Review: Famous Last Words
Avis de journaliste - Kirkus ReviewsFindley (The Wars) has employed here a sophisticated fact/fiction doublesidedness--with interesting but slightly tedious results. Ezra Pound's early poetic creation, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, is given actual flesh: Findley makes him old Ez's protÉgÉ and a famous American novelist in his own right. Like his mentor Pound, Mauberley becomes a Fascist expatriate in the Thirties and Forties. And Findley handles this semi-fictional creation as well as, if not better than, D. M. Thomas handled the heroine in The White Hotel. He's a bit less expert, however, when the novel then descends into history-happy plot. ""A compulsive witness, feared like a morgue where the dead are kept on ice--with all their incriminating wounds intact,"" Mauberley haunts the society of Fascist-leaning expatriates, at the top of which heap are the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Originally Wallis' friend, Mauberley knows that it's she and not the Duke who really relinquished the crown: her need to be royalty--dashed by the abdication--is the really unquenchable one. And if Mauberley is on to this fact, so are some German and Italian big-wheels: they'd like to depose the disastrous Hitler/Mussolini duo and put in their stead the malleable Duke (loony, sick, pathetic) and the minx-like Duchess! So Mauberley is in charge of getting the Windsors in and out of various countries in preparation for the coup--and his tale, told in a cynical, terse style, works well for a while. But then, after the limitless foulness of the atmosphere is established, the story only chops along dutifully to its predictable windup. Along the way, too, there's lots of repetition and an excess of pious pronouncement: ""Some there are who never disappear. And I know I was sitting at the heart of the human race--which is its will to say I am."" Still, the premise is intriguing and the treatment is mostly dry and clever--so readers with a taste for fact/fiction literary games will find this an engaging, if thin, diversion.
Review: Famous Last Words
Avis d'utilisateur - GoodreadsA thrilling WWII spy drama blended with a poetic meditation on the guilt of those who supported or enabled fascism. Written with Findley's usual skill with language and ith pacing. A masterpiece by ...
Review: Famous Last Words
Avis d'utilisateur - Booklovinglady - GoodreadsAmazing novel... Extremely well researched and therefore a very convincing (fictional) story. I read it a few months after I had seen the film The King's Speech, which made the book even more interesting to read. Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Famous Last Words
Avis d'utilisateur - Elena - GoodreadsDefinitely did NOT like this book. I read it for my highschool English class for a "book report", back in 2002, so in all honesty, maybe I should re-read it. I remember being extremely bored and ... Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Famous Last Words
Avis d'utilisateur - Vanessa - GoodreadsI like Timothy Findley but I find his books are a bit hit and miss. I either love them or they're just okay. Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Famous Last Words
Avis d'utilisateur - GoodreadsWonderful novel about the war years with some interesting speculation about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Review: Famous Last Words
Avis d'utilisateur - GoodreadsExcellent. The memory of this book will stay with me forever.
Review: Famous Last Words
Avis d'utilisateur - Mo - GoodreadsFirst class book in fictional history. Love the re-write, and teaches you so much about famous/important individuals in early 20th century history. Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Famous Last Words
Avis d'utilisateur - Leigh - GoodreadsThis book did not, unfortunately, live up to (at least what I thought was) the promise of its early sections. I am actually really disappointed by this. Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Famous Last Words
Avis d'utilisateur - Joyce - Goodreadsthis remains one of my all time favourite books..read it three times. Set in Spain and Italy during the war an English captive writes a novel on the walls of his room in an abandoned estate while ... Consulter l'avis complet
