Allen Kurzweil verdiept zich in de complexe passies van zijn personages, een toewijding die hem ertoe heeft aangezet pop-up boekontwerp te bestuderen en de reparatie van pianola's te leren. Zijn werk kenmerkt zich door een diepgaande betrokkenheid bij het innerlijk leven van zijn personages, wat vaak tot uiting komt in de constructie van inventieve en eigenaardige apparaten die hun complexiteit weerspiegelen. Deze unieke aanpak verleent zijn verhalen een onderscheidende diepte en fantasierijke flair.
This book is about a hotel full of animals. And an evil ice maker. And glass eyeballs -- oh, and really old panty hose and Possibly Fake Hair. But mostly, it's about Leon Zeisel and his epic quest to survive fourth grade, despite his teacher, Miss Hagmeyer, and his archenemy, Lumpkin the Pumpkin, a human tank with a deadly dodgeball throw. Luckily, Leon has friends who will stand by him even if his magical plans for rescue and revenge involve ... SPIT!
Employing scientific methods learned in Mr. Sparks's class, fifth-grader Leon competes in a potato chip tasting contest and takes revenge against Lumpkin the bully.
A delicious compendium of quirky colleagues, erotic pop-ups, deviant passions, and miraculous examples of theft, the book is a grand and complicated "timepiece," told with a devilish sense of fun. Narrated by Alexander Short, a stylish young reference librarian of arcane interests, The Grand Complication propels the reader through a card catalog of desperation and delight, of intrigue and theft. It's a novel of suspense that comes full circle, with a clock-maker's precision and a storyteller's surprise, on page 360. The account begins with Alexander's job in jeopardy and his marriage destined for the Discard shelf. Enter the improbably named Henry James Jesson III, a bibliophile who hires the librarian for some after-hours research. The task: to render whole an incomplete cabinet of wonders chronicling the life of a mysterious eighteenth-century inventor. As the investigation heats up, Alexander realizes there are many more secrets lurking in Jesson's cloistered world than those found inside his elegant Manhattan town house. With a notebook tethered to his jacket, Alexander plunges headlong into the search, only to discover that the void in the cabinet is rivaled by an emptiness in his heart.
Das Leben des hochbegabten Erfinders Claude Page, der zur Zeit der Französischen Revolution als Krönung seines tüftlerischen Genies einen künstlichen, sprechenden Türken konstruiert.
Narrated by Alexander Short, a stylish young reference librarian of arcane interests, The Grand Complication propels the reader through a card catalog of desperation and delight, of intrigue and theft. It’s a novel of suspense that comes full circle, with a clock-maker’s precision and a storyteller’s surprise, on page 360. The account begins with Alexander’s job in jeopardy and his marriage destined for the Discard shelf. Enter the improbably named Henry James Jesson III, a bibliophile who hires the librarian for some after-hours research. The task: to render whole an incomplete cabinet of wonders chronicling the life of a mysterious eighteenth-century inventor. As the investigation heats up, Alexander realizes there are many more secrets lurking in Jesson’s cloistered world than those found inside his elegant Manhattan town house. With a notebook tethered to his jacket, Alexander plunges headlong into the search, only to discover that the void in the cabinet is rivaled by an emptiness in his heart. A delicious compendium of quirky colleagues, erotic pop-ups, deviant passions, and miraculous examples of theft, the book is a grand and complicated “timepiece,” told with a devilish sense of fun. (From the colophon: The tiny gear used as a space break is a freehand rendering of an escapement wheel contained inside the Marie Antoinette, Abraham-Louis Breguet’s pocket watch masterpiece. The whereabouts of of the watch, stolen from a Jerusalem museum in 1983, is unknown.)
Der Debütroman von Allen Kurzweil spielt im aufklärerischen Paris und folgt dem jungen Schweizer Claude Page, einem Erfinder, der von einem falschen Abbe, einem Buchhändler und einer wohlhabenden Dame gefördert wird. Die Geschichte thematisiert die Ideen und künstlerischen Projekte dieser geistvollen Epoche.
