The Doll: A Portrait of My Mother by Kadare, Ismail
by Kadare, Ismail | PB | Good
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ApproximatelyΒ£6.29
Condition:
βPages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, β... Read moreAbout condition
Good
A book that has been read, but is in good condition. Minimal damage to the book cover eg. scuff marks, but no holes or tears. If this is a hard cover, the dust jacket may be missing. Binding has minimal wear. The majority of pages are undamaged with some creasing or tearing, and pencil underlining of text, but this is minimal. No highlighting of text, no writing in the margins, and no missing pages. See the sellerβs listing for full details and description of any imperfections.
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eBay item number:375862308723
Item specifics
- Condition
- Good
- Seller notes
- Binding
- Paperback
- Weight
- 0 lbs
- Product Group
- Book
- IsTextBook
- No
- ISBN
- 9781640094222
About this product
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Counterpoint Press
ISBN-10
1640094229
ISBN-13
9781640094222
eBay Product ID (ePID)
24038381118
Product Key Features
Book Title
Doll : a Portrait of My Mother
Number of Pages
208 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2020
Topic
Family Life, Biographical
Genre
Fiction
Format
Trade Paperback
Dimensions
Item Height
0.6 in
Item Weight
7 Oz
Item Length
8.2 in
Item Width
5.5 in
Additional Product Features
Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2020-939791
TitleLeading
The
Reviews
"Some of the most pleasurable parts of The Doll arise from Kadare's obvious thrill in revisiting Gjirokaster, the enchanting town of his birth, and reviving its interwar years, when the Doll was young . . . The reader finds voyeuristic intrigue in the procession that accompanied her on her first post-nuptial visit home to her father, and in her mother-in-law's announcement that, as a woman of a certain age, she would never again leave the house . . . Delicate . . . Rewarding." --Elisabeth Zerofsky, The New York Times Book Review "Kadare's wistful, introspective family portrait (after A Girl in Exile ) combines fiction and memoir as he recollects his childhood in Gjirokastra, Albania, and early writing career in Tirana while imagining his mother's early life . . . Kadare's rich portrayal of his mother dovetails neatly with that of communist Albania, full of conflicts and incongruities. Kadare's fans will relish this slim, enigmatic snapshot of the author's origins." -- Publishers Weekly "Intimately explores the ways his mother influenced both his personality and art . . . A slight, slippery, mordant elegy for an emotionally distant mother." -- Kirkus Reviews Praise for Ismail Kadare: "Kadare is inevitably linked to Orwell and Kundera, but he is a far deeper ironist than the first, and a better storyteller than the second. He is a compellingly ironic storyteller because he so brilliantly summons details that explode with symbolic reality." -- The New Yorker "The name of the Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare regularly comes up at Nobel Prize time, and he is still a good bet to win it one of these days . . . He is seemingly incapable of writing a book that fails to be interesting." -- The New York Times "Ismail Kadare is one of Europe's most consistently interesting and powerful contemporary novelists, a writer whose stark, memorable prose imprints itself on the reader's consciousness." -- The Los Angeles Times "[Kadare's] fiction offers invaluable insights into life under tyranny . . . But his books are of more than just political statement--at his best he is a great writer, by any nation's standards." -- Financial Times "Kadare's fiction evades ideologies, escaping into richer realms of the past, or myth, folklore and dystopian fantasy." -- Spectator "Ismail Kadare is this generation's Kafka." -- Independent "He has been compared to Gogol, Kafka, and Orwell. But Kadare's is an original voice, universal yet deeply rooted in his own soil." -- Independent on Sunday "Ismail Kadare made his name as a forceful example of how to function as a writer under late communism. He trod a delicate line between censorship and lies by critiquing the Stalinism of Enver Hoxha's Albania through fable, allegory and historical transposition, sometimes throwing the dictator a bone, and escaping dissident status by virtue of his international success." -- Independent "A Master storyteller." --John Carey, author of The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life "One of the world's greatest living writers." --Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of One Night in Winter, "Some of the most pleasurable parts of The Doll arise from Kadare's obvious thrill in revisiting Gjirokaster, the enchanting town of his birth, and reviving its interwar years, when the Doll was young . . . The reader finds voyeuristic intrigue in the procession that accompanied her on her first post-nuptial visit home to her father, and in her mother-in-law's announcement that, as a woman of a certain age, she would never again leave the house . . . Delicate . . . Rewarding." --Elisabeth Zerofsky, The New York Times Book Review " The Doll is a moving, intimate portrayal of a young man's literary awakening." --Shahina Piyarali, Shelf Awareness (starred review) "Kadare's wistful, introspective family portrait (after A Girl in Exile ) combines fiction and memoir as he recollects his childhood in Gjirokastra, Albania, and early writing career in Tirana while imagining his mother's early life . . . Kadare's rich portrayal of his mother dovetails neatly with that of communist Albania, full of conflicts and incongruities. Kadare's fans will relish this slim, enigmatic snapshot of the author's origins." -- Publishers Weekly "Intimately explores the ways his mother influenced both his personality and