover of Yeats, cannot fail to strike a chord. Hint: Read his Easter 1916. There are also passages like these in the first chapter, "Dark morning birds lifted away from the earth she walked on, her words spinning in the sky then flying over the fields to the shore". The first chapter is thematically wild and entrancing and lyrically virtuosic.
But then......who knows? Maybe her publisher demanded a certain number of pages. In any event, she goes on in two flat, pat chapters about the same thing with less magic and more of an axe to grind. She flirts with feminist propaganda near the end. Only the woman can receive the enchanting gift of being "away" it would seem. And men turn out to be destroyers of themselves and/or the land around them, unless, of course, they happen to be American Indian and go by the none too subtle name of "Exodus".
Still, the book is worth it. Just stop after the first chapter while you're still enchanted and before disillusionment has set in, while you're still "away."
Summary of Away: A Novel
A stunning, evocative novel set in Ireland and Canada, Away traces a family's complex and layered past. The narrative unfolds with shimmering clarity, and takes us from the harsh northern Irish coast in the 1840s to the quarantine stations at Grosse Isle and the barely hospitable land of the Canadian Shield; from the flourishing town of Port Hope to the flooded streets of Montreal; from Ottawa at the time of Confederation to a large-windowed house at the edge of a Great Lake during the present day. Graceful and moving, Away unites the personal and the political as it explores the most private, often darkest corners of our emotions where the things that root us to ourselves endure. Powerful, intricate, lyrical, Away is an unforgettable novel.General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in So glad I had the privilege of reading these books...
The Bottle Factory Outing (Soundings)by Beryl Bainbridge
Soundings; Published: 2000-02; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $45.95
Price in other shops:
Under the Netby Iris Murdoch
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1977-10-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Brilliance Audio Unabridged; Published: 2002-05-28; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $20.00
Price in other shops:
Away: A Novelby Jane Urquhart
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1995-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.45
Price in other shops:
Death in Venice: And Seven Other Storiesby Thomas Mann
Vintage; Published: 1989-03-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops:
Journey by Moonlightby Antal Szerb
Pushkin Press; Published: 2002-02-01; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitzby Mordecai Richler
Pocket; Published: 1999-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.64
Price in other shops:
Blissby Peter Carey
Vintage; Published: 1996-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
The Last of the Mohicans (Bantam Classics)by James Fenimore Cooper
Bantam Classics; Published: 1982-06-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.62
Price in other shops:
A Suitable Boy: Novel, Aby Vikram Seth
Harper Perennial; Published: 1994-04-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.50
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianityby Elaine Pagels
Vintage; Published: 1989-09-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
The Whirlpoolby Jane Urquhart
Playwrights Canada Press; Published: 2001-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.95
Green Grass, Running Waterby Thomas King
Bantam Books; Published: 1994-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.49
Price in other shops:
The Englishman's Boy: A Novelby Guy Vanderhaeghe
Picador; Published: 1998-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.27
Price in other shops:
Icefieldsby Thomas Wharton
Washington Square Press; Published: 1996-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.17
Price in other shops:
A Map of Glassby Jane Urquhart
MacAdam/Cage Publishing; Published: 2007-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.20
Price in other shops:
Disappearing Moon Cafe: A Novelby Sky Lee
Douglas & McIntyre; Published: 2006-01-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.74
Price in other shops:
No Great Mischief: A Novelby Alistair Macleod
Vintage; Published: 2001-04-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.26
Price in other shops:
Alias Grace: A Novelby Margaret Atwood
Anchor; Published: 1997-10-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.27
Price in other shops:
The Stone Carversby Jane Urquhart
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2003-11-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.26
Price in other shops: