Point Books Supposing Wise Children
| Original Title: | Wise Children |
| ISBN: | 014017530X (ISBN13: 9780140175301) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Angela Carter
Paperback | Pages: 240 pages Rating: 3.94 | 7206 Users | 607 Reviews
Identify Epithetical Books Wise Children
| Title | : | Wise Children |
| Author | : | Angela Carter |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 240 pages |
| Published | : | January 1st 1993 by Penguin (first published June 13th 1991) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Magical Realism. Historical. Historical Fiction. European Literature. British Literature |
Ilustration In Favor Of Books Wise Children
Well, sheeet (that's the way the British say the Americans say it). Back to the library. This has to be one of the most slowest moving vaguely interesting books I've ever read. Or not read. I'm on page 80 after about two weeks of intermittent baths. This is the written version of an oral history told by a seventy-five year-old bastard ex-chorus girl (usually on the left line) about her family and her famous actor father who wouldn't acknowledge her or her twin sister.As far as I can tell, there is no actual plot. We're just sitting in her house with her twin sister and their not-quite Step-mother, Wheelchair (a nick-name, clearly) and reminiscing on her birthday, the eve of an invitation to a party at her father's house. Oh, and at some point their half-brother comes in to say his lover, their adopted-ish daughter, has gone missing, which gives us a whole new branch of the family to tangent on.
Don't get me wrong; the prose is interesting but dense; it's quite florid, with a few Britishisms and anachronisms to tangle me up. But it's also been charmingly pointless. Not that I object. If I met this woman at work, I'd totally stop into her room and listen to her... if I had time. But otherwise, I'd be edging one foot towards the door.
There are loads of Shakespeare references--and I suspect the whole thing is supposed to be just a bit of a Shakespeare farce--especially as their dad and grandparents are famous actors in their time. And, of course, the sisters are twins, which Shakespeare never could resist, either. The language is ribald, with loads about drunken-but-loving Grandma and knickers and the old knobby bits. Kind of amusing--I guess--but mostly just exhausting.
Here's the beginning of Chapter Two (there are five chapters in the book):
"One, two, three, hop! See me dance the polka. Once upon a time, there was an old woman in splitting black satin pounding away at an upright piano in a room over a haberdasher's shop in Clapham High Street and her daughter in a pink tutu and wrinkled tights slapped at your ankles with a cane if you didn't pick up your feet high enough. Once a week, every Saturday morning, Grandma Chance would wash us, brush us and do up our hair in sausage curls. We had long, brown stockings strung up to our liberty bodices by suspenders. Grandma Chance would take firm hold of one hand of each of us, then--ho! for the dancing class; off we'd trot to catch the tram.
We always took the tram from Brixton to Clapham High Street. The stately progress of the tram, occupying by right of bulk and majesty the centre of the road, not veering to the left n or right upon its way but sometimes swaying every now and then with a sickening lurch, like Grandma, coming home from the pub.
One, two, three, hop."
Rating Epithetical Books Wise Children
Ratings: 3.94 From 7206 Users | 607 ReviewsEvaluate Epithetical Books Wise Children
3.5 starsWise Children was one of those weird books where, when I was reading it I was enjoying it, but when I wasnt, I didnt really feel like picking it up. Theres such a huge cast of characters that it was quite hard to keep track of whos who and what relationships they have, and once when I checked the character list at the back, it spoiled a plot twist for me! A bit annoying..But as I say, I did enjoy it when I got into the flow of it! The narrator is one of many sets of twins in this book,Well, sheeet (that's the way the British say the Americans say it). Back to the library. This has to be one of the most slowest moving vaguely interesting books I've ever read. Or not read. I'm on page 80 after about two weeks of intermittent baths. This is the written version of an oral history told by a seventy-five year-old bastard ex-chorus girl (usually on the left line) about her family and her famous actor father who wouldn't acknowledge her or her twin sister. As far as I can tell, there
Extract from the introductory note: ... cheerfully bawdy, it's Carter's most glorious, most comic, most fulfilled, certainly her most generously and happily orgiastic, fictional performance. By chance it is also her last novel. A fitting swan song for the master enchanter, conjuring wonders out of her magic pen for the last time, guiding me again by the light of a Paper Moon into world of entertainment. After joining the circus in the company of a winged trapeze artist in Nights at the Circus,
sisters/mothers/grandmas + loss/memory + living in a house filled with dust motes & cobwebs. beyond all the Shakespearean stuff, i felt so much of this book + there were so many special moments. there is a grand old house in which the twin sisters live in that reminded me so much of the movie gray gardens - little edie! empty cat food cans, the old smell of mothballs, piles of the past. "...a bowl full of potpourri on a worm-eaten oak chest in the hall gave out a smell of old ladies and
Read to fill the Magical Realism square of my 2017 Halloween Bingo card.The large cast of off-beat characters in this book reminded me strongly of Canadian author, Robertson Davies. And all of the links back to Melchior Hazard, Shakespearean actor, made me think of Station Eleven! But Carter definitely makes this tale all her own, despite the echoes with other authors.Like the Shakespeare that permeates the novel, there are lots of twins, sudden changes in fortune, costumes, and a lot of
Dora tells the story of her and her twin, Nora, unrecognized illegitimate daughters of the great Shakespearean actor, Melchior Hazard, from their birth at the beginning of the century, to Melchiors hundredth birthday party, a narrative that progresses chronologically, but with jags and with hints and clues which remind us that we are dealing with that tricky stuff, living memory.Apart from referring to Shakespeare and his plays, Carter cleverly adds as much Shakespearean twists into her own
3.5, rounded up.This is my first time reading Carter, and this - her final novel - appears to be atypical from the rest of her canon (which appear to be mainly macabre modern fairy tales). This put me in mind of Patrick Dennis' Little Me: The Intimate Memoirs of that Great Star of Stage, Screen and Television/Belle Poitrine/as told to, being a faux autobiography of twin sisters who never QUITE make it in show biz, but have a whale of a time trying for fame and fortune. It took awhile for it to
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