art . . . A slight, slippery, mordant elegy for an emotionally distant mother." -- Kirkus Reviews Praise for Ismail Kadare: "Kadare is inevitably linked to Orwell and Kundera, but he is a far deeper ironist than the first, and a better storyteller than the second. He is a compellingly ironic storyteller because he so brilliantly summons details that explode with symbolic reality." -- The New Yorker "The name of the Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare regularly comes up at Nobel Prize time, and he is still a good bet to win it one of these days . . . He is seemingly incapable of writing a book that fails to be interesting." -- The New York Times "Ismail Kadare is one of Europe's most consistently interesting and powerful contemporary novelists, a writer whose stark, memorable prose imprints itself on the reader's consciousness." -- The Los Angeles Times "[Kadare's] fiction offers invaluable insights into life under tyranny . . . But his books are of more than just political statement--at his best he is a great writer, by any nation's standards." -- Financial Times "Kadare's fiction evades ideologies, escaping into richer realms of the past, or myth, folklore and dystopian fantasy." -- Spectator "Ismail Kadare is this generation's Kafka." -- Independent "He has been compared to Gogol, Kafka, and Orwell. But Kadare's is an original voice, universal yet deeply rooted in his own soil." -- Independent on Sunday "Ismail Kadare made his name as a forceful example of how to function as a writer under late communism. He trod a delicate line between censorship and lies by critiquing the Stalinism of Enver Hoxha's Albania through fable, allegory and historical transposition, sometimes throwing the dictator a bone, and escaping dissident status by virtue of his international success." -- Independent "A Master storyteller." --John Carey, author of The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life "One of the world's greatest living writers." --Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of One Night in Winter, "The latest work from the 2020 Neustadt Prize honoree shows how the limits imposed by Albania's traditional class and gender rules and repressive governments affect the Kadare family. The doll its apparent subject, this slim, semi-autobiographical novel highlights the artist's fraught bonds with his mother and his country. But on a deeper level, it becomes a matryoshka doll containing Kadare's mother, grandmother, motherland, and 'mother' as trope--all riddles that the 'I' narrator, Kadare's persona, attempts to resolve, an effort that propels his artistic growth." --Michele Levy, World Literature Today "Kadare's writing is spare and filled with interesting turns of phrase and observations . . . This quiet study of a difficult relationship reveals his personal life to any fan of Kadare. For those unfamiliar with his work, this serves as an intriguing introduction to an important writer." --G.J. Berger, H istorical Novels Review "Kadare's wistful, introspective family portrait (after A Girl in Exile ) combines fiction and memoir as he recollects his childhood in Gjirokastra, Albania, and early writing career in Tirana while imagining his mother's early life . . . Kadare's rich portrayal of his mother dovetails neatly with that of communist Albania, full of conflicts and incongruities. Kadare's fans will relish this slim, enigmatic snapshot of the author's origins." -- Publishers Weekly "Intimately explores the ways his mother influenced both his personality and art . . . A slight, slippery, mordant elegy for an emotionally distant mother." -- Kirkus Reviews Praise for Ismail Kadare: "Kadare is inevitably linked to Orwell and Kundera, but he is a far deeper ironist than the first, and a better storyteller than the second. He is a compellingly ironic storyteller because he so brilliantly summons details that explode with symbolic reality." -- The New Yorker "The name of the Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare regularly comes up at Nobel Prize time, and he is still a good bet to win it one of these days . . . He is seemingly incapable of writing a book that fails to be interesting." -- The New York Times "Ismail Kadare is one of Europe's most consistently interesting and powerful contemporary novelists, a writer whose stark, memorable prose imprints itself on the reader's consciousness." -- The Los Angeles Times "A Master storyteller." --John Carey, author of The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life "One of the world's greatest living writers." --Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of One Night in Winter, "Kadare's wistful, introspective family portrait (after A Girl in Exile ) combines fiction and memoir as he recollects his childhood in Gjirokastra, Albania, and early writing career in Tirana while imagining his mother's early life . . . Kadare's rich portrayal of his mother dovetails neatly with that of communist Albania, full of conflicts and incongruities. Kadare's fans will relish this slim, enigmatic snapshot of the author's origins." -- Publishers Weekly "Intimately explores the ways his mother influenced both his personality and art . . . A slight, slippery, mordant elegy for an emotionally distant mother." -- Kirkus Reviews Praise for Ismail Kadare: "Kadare is inevitably linked to Orwell and Kundera, but he is a far deeper ironist than the first, and a better storyteller than the second. He is a compellingly ironic storyteller because he so brilliantly summons details that explode with symbolic reality." -- The New Yorker "The name of the Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare regularly comes up at Nobel Prize time, and he is still a good bet to win it one of these days . . . He is seemingly incapable of writing a book that fails to be interesting." -- The New York Times "Ismail Kadare is one of