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Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi
A New York Times Notable Book A Best Book of the Year: The Economist, The New Yorker, San Francisco Chronicle, Slate.com, and Time
In Venice, at the Biennale, a jaded, bellini-swigging journalist named Jeff Atman meets a beautiful woman and they embark on a passionate affair. In Varanasi, an unnamed journalist (who may or may not be Jeff) joins thousands of pilgrims on the banks of the holy Ganges. He intends to stay for a few days but ends up remaining for months. Their journey--as only the irrepressibly entertaining Geoff Dyer could conjure--makes for an uproarious, fiendishly inventive novel of Italy and India, longing and lust, and the prospect of neurotic enlightenment.
In Venice, at the Biennale, a jaded, bellini-swigging journalist named Jeff Atman meets a beautiful woman and they embark on a passionate affair. In Varanasi, an unnamed journalist (who may or may not be Jeff) joins thousands of pilgrims on the banks of the holy Ganges. He intends to stay for a few days but ends up remaining for months. Their journey--as only the irrepressibly entertaining Geoff Dyer could conjure--makes for an uproarious, fiendishly inventive novel of Italy and India, longing and lust, and the prospect of neurotic enlightenment.
Book Details
- Publisher: Vintage
- Publish Date: Apr 6th, 2010
- Pages: 304
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.00in - 5.46in - 0.89in - 0.66lb
- EAN: 9780307390301
- Categories: • Literary• Visionary & Metaphysical• Psychological
About the Author
Geoff Dyer is the author of three novels, a critical study of John Berger, and five genre-defying books, including But Beautiful, which was awarded the Somerset Maugham Prize, and Out of Sheer Rage, which was a National Book Critics Circle finalist. He lives in London.
Praise for this book
"Profoundly haunting and fearless. . . . Dyer at his best."
--Pico Iyer, The New York Times Book Review "An original, affecting, and unexpected book. . . . [Full of] wonderful observations, pungent and funny."
--James Wood, The New Yorker "Madly compelling. . . . A virtuosic melding of style and repertoire that come together as a sort of yogic 'one.'"
--The Boston Globe "Intoxicating. . . . A roller-coaster ride through the peaks and depths of sensual and spiritual abandonment-as-fulfillment."
--National Geographic Traveler "Dyer is very funny. . . a post-modern Kingsley Amis."
--Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth "A comic sexual-spiritual odyssey. . . . Dyer's prose is muscular, sometimes lighthearted and ribald."
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Astonishingly original. . . . An unforgettable book."
--The Oregonian
"Geoff Dyer is one of my favorite of all contemporary writers. . . . Jeff in Venice [is] a sad, funny, lyrical, furious story of an ordinary man's momentary redemption and decline."
--Alain de Botton, author of How Proust Can Change Your Life "Deft and daring. . . . A perceptive, engaging travelogue."
-- The Philadelphia Inquirer "Detailed and engaging. . . . Quite the mind game. . . . In Dyer's enigmatic novel, every reader will have to discover his or her own answers."
--San Francisco Chronicle "Brilliant. . . . Dyer doesn't reference Thomas Mann's Death in Venice for nothing: Jeff in Venice picks up Mann's themes of yearning for beauty and lost youth, but also Mann's deadly seriousness of artistic purpose. . . . [Dyer's] art is one of languid, suspended watching, lulling the reader into a morbid [Henry] Jamesian arousal."
--New York Observer
"A raucous delight. Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi is truly surprising--very funny, full of nerve, gutsy and delicious. Venice will never be the same again!"
--Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient "Dyer looks to the West and the East in [this] imaginative examination of self and romance."
--New York Post
"Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi is serious fiction; learned travelogue; funny, arch and sad; a cynic's ascent into redemptive love and a stoner's descent into 'Gone-Native' madness. It drips with Geoff Dyer's derelict luminosity."
--David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas "Musical and wildly intelligent. . . . [Dyer] has outdone himself, offering two narratives that play off one another to create an entirely new set of possibilities--a third story--in the reader's mind. . . . It grips you in unexpected ways."
--Time Out New York "A coy curmudgeon, a sly cosmopole, Casanova on a lark, Turner on a binge, a swami whami and arm-twister--Geoff Dyer is the Mann!"
--Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder "Beautifully crafted. . . . A career-best performance."
--The Sunday Telegraph (London) "Smart, provocative, often very funny, but ultimately deeply sobering, Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi is a contender for the most original, and the cleverest, novel of the year."
--The Daily Telegraph (London) "Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi is the hysterically funny, hesitantly mystical and gleeful adventure of one major superhero soul--Atman. I have never read anything like it and though no doubt others will go on writing novels as before, the earth has definitely shifted beneath my feet."
--Deborah Baker, author of A Blue Hand
"As always with Dyer, his writing is illuminating, surprising and totally original."
--Daily Mail (London) "Riveting. I love this book. Moments of wit, humanity, and intelligence are to be found on every page here. Dyer can write as beautifully as Lawrence and Proust. I don't ever want to be without his brilliant mind to turn to."
--Nadeem Aslam, author of The Wasted Vigil "Dyer is a witty and concise observer of landscapes: social, geographical and emotional. . . . [His] eccentric charm and barbed perceptiveness will hook you to the end."
--The Times (London) "A wonderfully entertaining book. . . . A prodigious display of virtuosity. . . . Dazzling and peculiar."
