Poetry Books
Away: A Novel
RRP: $16.00
Our Price: $12.00
You Save: $ 4.00 ( 25% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Author: Jane Urquhart
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $12.00
You Save: $ 4.00 ( 25% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Author: Jane Urquhart
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Average Customer Rating:
Experimental feature: Order Away: A Novel from the UK, Canada, Germany or France by clicking an appropriate flag below.
Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.
Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.
Away: A Novel Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780140249262
ISBN: 0140249265
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 368
Publication Date: 1995-07-01
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780140249262
ISBN: 0140249265
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 368
Publication Date: 1995-07-01
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Editorial Review of Away: A Novel
A stunning, evocative novel set in Ireland and Canada, Away traces a family’s complex and layered past. The narrative unfolds with shimmering clarity, and takes us from the harsh northern Irish coast in the 1840s to the quarantine stations at Grosse Isle and the barely hospitable land of the Canadian Shield; from the flourishing town of Port Hope to the flooded streets of Montreal; from Ottawa at the time of Confederation to a large-windowed house at the edge of a Great Lake during the present day. Graceful and moving, Away unites the personal and the political as it explores the most private, often darkest corners of our emotions where the things that root us to ourselves endure. Powerful, intricate, lyrical, Away is an unforgettable novel.
Customer Reviews of Away: A Novel
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Stay Away......From Chapters Two And Three
Review: This novel is ultimately a disappointment because it starts off with such potential. Indeed, if Ms. Urquhart had simply made a novella out of the first chapter and entitled it A Fish On A Pool, it would be a first rate artistic achievement. Instead, she drones on in two subsequent chapters in a lyricism that eventually fails through repetition, a plot that grates through being, well, the same blasted plot repeated three times and a theme that becomes not a little over the top in its literary feminism.
This review is not the place to go into all of Ms. Urquhart's gifts and how she has wasted them after the first, astounding chapter. She has a lyrical gift that owes much to Yeats. -In fact, the words "changed utterly" occur twice in this book-which, if you are a lover of Irish poetry and, ergo, a lover of Yeats, cannot fail to strike a chord. Hint: Read his Easter 1916. There are also passages like these in the first chapter, "Dark morning birds lifted away from the earth she walked on, her words spinning in the sky then flying over the fields to the shore". The first chapter is thematically wild and entrancing and lyrically virtuosic.
But then......who knows? Maybe her publisher demanded a certain number of pages. In any event, she goes on in two flat, pat chapters about the same thing with less magic and more of an axe to grind. She flirts with feminist propaganda near the end. Only the woman can receive the enchanting gift of being "away" it would seem. And men turn out to be destroyers of themselves and/or the land around them, unless, of course, they happen to be American Indian and go by the none too subtle name of "Exodus".
Still, the book is worth it. Just stop after the first chapter while you're still enchanted and before disillusionment has set in, while you're still "away."
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Intense/abnormal love stories
Review: I enjoyed the historical aspect to this book, particularly the description of the potato famine in Ireland. I read up on it a little on the Internet while going through the book and it seems Urquhart describes it accurately. The story, although partially fictitious, of D'arcy Mcgee was also interesting. I thought the obsessive love Eileen had for Aidan was over-emphasized and was dwelled upon for too long. I got the point long before she wrapped up the story. Considering we had already encountered an obsessive love through Mary in the first half of the book, it seemed somewhat redundant to go into that much detail of this obsessive type of love again through Eileen.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Wonderful language
Review: In this acclaimed novel by Canadian writer Jane Urquhart, the story is second to the language used. Urquhart writes with such grace and mastery that one is often compelled to re-read large sections just to absorb her words.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Garcia Marquez meets Canada
Review: When Garcia MArquez wrote "One Hundred Years of Solitude" he found out that magic is the real event that changes the world. Urquhart uses the same premise to create a wonderful book, full of phantastic stories written in one of the most aesthetic proses I've ever read. Even though it is not very original (nothing is after Shakespeare and Cervantes), the book is ot only very readable, but also an enjoyable choice for anyone looking of a world so phantastic that seems absolutely familiar.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Excellent novel and a huge success for Ms. Urquhart
Review: 'Away' is an excellent book. The story is about a family's life and what happened to them. It seems as though each generation faces big adjustments and obstacles they must cross and/or overcome. The book is very complicated, but very intense, too. I would recommend this book to any of my friends or realtaives or to anybody.
