Donald Harington
Paperback | Pages: 403 pages Rating: 3.9 | 136 Users | 17 Reviews
Define Of Books Ekaterina (Stay More #6)
| Title | : | Ekaterina (Stay More #6) |
| Author | : | Donald Harington |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 403 pages |
| Published | : | October 1st 2004 by Toby Press (first published 1993) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Literary Fiction. Romance |
Relation Supposing Books Ekaterina (Stay More #6)
"If, as a main character in this playfully intelligent novel about writing novels professes, "The art of fiction lies in wandering beyond the conventional into the original and outrageous." Harington's novel succeeds admirably. This despite the fact the book could aptly be subtitled "variation on a theme (and the life) of Nabokov." Both allusionary and illusionary, it centers around a Georgian (as in the former USSR) princess/mycologist/dissident who arrives in the United States with a rudimentary knowledge of English, a passion for pubescent boys, and a deep-seated fear that her Russian psychiatrist tormentor, Bolshakov, is still on her trail. With the help of a ghost and an alcoholic art historian-cum-novelist, she discovers her own talent for fiction and makes enough money to take over a suite of rooms in an old mountain resort hotel (a la Nabokov). Eventually, however, both Bolshakov and her taste for 12-year-olds catch up with her and her world comes crashing down. Or does it? For, after all, 'Ekaterina you were, and you were not at all.'" Library JournalDetails Books As Ekaterina (Stay More #6)
| Original Title: | Ekaterina |
| ISBN: | 1592640966 (ISBN13: 9781592640966) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Stay More #6 |
Rating Of Books Ekaterina (Stay More #6)
Ratings: 3.9 From 136 Users | 17 ReviewsCriticism Of Books Ekaterina (Stay More #6)
A departure from what I expected from this author, but a good one. I found this volume on the "Erotica" section in a book store. Funny.The best novel of the 1990s. Mind-blowing, charming, and magical.
First, if you haven't read Donald Harington, you should and you should start at the beginning.The reviews of this are mixed, I think because of the sex with underage boys - see Lolita - but it's not overly gratuitous and, although a part, not the whole story.Mr Harington just writes wonderful stories about folks from the rural areas of Arkansas, pointing out something in all of us.I am quite sure I missed most of the literary references and the parallels to other writers while Ekaterina takes
3.5 stars. I didn't like this one as much as earlier ones in the series. I previously said about this author "John Fowles + T.R. Pearson". So much meta! Include John Barth too.
This is a switched-gender Ozarkian novel presented as a bizarro-universe Lolita alternative. I appreciate it for its folkiness and rare voice style.
Harington's most extensive and elaborate excursion into post-modern self-referentiality, and not very good for all that. The whole older woman attracted only to pre-pubescent boys aspect is rather silly, not scandalous, and especially silly is how she gets away with it, with no one calling her on it, like the child-protection cops. The premise of the character, a woman fleeing from the perverse wrath of the Soviet psychiatric establishment is okay. Her learning English so quickly that she can
If I were better at book analysis and using my words to express my thoughts, and much smarter than I am, I would discuss Harington's delight in Nabokov and my discomfort with it, play with language, exploration of why he writes, what seems to have shaped him, his coming to terms with lack of recognition, his wrangling with the publishing world, thoughts on life and death and the in between, love in the forms presented here, meta things (and freakin' how!), and structure and form and style.
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