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A carregar... The House of Sleep (1997)por Jonathan Coe
A carregar...
Adira ao LibraryThing para descobrir se irá gostar deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. Entre 1983 y 1984, un grupo de estudiantes universitarios urde la compleja coreografía de sus relaciones en Ashdown, una residencia universitaria situada en una antigua mansión victoriana en lo alto de un acantilado, junto al mar. Allí se aloja Sarah, que sufre de narcolepsia, y en ocasiones no puede distinguir entre lo que ha vivido y lo que ha soñado; Gregory, su novio, estudiante de medicina, que ha hecho de los ojos, la puerta del sueño, un fetiche sexual; Veronica, una lesbiana que le sucederá en el lecho de Sarah; y Robert, que está dispuesto a amar para siempre a la bella durmiente. Por la residencia merodea también Terry, un cinéfilo obsesivo, que duerme al menos catorce horas al día e idolatra a Ortese, oscuro y escatalógico neorrealista italiano, director de una película perdida y maldita que sería el terrible antecedente de Salo, de Passolini. Todos ellos se encuentran y desencuentran, y se dejan mensajes entre las páginas de "La casa del sueño", un novelón de principios de siglo. El tiempo pasa y llega el momento de dejar la residencia universitaria y entrar en la vida. Las coreografías sentimentales y sexuales se complican, y finalmente el grupo terminará por estallar; cada uno se marchará por su lado, ya deshecha la frágil trama de amores y amistades. Pero doce años más tarde sus caminos volverán a cruzarse en la siniestra clínica que el doctor Gregory Dudden, un científico obsesionado por encontrar la fórmula que permita vivir sin dormir, ha abierto en Ashdown, donde todos ellos vivieron y soñaron... In theory, this should have been one of my best books. I had read Coe's What a Carve Up. I liked his style, very readeable, and I identified with the protagonist. The politics didn't bother me because I didn't know much about British politics anyway. However, in The House of Sleep I began to notice a pattern. It was understandeable that all the villains in What A Carve Up were right wing thinking, successful and rich because that's what the novel is about. But The House of Sleep is not about politics, yet its villain too turns out to be right wing thinking, successful and rich. Now this struck a nerve. In fact, it destroyed my trust in the author and, consequently, it ruined the novel for me. And although it's the same very readeable style, I struggled to finish the novel. But all this aside, and I suppose all these negative feelings could have died away; I suppose I could have sacrificed my self-righteousness if the story had actually drawn me in. It had many elements of the story that usually captivates me: small town, gloomy atmosphere, eccentric characters... but it was all so dry, so tasteless! I waited for this feeling to fade away as I spend more time with the characters, get the spirit... nothing. Perhaps it felt so artificial because, not unlike the previous novel, much focus was put on structure, plot twists, and the big, revelatory resolution. But I could see the twists coming miles away, and overall it was unimpressive. I don't know why Coe made the twists so easy to figure out prematurely. I suspect that he knew exactly what he was doing. Perhaps, by the time he wrote this novel, he already knew the type of readers he attracts. Namely, readers who like novels that make them feel smart. What is in the book: Some students lived for a certain period in the dormitories. Some of the former students have sleep disorders but are not interesting — these sleep disturbances channeled in the minority to where these disorders treated, 12 years later - the same structure that once housed their dormitories. The director of the sleep lab is one of the heroes of the book, also a former student. What is not in the book: There is no big and exciting love story, but a small with a bizarre spin. The book is not a comedy, is not amusing, is not funny and doesn't have original and witty tweets — not even fantastic writing. It is a book that tries to be smart with unusual combinations of cases, the flexibility of the plot to improbable laws and in general, although the book somehow flows, it runs nowhere and comes nowhere.
Leider bleibt der Spaß am Roman auf der Strecke, da Coe seine Leser für Schlafkappen hält. Jede Informationslücke wird geschlossen, jedes Detail haarklein erläutert, selbst das zentrale Symbol wird gedeutet: "Der Traum ist sinnlich und intellektuell zugleich; er befördert Terry schwebend, mühelos auf Höhen körperlicher Lust und geistiger Erleuchtung. Nichts von dem, was er tagsüber erlebt, wird je an den Genuß, die Intensität, die Wonne dieses Traums heranreichen. Am Morgen wird er ihn fast völlig vergessen haben." Schade. PrémiosNotable Lists
Winner of the Writers' Guild Best Fiction Award in England and the Prix Medicis in France Like a surreal and highly caffeinated version of The Big Chill, Jonathan Coe's novel follows four students who knew each other in college in the eighties. Sarah is a narcoleptic who has dreams so vivid she mistakes them for real events. Robert has his life changed forever by the misunderstandings that arise from her condition. Terry spends his wakeful nights fueling his obsession with movies. And an increasingly unstable doctor, Gregory, sees sleep as a life-shortening disease which he must eradicate. But after ten years of fretful slumber and dreams gone bad, the four reunite in their college town to confront their disorders. In a Gothic cliffside manor being used as a clinic for sleep disorders, they discover that neither love, nor lunacy, nor obsession ever rests. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — A carregar... GénerosSistema Decimal de Melvil (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999Classificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos EUA (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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