The Death Of The Body
(C.K.STEAD)
Our first-person narrator moves from London
to Milan to
write his novel. There the padrone of the cafe where he works and Uta, the wife
of the Swedish consul, argue with him about his plot and characters. Uta
becomes a kind of Muse, without whom he can not write and who he ends up
following around Europe. And the personified
Story, in a blue folder he carries everywhere, has a mind of its own.
I went to the Cafe Corso Magenta at the usual time and found
Uta already waiting for me. She seemed agitated, almost irritable. She didn''t
like the scene in which Harry moons about feeling surges of love for three
women and two sons.
To be frank with you,'' she said frankly, I don''t believe it.
I assured her it was true ? Harry was like that ? but she said she was sure
she knew his type and that I wasn''t telling the whole truth about him.
The Story is set in Auckland
and centers on professor of philosophy Harry Butler, who muses on the Mind/Body
Problem while his wife Claire has turned his study into a Sufi shrine where she
chants "I am not this body". Meanwhile the Drug Squad is using their
kitchen to photograph the visitors to the neighboring house ? until Harry boots
them out to protect his old friend Jason. Bodies are inextricably tied up with
sex, of course, and Harry also has problems with his student-mistress Louise ?
especially when the Philosophy Department Women''s Collective becomes involved.
And eventually a dead body turns up...
This is all worked together in The Death of the Body into a clever,
witty metafiction. Reflexivity, narrative games, and philosophy are central,
but Stead never pushes them too hard, instead making them integral parts of his
plotting and characterization. The result is insightful into the workings of
both minds and bodies, but never stops entertaining ? even the chapter titles
are playful.
Resumos Relacionados
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- Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets
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- Harry Potter And The Philosopher Stone
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