Review Summary: Stay Away......From Chapters Two And Three
Review: This novel is ultimately a disappointment because it starts off with such potential. Indeed, if Ms. Urquhart had simply made a novella out of the first chapter and entitled it A Fish On A Pool, it would be a first rate artistic achievement. Instead, she drones on in two subsequent chapters in a lyricism that eventually fails through repetition, a plot that grates through being, well, the same blasted plot repeated three times and a theme that becomes not a little over the top in its literary feminism.
This review is not the place to go into all of Ms. Urquhart's gifts and how she has wasted them after the first, astounding chapter. She has a lyrical gift that owes much to Yeats. -In fact, the words "changed utterly" occur twice in this book-which, if you are a lover of Irish poetry and, ergo, a lover of Yeats, cannot fail to strike a chord. Hint: Read his Easter 1916. There are also passages like these in the first chapter, "Dark morning birds lifted away from the earth she walked on, her words spinning in the sky then flying over the fields to the shore". The first chapter is thematically wild and entrancing and lyrically virtuosic.
But then......who knows? Maybe her publisher demanded a certain number of pages. In any event, she goes on in two flat, pat chapters about the same thing with less magic and more of an axe to grind. She flirts with feminist propaganda near the end. Only the woman can receive the enchanting gift of being "away" it would seem. And men turn out to be destroyers of themselves and/or the land around them, unless, of course, they happen to be American Indian and go by the none too subtle name of "Exodus".
Still, the book is worth it. Just stop after the first chapter while you're still enchanted and before disillusionment has set in, while you're still "away."
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Intense/abnormal love stories
Review: I enjoyed the historical aspect to this book, particularly the description of the potato famine in Ireland. I read up on it a little on the Internet while going through the book and it seems Urquhart describes it accurately. The story, although partially fictitious, of D'arcy Mcgee was also interesting. I thought the obsessive love Eileen had for Aidan was over-emphasized and was dwelled upon for too long. I got the point long before she wrapped up the story. Considering we had already encountered an obsessive love through Mary in the first half of the book, it seemed somewhat redundant to go into that much detail of this obsessive type of love again through Eileen.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Wonderful language
Review: In this acclaimed novel by Canadian writer Jane Urquhart, the story is second to the language used. Urquhart writes with such grace and mastery that one is often compelled to re-read large sections just to absorb her words.
The story is very compelling, about an Irish family who immigrate from Ulster during the Great Famine. But there have been many other books written on this topic, none of which are remotely as enjoyable to read. It is the unique strength of Urquhart's voice that makes this novel so fine.
A novel certainly for any reader interested in Irish and Irish-Canadian heritage, but also very worth reading by any who enjoy good language and style.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Garcia Marquez meets Canada
Review: When Garcia MArquez wrote "One Hundred Years of Solitude" he found out that magic is the real event that changes the world. Urquhart uses the same premise to create a wonderful book, full of phantastic stories written in one of the most aesthetic proses I've ever read. Even though it is not very original (nothing is after Shakespeare and Cervantes), the book is ot only very readable, but also an enjoyable choice for anyone looking of a world so phantastic that seems absolutely familiar.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Excellent novel and a huge success for Ms. Urquhart
Review: 'Away' is an excellent book. The story is about a family's life and what happened to them. It seems as though each generation faces big adjustments and obstacles they must cross and/or overcome. The book is very complicated, but very intense, too. I would recommend this book to any of my friends or realtaives or to anybody.