The acclaimed, award-winning essayist and memoirist returns to
fiction with this reflective, bittersweet tale that introduces the
irrepressible aging poet Thomas Murphy--a paean to the mystery,
tragedy and wonder of life. Trying his best to weasel out of an
appointment with the neurologist his only child, Maire, has
cornered him into, the poet Thomas Murphy--singer of the oldies,
friend of the down-and-out, card sharp, raconteur, piano bar
player, bon vivant, tough and honest and all-around good
guy--contemplates his sunset years. Maire worries that Murph is
losing his memory. Murph wonders what to do with the rest of his
life. The older mind is at issue, and Murph's jumps from fact to
memory to fancy, conjuring the islands that have shaped
him--Inishmaan, a rocky gumdrop off the Irish coast where he was
born, and New York, his longtime home. He muses on the living, his
daughter and precocious grandson William, and on the dead, his dear
wife Oona, and Greenberg, his best friend. Now, into Murphy's world
comes the lovely Sarah, a blind woman less than half his age, who
sees into his heart, as he sees into hers. Brought together under
the most unlikely circumstance, Murph and Sarah begin in friendship
and wind up in impossible possible love. An Irishman, a dreamer, a
poet, Murph, like Whitman, sings lustily of himself and of
everyone. Through his often-extravagant behavior and observations,
both hilarious and profound, we see the world in all its strange
glory, equally beautiful and ridiculous. With memory at the center
of his thoughts, he contemplates its power and accuracy and
meaning. Our life begins in dreams, but does not stay with them,
Murph reminds us. What use shall we make of the past? Ultimately,
he asks, are relationships our noblest reason for living? Behold
the charming, wistful, vibrant, aging Thomas Murphy, whose story
celebrates the ageless confusion that is this dreadful, gorgeous
life.
General
Imprint: |
HarperCollins Publishers
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
September 2016 |
Authors: |
Roger Rosenblatt
|
Dimensions: |
190 x 127 x 18mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
224 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-06-239457-6 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
LSN: |
0-06-239457-6 |
Barcode: |
9780062394576 |
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