The Archivist
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Matthias Lane is the proud gatekeeper to countless objects of desire, the greatest among them being T.S. Eliot's letters to Emily Hale. Now in his late 60s and archivist at an unnamed East Coast University, Matthias is--as one of his colleagues tells him-- "exceptionally well defended." He's intent on keeping the Hale collection equally remote, and when a young poet first seeks access, Matthias rebuffs her with little difficulty. Still, Roberta Spire does remind him of his wife, Judith, who had also written poetry but had committed suicide 20 years earlier. And he is much taken with the student's self-possession: "Pleading never works with me," he concedes, "but authentic and angry self- interest does."
Betrayal figures heavily in The Archivist. For starters, Roberta feels betrayed by her parents, German Jews who had spent World War II in hiding and emigrated to the U.S. soon afterward, disguising their Jewish identity. She has only recently discovered her Jewish background. The irony is that Matthias's wife had also been an Eliot adept and had felt violated by a false version of her own past and destroyed when confronted with the realities of the Holocaust. No wonder Roberta sees the Hale letters as a Holy Grail, the key to her questions about religious conversion and identity.
What holds this exceptionally ambitious and layered first novel together is the love all three main characters have for the pleasures of the text and the knowledge they share that time is, as Eliot writes, both preserver and destroyer. Eliot, after all, had wanted Emily Hale to destroy his letters (and in reality they are sealed until 2020, safe at Princeton University). Martha Cooley is deeply concerned, as are her characters, with questions of conscience, privacy, action and inaction, and security--personal and scholarly. If there is one parallel too many in this impressive work, perhaps that is more like life than some of us care to admit. --Kerry Fried, Amazon.com
Treats serious questions in a humane and passionate manner ... a subtle chronicler ... valuable and rare (NEW YORK TIMES)
Martha Cooley has written a deeply moving debut about possession, connection and belonging to others (THE TIMES)
Read it and weep (ESQUIRE)
Powerful ... satisfying (TLS)
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Seller: Wonder Book, Frederick, MD, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Good condition. A copy that has been read but remains intact. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains. Seller Inventory # H03B-02345
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Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.79. Seller Inventory # G0349110964I3N00
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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The Archivist (An Abacus original) This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 7719-9780349110967
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Condition: Very Good. Book is in Used-VeryGood condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear and contain very limited notes and highlighting. 0.71. Seller Inventory # 0349110964-2-3
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Seller: GF Books, Inc., Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Book is in Used-Good condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear and contain limited notes and highlighting. 0.71. Seller Inventory # 0349110964-2-4
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Seller: Bahamut Media, Reading, United Kingdom
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 6545-9780349110967
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Seller: medimops, Berlin, Germany
Condition: good. Befriedigend/Good: Durchschnittlich erhaltenes Buch bzw. Schutzumschlag mit Gebrauchsspuren, aber vollständigen Seiten. / Describes the average WORN book or dust jacket that has all the pages present. Seller Inventory # M00349110964-G
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Seller: Leura Books, Bowral, NSW, Australia
Softcover. Condition: Good. Archivist Matthias' work has given him access to letters between T.S. Eliot and lifelong friend Emily Hale, bequeathed by Hale, but not to be read until 2019. Read in order to catalogue, they continue to haunt him as he falls for a student whom he knows he could save spiritually with the letters. 328 pages. Tanning to pages. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilogram. Category: Fiction; Fiction; ISBN: 0349110964. ISBN/EAN: 9780349110967. Inventory No: 242725. Seller Inventory # 242725
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