Items related to As She Climbed Across the Table
Synopsis
What if your lover left you for, well, nothing? Literally Nothing. Consider the fate of Professor Philip Engstrand: the principal object of his attention, particle physicist Alice Coombs, stands with her colleagues on the cusp of a momentous discovery. They have created a void, a hole in the universe, a true nothingness that they have named 'Lack'. Lack, however, is no ordinary black hole, but a void that displays the contours of a personality - a void that, as Philip begins to realize, utterly obsesses his beloved. In other words, Alice has fallen out of love with Philip and into love with Lack. As She Climbed Across the Table is the daring and delightful tale of Alice's modern-day journey through the looking glass, and of Philip's struggle to win her back from that most elusive of romantic rivals: a lover without flaws - without, indeed, any qualities whatsoever . . .
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Review
When is the absurd not absurd? When the story is chronicled by Jonathan Lethem. In As She Climbed Across the Table, Lethem again manages to take the strangest of set-ups and make them seem commonplace--so much so that, despite the high concepts (Motherless Brooklyn was about a Tourettes-suffering gangster/private eye and Girl in Landscape was a sci-fi coming-of-age story), his books are masterpieces of human characterisation..
The (ostensible) premise of As She Climbed Across the Table concerns the discovery of a hole in the universe by Professor Alice Coombs, and the effect of the discovery on the campus on which she works. A physicist, Coombs and her department create a hole in the universe--a hole that is defined by its complete lack of tangible qualities. As she and her department explore their discovery, they anthropomorphitise it: Alice comes to ascribe a personality to "Lack"; it is this relationship and the effect it has on Coombs' partner, Philip Engstrand (a sociologist who studies the community of academics around him), that the book revolves around. Told from Engstrand's point of view, it is a fantastic tale told without wonder--think Don DeLillo, especially White Noise, another tale of the everyday absurd set on a college campus--and it's all the richer for it. --Randy Silver
Review
"Exceptionally clever. . . . A book of compelling ideas, of intellectual conflict, of human frailty and desire. And it's funny."--Dallas Morning News
"Jonathan Lethem has succeeded in delivering a wonderland on the side of the looking glass," --San Francisco Bay Guardian
"Lethem is opening blue sky for American fiction. . . . He is rapidly evolving into his own previously uncataloged species." --Village Voice Literary Supplement
"Wickedly funny." --Columbus DIspatch
"An oddball tour de force." --Entertainment Weekly
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherFaber and Faber
- Publication date2001
- ISBN 10 0571205895
- ISBN 13 9780571205899
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Number of pages208
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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. As She Climbed Across the Table 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 # 7719-9780571205899
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As She Climbed Across the Table
Published by
Faber & Faber, London, 2001
ISBN 10: 0571205895
ISBN 13: 9780571205899
Used
Mass Market Paperback
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Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. First Edition. first printing, nice copy, binding sound, pages clean slight pale foxing- as she climbed across the table is the Daring & delightful tale of Alice, the particle physicist's modern-day journey through the looking glass and her love Philip's struggle to win her back from a powerful romantic rival- a lover without flaws. Seller Inventory # 011796
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