Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance - Softcover

Powers, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060975091 ISBN 13: 9780060975098

Publisher: HarperPerennial, 2001

Synopsis

In the spring of 1914, renowned photographer August Sander took a photograph of three young men on their way to a country dance. This haunting image, capturing the last moments of innocence on the brink of World War I, provides the central focus of Powers's brilliant and compelling novel. As the fate of the three farmers is chronicled, two contemporary stories unfold. The young narrator becomes obsessed with the photo, while Peter Mays, a computer writer in Boston, discovers he has a personal link with it. The three stories connect in a surprising way and provide the reader with a mystery that spans a century of brutality and progress.

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Review

"Bristlingly intelligent . . . Powers is a superb writer.""--Chicago Tribune""A scintillating, high-octane intellectual flight of fancy."--"Newsday"Fiercely original, formally brilliant, deeply moving."--"Illinois Times"An obsessive, witty, moving, often electrifying whale of a book about nothing less than the twentieth century."--"Kirkus Reviews"His writing engages . . . Sentence by sentence and page by page, the work shows Mr. Powers to good advantage."--"New York Times Book Review"Dazzling and audacious . . . nothing short of astounding."--"Philadelphia Inquirer?What is most remarkable about?the body of Powers's work so far is how much life is in it, and how much intelligence . . . I can think of no American novelist of his generation who makes a stronger [case] that the writing of novels is a heroic enterprise, and perhaps, even a matter of life and death.?--A. O. Scott, "New York Review of Books?One of the few younger American writers who can stake a claim to the legacy of Pynchon, Gaddis, and DeLillo.?--Gerald Howard, "The Nation?A writer of blistering intellect . . . [Powers is] a novelist of ideas and a novelist of witness, and in both respects, he has few American peers.?--Richard Eder, "Los Angeles Times?Powers is a genuine artist, athinker of rare synthetic gifts, maybe the only writer working -- Pynchon and DeLillo excepted -- who can render the intricate dazzle of it all and at the same time plumb its philosophical implications...?--Sven Birkerts, "Esquire?America's most ambitious novelist . . . No one who becomes immersed in [his] poetry will walk out the way he or she came in.?--Kevin Berger, "San Francisco Chronicle?Richard Powers is America's greatest livingnovelist.?--Tom Bissell, "The Boston Review?Powers hovers impossibly between extremes with a tightrope walker's perfect balance. He may be at once the smartest and the most warm-hearted novelist in America today.?--Melvin Jules Bukiet, "The Chicago Tribune

Book Description

The backlist of Richard Powers, one of America's most important novelists, moves to Atlantic Books.

On the eve of World War One, three young men are captured by photographer August Sander. Looking at the camera, dressed in suits against a background of an empty field, they become an iconic image. But what happens to these men after the shutter falls and how is the story of an enduring image influenced by forgotten histories? A novel of obsession in the age of technology.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperPerennial
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0060975091
• ISBN 13: 9780060975098
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352