Tours Philippines - The Blue Afternoon
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List Price: $23.00
toursphilippines.com Price: $2.49
Your Save: $ 20.51 ( 89% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Alfred A. Knopf
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780679432951
ISBN: 0679432957
Label: Alfred A. Knopf
Manufacturer: Alfred A. Knopf
Number Of Pages: 367
Publication Date: 1995-02-28
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Release Date: 1995-02-28
Studio: Alfred A. Knopf
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Editorial Reviews:
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From the acclaimed author of Brazzaville Beach and The Blue Afternoon, a new novel, set in present-day London, which demonstrates the superbly plotted storytelling that has earned William Boyd his reputation as a writer whose "eccentric wit and restless intelligence exert a powerful appeal" (New York Times Book Review).
One cold winter's morning, Lorimer Black--
insurance adjuster, young, good-looking, on the rise--goes out on a perfectly ordinary business appointment, finds a hanged man and realizes that his life is about to be turned upside down. The elements at play: a beautiful actress glimpsed in a passing taxi . . . an odd new business associate whose hiring, firing and rehiring make little sense . . . a rock musician who is losing his mind--and a web of fraud in which virtually everyone Lorimer Black knows has been caught and in which he finds himself increasingly entangled.
Boyd at his urbane and mesmerizing best.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A book that mentions the Philippine American War
Comment: This is the first fiction-based book I have read that has mentioned the Philippine American War--the author is not even Filipino! For that, I give the book 5 stars. People should know about this forgotten and important war. Okay, I can go on and on about this... And now about the whole book: It's not what I expected and I guess this is why I like it a lot. The character development is well done and the description of the locals and events were intriguing. I also really love the side story about the plane (you just have to read it).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great, smart read
Comment: Highly recommend it. One of those rare books - great story and beautifully written. A bit of a mystery, a bit of romance, a bit of a world long gone.
I also recommend:
-"Good man in Africa" by the same author
-anything my Tome Wolfe
-anything by Balzac and Zola
-"Power of One" by Bryce Courtenay
-"Fear and Trembling" by Amelie Nothomb
Customer Rating:
Summary: a romantic, historical novel with charm ... and loose ends
Comment: William Boyd is an excellent writer. The prose, characterizations and dialogue are uniformly excellent in all his books I've read, including 'The Blue Afternoon'. In this book we have, in effect, a romance between a doctor and a married woman ... plus a number of interesting side stories (murder, war, mayhem and yes, more romance). The 1903 Manila setting, just after the Spanish-American war, gives the story a historical and fascinating twist.
Like his other books, 'The Blue Afternoon' isn't an entirely believable read. But it is such a pleasurable story that one wishes it was all fact, not fiction. My only complaint with it is the ending. Some open-ended matters concerning subplots are not closed. The author has seemingly done this purposely to tease the reader. I wasn't teased, just annoyed. However this doesn't tarnish the overall pleasure of reading 'The Blue Afternoon'.
Bottom line: a rich, charming fable. Why it hasn't been made into a film is anyone's guess. Recommended to all.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Love story from a man's angle, with plot aplenty
Comment: As a woman, if you're ever so slightly bored of modern women writers, this is for you. William Boyd's achingly beautiful writing weaves an engrossing plot involving, but not limited to, a love story told from the man's point of view. And it's refreshing to read of a man's utter devotion, told ungushingly but with such feeling and realism. In addition to the love, there is the story set mostly in the Far East, a little murder, infidelity, characters which jump out at you but allow you to fill in the gaps.... and a prologue that will have you desperate to drop the kids off at school and leave them there all week while you finish. This is a book for everyone, and the only criticism is that you won't want to read anything else once you're done!
Customer Rating:
Summary: boyd at his least interesting
Comment: this, along with Stars and Bars, is Boyd's most tossed-off novel--but it's still Wm Boyd, the best British novelist living. the characters here are pallid and limp, the plot plodding, the "reversals" less than interesting. much much better to pick up The New Confessions or Brazzaville Beach--two of the most riveting novels written this century.
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