30,000 Mornings - Softcover

Akmakjian, Hiag

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140279466 ISBN 13: 9780140279467

Publisher: Penguin, 2000

Synopsis

Penguin Books / / English literature / Engels / English / Anglais / Englisch / paperback / 11 x 18 cm / 309 .pp /

About this title

Review:

Akmakjian's novel 30,000 Mornings is a pleasant blend of fact and fiction giving the reader a light-hearted glimpse of New York at the end of a millennium. This is an exposé of the foolishness that we are all quite capable of, captured in the microcosmic life of Inge.

Inge is preoccupied with the whereabouts of her friend Karen but she is annoyed more so by the fact that she is alone in this concern for a fellow human being. While everyone else in the fashion industry continues their lives undaunted, Inge finds herself unable to function properly. She seeks solace in her shrink, her boyfriend, sex and alcohol. None can give her the answers she needs. Soon the question is not just the whereabouts of Karen, but instead a crisis of personality and direction.

Unconsciously reinforcing the maxim that the US is a salad bowl rather than a melting pot, Inge's life is a very ironic and uncomfortable view of relationships between the sexes. Through her healthy appetite for Vodka, food and sex, and Hal's obsession with urinating, maybe the book tells us much more about ourselves than of the characters.

30,000 Mornings shows all the characteristics of many works from Lapland--amusing and optimistic yet deeply embedded with melancholy.--Jon Smith

From the Author:

Fast-paced, extremely funny and enjoyable read.
On the surface, 30,000 Mornings deals with a kidnapping, prostitution rings and white slavery, but in the course of telling the story, the heroine, Inge (a lively spirited young Finnish woman transplanted to New York City) discovers in American life things that she perceives in her own screwball, forthright and honest way that makes the culture of Manhattan extremely funny, and even at times quite erotic. The resulting collection of characters, graffiti, anecdotes and jokes makes for a fast-paced read, with overtones of Scheherazade spinning tales to keep the unknowable known at bay. Inge's quest for her friend -- and not so incidentally for her own sense of balance in life -- leads to a deeper question: how does one come to terms with the inevitable in order to go on living? Although making a serious point, the novel's whole manner is a cross between Rabelais, Laurence Sterne and Henry Miller, in keeping with Horace's admonition: "Why should one not speak the truth laughing?" Fast-paced reading enjoyment is practically guaranteed.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0140279466
• ISBN 13: 9780140279467
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320