Europe's most consistently interesting and powerful contemporary novelists, a writer whose stark, memorable prose imprints itself on the reader's consciousness." -- The Los Angeles Times "[Kadare's] fiction offers invaluable insights into life under tyranny . . . But his books are of more than just political statement--at his best he is a great writer, by any nation's standards." -- Financial Times "Kadare's fiction evades ideologies, escaping into richer realms of the past, or myth, folklore and dystopian fantasy." -- Spectator "Ismail Kadare is this generation's Kafka." -- Independent "He has been compared to Gogol, Kafka, and Orwell. But Kadare's is an original voice, universal yet deeply rooted in his own soil." -- Independent on Sunday "Ismail Kadare made his name as a forceful example of how to function as a writer under late communism. He trod a delicate line between censorship and lies by critiquing the Stalinism of Enver Hoxha's Albania through fable, allegory and historical transposition, sometimes throwing the dictator a bone, and escaping dissident status by virtue of his international success." -- Independent "A Master storyteller." --John Carey, author of The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life "One of the world's greatest living writers." --Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of One Night in Winter
Dewey Edition
23
Dewey Decimal
891.9913
Synopsis
In the first memoir from Albania's most renowned novelist and poet, Ismail Kadare explores his relationship with his mother in a delicately wrought tale of home, family, creative aspiration, and personal and political freedom. "Houses like ours seemed constructed with the specific purpose of preserving coldness and misunderstanding for as long as possible." In his father's great stone house with hidden rooms and even a dungeon, Ismail grows up with his mother at the center of his universe. Fragile as a paper doll, she finds herself at odds with her tight-lipped and wise mother-in-law who, as is the custom for women of a certain age, will never again step foot over the threshold to leave her home. Young Ismail finds it difficult to understand his mother's tears, though he can understand her boredom. She told him the reason herself in a phrase that terrified and obsessed the boy: "The house is eating me up!" As Ismail explores his world, his mother becomes fearful of her intellectual son--he uses words she does not understand, writes radical poetry, falls in love far too easily, and seems to renounce everything she believes in. He will, she fears, have to exchange her for some other superior mother when he becomes a famous writer. This delicate story is a longing memory of this mother, a loving and disarming tale of childhood, an exploration of creative and writerly aspirations, and of Kadare's memories of his home as he develops personal and political freedom., In this autobiographical novel, Albania's most renowned novelist and poet Ismail Kadare explores his relationship with his mother in a delicately wrought tale of home, family, creative aspirations, and personal and political freedom. "Houses like ours seemed constructed with the specific purpose of preserving coldness and misunderstanding for as long as possible." In his father's great stone house with hidden rooms and even a dungeon, Ismail grows up with his mother at the center of his universe. Fragile as a paper doll, she finds herself at odds with her tight-lipped and wise mother-in-law who, as is the custom for women of a certain age, will never again step foot over the threshold to leave her home. Young Ismail finds it difficult to understand his mother's tears, though he can understand her boredom. She told him the reason herself in a phrase that terrified and obsessed the boy: "The house is eating me up " As Ismail explores his world, his mother becomes fearful of her intellectual son--he uses words she does not understand, writes radical poetry, falls in love far too easily, and seems to renounce everything she believes in. He will, she fears, have to exchange her for some other superior mother when he becomes a famous writer. The Doll is a delicate and disarming autobiographical novel, an exploration of Kadare's creative aspirations and their tangled connections to his childhood home and his mother's tenuous place within it., In this autobiographical novel, Albania's most renowned novelist and poet Ismail Kadare explores his relationship with his mother in a delicately wrought tale of home, family, creative aspirations, and personal and political freedom. "Houses like ours seemed constructed with the specific purpose of preserving coldness and misunderstanding for as long as possible." In his father's great stone house with hidden rooms and even a dungeon, Ismail grows up with his mother at the center of his universe. Fragile as a paper doll, she finds herself at odds with her tight-lipped and wise mother-in-law who, as is the custom for women of a certain age, will never again step foot over the threshold to leave her home. Young Ismail finds it difficult to understand his mother's tears, though he can understand her boredom. She told him the reason herself in a phrase that terrified and obsessed the boy: "The house is eating me up!" As Ismail explores his world, his mother becomes fearful of her intellectual son--he uses words she does not understand, writes radical poetry, falls in love far too easily, and seems to renounce everything she believes in. He will, she fears, have to exchange her for some other superior mother when he becomes a famous writer. The Doll is a delicate and disarming autobiographical novel, an exploration of Kadare's creative aspirations and their tangled connections to his childhood home and his mother's tenuous place within it.
LC Classification Number
PG9621.K3K8513 2020b
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