To Be a Man
'One of America's most important novelists' (New York Times)
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
An electrifying short story collection from 'one of America's most important novelists' (New York Times); the twice Orange Prize-shortlisted author of the bestselling The History of Love
A TIME BOOK OF THE YEAR
'One of our most formidable talents in fiction' ESQUIRE
'Krauss's writing is as lyrical as ever' FINANCIAL TIMES
Deftly weaving from one end of life to another – from ageing parents to newborn babies, from a young girl's coming-of-age to an old woman's unexpected delivery of a strange new second youth, from mystery and wonder at a life at its close or at a future waiting to unfold, Nicole Krauss's stories illuminate the moments in the lives of women in which the forces of sex, power and violence collide.
With sons and lovers, seducers and friends, husbands lost and regained, or husbands who were never husbands at all, how many men does can a woman's lifetime hold? What does it mean to be a man and a woman together; or a man and a woman, once together and now apart?
Beautiful, taut and dark, spinning across the world, from Switzerland, Japan and New York to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles and South America, To Be a Man delves with originality and timeliness into questions of masculinity and violence, regret and regeneration, control and desire; and shines a fierce, unwavering light onto men and women, and into the uncharted gulfs that lie between them.
Customer Reviews
Man up
Author
American, now mid-forties. Her four novels, Man Walks Into Room (2002), The History of Love (2005), Great House (2010), and Forest Dark (2017), have been translated into 35 languages, and won multiple awards much prized by her fellow writers, if less well known by Joe Public. Her short fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, and Esquire and frequently features in annual Best American Stories collections. Her ex-husband and father of her two children is Jonathan Safran Foer, who isn’t short on literary cred either, e.g. Extremely Loud & Incredible Close (2005) among others.
Disclaimer
I am an unabashed Krauss fan. In my opinion, The History of Love is the best novel published this millennium, probably the best since 1980. Just sayin’.
Random Notes
In these stories, Ms K examines what it is to be a man or a woman, the tensions that have existed from the very beginning of time. No biggie in other words, although non-binaries don't get a look in. Cut to the chase, she delivers.
The time is the present, the settings all over (Switzerland, Japan, New York City, Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, South America), and the characters predominantly Jewish, as in American Jewish: Ms Krauss's stock in trade. This collection is all about the characters, of which she gives us a range (fathers, lovers, friends, children, seducers etc), without ever waging a vendetta against her ex, a la Taylor Swift.
The writing is sublime, although based on my comments above, I would say that, wouldn't I?
Bottom line
America has given us any number of outstanding Jewish writers (Roth, Malamud, Bellow, Salinger, Sontag, the list goes on). Ms Krauss is right up there with the best of them IMHO, although you might want to give this a miss if you're a committed anti-Semite.