Mehr lesen
"The many narratives of The Planetarium, told from various points of view, revolve around a seemingly simple conceit: a young man has his heart and ambition set on his aunt's large apartment. But, as in Sarraute's other books, this plot forms only the surface of what is really happening. Instead, Sarraute focuses on the emotional lives and internal thoughts of her characters in a way that goes beyond what Virginia Woolf did years before. The spite the young man feels toward his mother-in-law for offering him and his wife cheap chairs for their apartment; the terror inspired during a confrontation between the same young man and his aunt; and the need for approval he feels when he's around his Gertrude Stein-like literary icon are some of the many internal conflicts that move the narrative forward through the minds of the conflicted and clashing characters. Always deeply engaging, The Planetarium uses a simple plot to reveal the disparity between the way we see ourselves and the way others see us."--Publisher's website.
Über den Autor / die Autorin
The author of eleven novels, three works of criticism, a collection of plays, and an autobiography,
Nathalie Sarraute (1900-1999) is well-known as one of the prime proponents of the New Novel, alongside Alain Robbe-Grillet, Robert Pinget, and Claude Simon. Among her books are
Do You Hear Them?,
Martereau,
Portrait of a Man Unknown,
Between Life and Death, and
Tropisms.
Zusammenfassung
A young writer has his heart set on his aunt's large apartment. With this seemingly simple conceit, the characters of The Planetarium are set in orbit and a galaxy of argument, resentment, and bitterness erupts. Telling the story from various points of view, Sarraute focuses below the surface, on the emotional lives of the characters in a way that surpasses even Virginia Woolf. Always deeply engaging, The Planetarium reveals the deep disparity between the way we see ourselves and the way others see us.
Vorwort
- Serial rights targeting Paris Review, Granta, Harper’s
- Print and digital publicity targeting NPR, The Atlantic, Bookforum, Los Angeles Times, New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation
- Promotion and outreach to universities, French language and literature departments and scholars
- Review copies sent targeting all major print and digital literary media outlets, reviewers, and booksellers; additional copies available upon request
- Promotion on publisher’s website and social media; promotion via e-newsletters to booksellers, reviewers
Zusatztext
"It fulfills ideally the dream of Flaubert and Mallarmé, dreamed again by their Irish and Czech admirers, Joyce and Kafka, of a novel made out of nothing and in which events are next to nothing."—New York Times
The best thing about Nathalie Sarraute is her stumbling, groping style, with its honesty and numerous misgivings, a style that approaches the object with reverent precautions, withdraws from it suddenly out of a sort of modesty, or through timidity before its complexity, then, when all is said and done, suddenly presents us with the drooling monster, almost without having touched it, through the magic of an image."—Jean-Paul Sartre
"The Planetarium is a wonderfully believable account of a short, sharp struggle between an exploitative young man with literary ambitions nad his rich, domineering relatives.."—New Yorker
