A Box of Matches: A Novel - Hardcover

Baker, Nicholson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375502874 ISBN 13: 9780375502873

Publisher: Random House Inc, 2003

Synopsis

During a month in the life of a forty-five-year-old editor of medical textbooks, Emmett--married with children, a cat, and a duck--ruminates about the meaning of life during his pre-dawn sojourns alone. By the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

One man's simple, colloquial meditations on his past, his family, and his life's daily minutia are the substance of Nicholson Baker's A Box of Matches.

Feeling that life is passing him by, Emmett, a middle-aged medical textbook editor, decides to wake up early each day to sit by a fire in his country house and record his thoughts in a diary. "Good morning," Emmett begins, "its January and its 4.17 am, and I'm going to sit here in the dark." From this vantage point, Emmett reflects stream-of-consciousness style on whatever occurs to him, no matter how mundane: his recent trip to Home Depot, how he met his wife, the habits of the family duck. Routines, such as how he makes his morning coffee in the dark or picks up his underwear with his toes, are described with childlike reverence and directness.

All told, nothing much happens in A Box of Matches, which seems to be the point. Baker is more interested in the idea that for many, life is made up of such apparent trivialities, and that only by pausing to appreciate them can anyone gain any lasting satisfaction. Baker emphasises this through the moments of understated wisdom and joy that Emmett derives from ordinary occurrences, such as the daylight through the window: "a simple light that goes everywhere but with no heat, aware that it is taken for granted and content to be so."

This is the philosophical equivalent of a one-joke premise, however, and there are moments when Emmett's naiveté and laundry list-like narrative wear thin. Likely understanding this, Baker has wisely kept things short. A curious, often charming novel, A Box of Matches will inspire some readers, while inspiring frustration in others. --Ross Doll, Amazon.com

Review:

"Extraordinary prose" (Sunday Times)

"As Kipling was to the secrets of the jungle, so is Baker to modern domesticity, equally ready with fascinating observation" (Daily Telegraph)

"There is a good deal more everyday wonder here than in a hundred original miscellanies" (Observer)

"This might be Baker's best yet - you're in for a treat" (Evening Standard)

"Like the small, agreeable sensations it so deftly evokes, this modestly scaled story is a pleasure that can add cheer to an entire day" (Spectator)

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Inc
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0375502874
• ISBN 13: 9780375502873
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 2221