--The Sunday Times (London) "Dyer is the most companionable writer at work today and he gives us an extremely involving guided tour of two cities and a man's disintegrating self (or, as the Hindus call it, the "atman")."
--Edmund White, author of A Boy's Own Story "Delivered with laconic wit and an evocative sense of place, Dyer's effortlessly readable prose is shot through with psychological insight, truth and an eye for travelogue detail."
--Metro (London) "Funny and insightful. . . . An amusing and intelligent exploration of some of life's big questions."
--The Observer (London) "Geoff Dyer is a True Original--one of those rare voices in contemporary literature that never ceases to surprise, disturb and delight. A must read for our confused and perplexing times."
--William Boyd, author of Nat Tate: An American Artist, 1928-1960 "Dyer's smart and exactingly detailed [novel] would serve as a welcome travelling companion to the Mediterranean or the Ganges."
--The Toronto Star
--Pico Iyer, The New York Times Book Review "An original, affecting, and unexpected book. . . . [Full of] wonderful observations, pungent and funny."
--James Wood, The New Yorker "Madly compelling. . . . A virtuosic melding of style and repertoire that come together as a sort of yogic 'one.'"
--The Boston Globe "Intoxicating. . . . A roller-coaster ride through the peaks and depths of sensual and spiritual abandonment-as-fulfillment."
--National Geographic Traveler "Dyer is very funny. . . a post-modern Kingsley Amis."
--Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth "A comic sexual-spiritual odyssey. . . . Dyer's prose is muscular, sometimes lighthearted and ribald."
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Astonishingly original. . . . An unforgettable book."
--The Oregonian
"Geoff Dyer is one of my favorite of all contemporary writers. . . . Jeff in Venice [is] a sad, funny, lyrical, furious story of an ordinary man's momentary redemption and decline."
--Alain de Botton, author of How Proust Can Change Your Life "Deft and daring. . . . A perceptive, engaging travelogue."
-- The Philadelphia Inquirer "Detailed and engaging. . . . Quite the mind game. . . . In Dyer's enigmatic novel, every reader will have to discover his or her own answers."
--San Francisco Chronicle "Brilliant. . . . Dyer doesn't reference Thomas Mann's Death in Venice for nothing: Jeff in Venice picks up Mann's themes of yearning for beauty and lost youth, but also Mann's deadly seriousness of artistic purpose. . . . [Dyer's] art is one of languid, suspended watching, lulling the reader into a morbid [Henry] Jamesian arousal."
--New York Observer
"A raucous delight. Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi is truly surprising--very funny, full of nerve, gutsy and delicious. Venice will never be the same again!"
--Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient "Dyer looks to the West and the East in [this] imaginative examination of self and romance."
--New York Post
"Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi is serious fiction; learned travelogue; funny, arch and sad; a cynic's ascent into redemptive love and a stoner's descent into 'Gone-Native' madness. It drips with Geoff Dyer's derelict luminosity."
--David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas "Musical and wildly intelligent. . . . [Dyer] has outdone himself, offering two narratives that play off one another to create an entirely new set of possibilities--a third story--in the reader's mind. . . . It grips you in unexpected ways."
--Time Out New York "A coy curmudgeon, a sly cosmopole, Casanova on a lark, Turner on a binge, a swami whami and arm-twister--Geoff Dyer is the Mann!"
--Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder "Beautifully crafted. . . . A career-best performance."
--The Sunday Telegraph (London) "Smart, provocative, often very funny, but ultimately deeply sobering, Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi is a contender for the most original, and the cleverest, novel of the year."
--The Daily Telegraph (London) "Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi is the hysterically funny, hesitantly mystical and gleeful adventure of one major superhero soul--Atman. I have never read anything like it and though no doubt others will go on writing novels as before, the earth has definitely shifted beneath my feet."
--Deborah Baker, author of A Blue Hand
"As always with Dyer, his writing is illuminating, surprising and totally original."
--Daily Mail (London) "Riveting. I love this book. Moments of wit, humanity, and intelligence are to be found on every page here. Dyer can write as beautifully as Lawrence and Proust. I don't ever want to be without his brilliant mind to turn to."
--Nadeem Aslam, author of The Wasted Vigil "Dyer is a witty and concise observer of landscapes: social, geographical and emotional. . . . [His] eccentric charm and barbed perceptiveness will hook you to the end."
--The Times (London) "A wonderfully entertaining book. . . . A prodigious display of virtuosity. . . . Dazzling and peculiar."
--The Sunday Times (London) "Dyer is the most companionable writer at work today and he gives us an extremely involving guided tour of two cities and a man's disintegrating self (or, as the Hindus call it, the "atman")."
--Edmund White, author of A Boy's Own Story "Delivered with laconic wit and an evocative sense of place, Dyer's effortlessly readable prose is shot through with psychological insight, truth and an eye for travelogue detail."
--Metro (London) "Funny and insightful. . . . An amusing and intelligent exploration of some of life's big questions."
--The Observer (London) "Geoff Dyer is a True Original--one of those rare voices in contemporary literature that never ceases to surprise, disturb and delight. A must read for our confused and perplexing times."
--William Boyd, author of Nat Tate: An American Artist, 1928-1960 "Dyer's smart and exactingly detailed [novel] would serve as a welcome travelling companion to the Mediterranean or the Ganges."
--The Toronto Star