- All Magazines
- Popular Magazines: Always Available
- Cooking and Food Magazines
- Craft Magazines
- News and Politics
- See all magazines collections
1 of 1 copy available
An irresistible triumph of the imagination more than thirty years in the making, The Little Book is a breathtaking love story that spans generations, ranging from fin de sie?cle Vienna through the pivotal moments of the twentieth century.
-
Creators
-
Series
-
Publisher
-
Release date
August 14, 2008 -
Formats
-
OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781101929513
- File size: 432373 KB
- Duration: 15:00:46
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
The amazement in Jeff Woodman's voice draws listeners into Wheeler Burden's chronological conundrum. In 1988, Wheeler experiences a dislocation in time due to a "catastrophic precipitating event." At the age of 47, and fully conscious of history's events, he is transported back to 1897 fin-de-sicle Vienna. The author's nineteenth-century diction is pitch-perfect, and Woodman's performance enhances it, smoothly creating the artistic, intellectual Austria of the period. As Wheeler ponders his plight--aware that he has the power to alter history--Woodman portrays his confusion, his excitement, and his dark humor. Wheeler tells his story to Sigmund Freud, meets Gustav Mahler and a youthful Hitler, romances the woman who will be his grandmother, and discovers that his family's "lives weave together in a fatal and continuous and repeating loop." Wonderful storytelling, wonderfully read. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine -
April 28, 2008
A major BEA galley to grab, this debut from retired California private school headmaster Edwards pulls a Back to the Future
on the Vienna that produced The Interpretation of Dreams
and, eventually, Mein Kampf
—with a little Bill & Ted
thrown in for good measure.
The Little Book
Selden Edwards
. Dutton
, $25.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-525-95061-5
The subtitle of Edwards's Twain-indebted debut, written over the course of 30 years, might be “A California Yankee in Doctor Freud's Court.” Following a physical assault, Stan “Wheeler” Burden is precipitated into the past—1897 Vienna, to be exact—from 1988 San Francisco. Wheeler has been a teenage baseball star and famed rock 'n' roller, but he's dreamed of Vienna since his prep school days, where his teacher, Arnauld Esterhazy, instilled a love of the city's gilded paradoxes. Vienna of 1897 is indeed hopping: Freud is discovering the Oedipus complex, Mahler is conducting his symphonies, and the mayor, Karl Lueger, is inventing modern, populist anti-Semitism—which the young Hitler will soon internalize. Making this a true oedipal drama, Wheeler's father and grandparents come to town, too, all at different ages, and with very different agendas. Edwards has great fun with time travel paradoxes and anachronisms, but the real romance in this book is with the period, topped by nostalgia for the old-school American elite, as represented by the we-all-went-to-the-same-prep-school Burdens. This novel ends up a sweet, wistful elegy to the fantastic promise and failed hopes of the 20th century. -
November 1, 2008
It is 1988, and 47-year-old Wheeler Burden, minding his own business in San Francisco, suddenly finds himself walking along a Viennese streetin 1897. Historical figures including Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, and Gustav Klimt each play roles in Edwards's debut novel, but the main characters are Wheeler's own relatives, strangely collected in a magical time and space. The stellar, low-key narration by Jeff Woodman ("An Ideal Husband") helps move along this story, in which fantasy and history combine to create a beautiful snapshot of the beginning of the modern age. Recommended for medium-sized and large fiction collections. [Audio clip available through us.penguingroup.com; the Dutton hc received a starred review, "LJ" 8/08.Ed.]Janet Martin, Southern Pines P.L., NCCopyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
-