Being There by Jerzy Kosinski
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.65 You Save: $5.35 (41%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.64 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Being There
Book Review: Not his best
Summary: 4 Stars
It seems to me that the works of Kosinski set in Eastern Europe have far greater strength and authenticity than the work set in America. This particular little piece of ' Look at the anarchic dismal impersonal civilization we live in' school has a touch of the randonmness and violence which Kosinki's world is pervaded by.The story of the gardener whose guardian dies and who has to encounter the ' real world' for the first time gives no sense of any redeeming moment or beauty in life. One might say that Becket doesn't either and that is his genius. But I have the sense that the emptiness which Kosinki finds at the heart of 'Television Civilization's is an emptiness in the heart of Kosinski himself.
Unfairly perhaps I think of Tolstoy and that kind of fiction which makes the person love life more, not wonder why one is reading something which makes one wonder if life really is so worthless and so small.
Book Review: we reap what we sow
Summary: 4 Stars
Kosinski must have had a crystal ball, because it is all to apparent this story could easily be applied today. Given this political year, I have to recommend this book to anyone who watches the talking heads on television. The main character, Chance, is the epitome of every "expert" on t.v.. We swallow the bitter pill of platitudes and opinions everyday on cable t.v. news and the aftertaste is blissfully sweet. Amazingly, we ask ourselves 100 days into the next presidency and say what happened - where's the beef? Well, I'll tell you what happened, we heard what we wanted to hear and so we bought into it. This book tells this story well. This satire will never go out of date - it is to the point, despite the one odd aside of a meaningless sex act, and it should be put on a mandatory reading list for political science majors.Book Review: If by Chance...
Summary: 4 Stars
Jerzy Kosinski has written a delightful modern parable. Each actor in this allegorical tale sees Chance as a wise and insightful sage. But Chance, dubbed Chauncey Gardiner, is an illiterate gardener whose only contact with the outside world before being caught up in high finance, politics, and diplomacy was his garden and his television watching habit. He doesn't try to hide his past as he adapts as best he can to his new environment. His aphorisms taken from his experiences in the garden are interpreted by his listeners as great sooth. Because he has no discoverable past he is believed to be an operative some powerful organization in the eyes of the beholders.
This is a story to enjoy and give some thought to.
Book Review: Chance thinks
Summary: 4 Stars
Loved the movie so thought I would read the book. The book is different in several respects of course. Chance thinks in the book in ways that can be only hypothesized in the movie. He knows how to use the phone and elevator. He knows to say he does not drink. Also note that the sexual observations are much more descriptive - perhaps necessarily so in the book. But in each of these cases I feel the description takes away some of the effect of the movie. All in all, while the plot remains the same the movie seems to me to be the better of the two. The book is a good read none the less. It is light and a good bed book. It reads fast and makes for an interesting comparison with the movie.Book Review: A great story!
Summary: 4 Stars
The protagonist of this amazing novel is called Chance. This spelling name "Chance" symbolises the development of the satire 'Being There'.The whole story consists of a number of misunderstandings, which underline the criticism on American political system. The whole novel is well written and easy to read even for students who do not have a lot of previous knowledge in the english language. Also the plot may be interesting for pupils in upper grades.