The Spectator Bird (Contempora

Stegner, Wallace

ISBN 10: 0140139400 / ISBN 13: 9780140139402

Published by Penguin Books, 1990

Item in very good condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00102444664

Synopsis:

Joe Allston is a retired literary agent who is, in his own words, "just killing time until time gets around to killing me." His parents and his only son are long dead, leaving him with neither ancestors nor descendants, tradition nor ties. His job, trafficking the talent of others, had not been his choice. He passes through life as a spectator.

A postcard from a friend causes Allston to return to the journals of a trip he had taken years before, a journey to his mother's birthplace, where he'd sought a link with the past. The memories of that trip, both grotesque and poignant, move through layers of time and meaning, and reveal that Joe Allston isn't quite spectator enough.

"Elegant and entertaining . . . Every scene [is] adroitly staged and each effect precisely acomplished." ?The Atlantic

Review: "It is the autobiographical nature of Stegner''s work . . . that makes it so compelling. In every novel, the narrator has all the gifts of language, empathy, and philosophy, but he nonetheless can never free himself from the torments of the past."
-Jane Smiley, from the Introduction

"Elegant and entertaining . . . every scene [is] adroitly staged and each effect precisely accomplished."
-"The Atlantic"
"It is the autobiographical nature of Stegner's work . . . that makes it so compelling. In every novel, the narrator has all the gifts of language, empathy, and philosophy, but he nonetheless can never free himself from the torments of the past." Jane Smiley, from the Introduction
"Elegant and entertaining . . . every scene [is] adroitly staged and each effect precisely accomplished." The Atlantic"

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Spectator Bird (Contempora
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publication Date: 1990
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Very Good