| View Larger Image | Samedi the Deafness (Vintage Contemporaries) | Paperbackby Jesse Ball (Author)
| List Price: | $12.95 | | Price: | $10.36 | | You Save: | $2.59 (20%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Vintage | | Edition: | First Editionth Edition | | Page Count: | 304 Pages | | Publication Date: | September 04, 2007 | | Sales Rank: | 306,462th |
|
FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780307278852
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
|
EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
One morning in the park James Sim discovers a man, crumpled on the ground, stabbed in the chest. In the man's last breath, he whispers his confession: Samedi. What follows is a spellbinding game of cat and mouse as James is abducted, brought to an asylum, and seduced by a woman in yellow. Who is lying? What is Samedi? And what will happen on the seventh day? |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 7 reviews)
|
Samedi the deafness by C. Moreno  5 Stars
May 20, 2009
It is a great book, very interesting. It took a while (1 month) to reach over here (Europe) but it is worth waiting for it.
| |
Now Hear This! by Dick Johnson (Oklahoma USA) 5 Stars
September 05, 2008
This is a very quick read that doesn't leave you quickly. Ball has written a book with violence that we never see; with characters we don' t really get to know; set in a place we never identify; about events that hopefully will never happen.
He has a relaxed style of writing that makes the story move along. I hope he writes more - soon!
| |
There are seven days, there are seven days.... by Amanda Richards (Georgetown, Guyana)  4 Stars
May 11, 2008
There are seven days in a week
Sunday, Monday
Tuesday, Wednesday
Thursday, Friday
Saturday*
*(popular children's ditty)
This is a strange book
Unreal
The writing style can be disjointed
Yet strangely poetic
And you can't put it down
For fear you miss something
But still
It's weird
Set over a seven day period
There's no prize for guessing
That it ends on
Saturday
The hero's name is James
James is a mnemonist
Which means he can remember lots of stuff
In a very short time
Which you will agree is pretty weird
But then things get weirder
When he comes across a man
With stab wounds
Who dies
Then there be suicides
And James is kidnapped
And taken to a verisylum
Which is where they treat chronic liars
If you can believe that
But then it gets more interesting
The building is like a maze
With rules that would delight Lewis Carroll
And people have more than one name
Except for those whose names are the same
And he falls in love
And out of love
And in again
And he learns that he can't trust anybody
Obviously
The tension builds
As the author skillfully creates
His vision
Of what's going to happen
On Saturday
Dark and strange
Read this is you're looking for something
Different
Weird
And twisted
Amanda Richards, May 10, 2008
| |
Fantastic! by Diane D. Goebes (Virginia) 5 Stars
February 29, 2008
I was held spellbound by the clever, twisting plot of this mystery by Jesse Ball. This book is a must for anyone who wants to read something unique.
| |
Strange world of Samedi makes for intriguing reading... by Chaplain Stephen (Little Rock, AR) 4 Stars
September 29, 2007
After reading a review of Jesse Ball's premiere work "Samedi the Deafness," one quickly concludes that they are encountering a unique new talent with the potential to produce even more surprising works of prose in the future.
That expectation does not mean that the present work is not strikingly original in its own right - only that one gets the sense that there is more where that came from...a very encouraging prospect.
"Samedi the Deafness" is a difficult work to categorize, containing a myriad of poetic phrases sprinkled throughout the choppy, occasionally disjointed sentences and paragraphs. Some pages contain only one line, while others are formatted to reveal the dialogue among characters. It is an interesting construct that stops being a distraction after the first chapter and gives the novel a sort of lyrical cadence all its own.
The plot can be a bit difficult to track sometimes, existing as a silver thread woven throughout the dreamlike descriptions of the locations and characters surrounding the narrator. Any detailed summary would reveal too much; suffice to say, the narrator happens upon a dying man in a park who informs him with his dying breaths that the world is in danger from the foreboding character of Samedi and that he must be stopped.
As a result of this chance encounter, the narrator enters a swirling vortex of pathological liars and hidden motives, housed within the labarynthine halls of a mental institution. It is an odd trip to be sure, but the pay off is a good one.
When Samedi's ultimate plan is revealed, it's haunting ramifications echo the postmodern masterwork, "Blindness," by Jose Saramago. This is fine company indeed.
"Samedi the Deafness" is an original and thought-provoking read best suited for those who don't mind being challenged by their fiction. It is a work well worth trying for yourself.
- S.
| |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| The Way Through Doors (Vintage Contemporaries)
by Jesse Ball (Author)
With his debut novel, Samedi the Deafness, Jesse Ball emerged as one of our most extraordinary new writers. Now, Ball returns with this haunting tale of love and storytelling, hope and identity.
When Selah Morse sees a young woman get hit by a speeding taxicab, he rushes her to the hospital. The girl has lost her memory; she is delirious and has no identification, so Selah poses as her boyfriend. She is released into his care, but the doctor charges him to keep her awake, and to help her...
| 
| March Book (Grove Press Poetry)
by Jesse Ball (Author)
March Book is a wonder and a revelation. A shockingly assured first collection from young poet Jesse Ball, its elegant lines and penetrating voice present a poetic symphony. Craftsmanship defines this collection; it is full of tenderly selected words and inventive pairings. Just as impressive are the breadth and ingenuity of its recurring themes, which crescendo as Ball leads us through his fantastic world, quietly opening doors. In five separate sections we meet beekeepers and parsons, a young...
| 
| The People of Paper
by Salvador Plascencia (Author)
THE PEOPLE OF PAPER is an astonishing debut novel about the anguish of lost love. Author Salvador Plascencia, a "once-in-a-generation talent" (George Saunders), weaves together the stories of a large cast of colorful characters, including: a disgruntled monk, a father and daughter, a gang of carnation pickers, and a woman made of paper.
| 
| Vera & Linus
by Jesse Ball; Thordis Bjornsdottir (Author), Jesse Ball (Illustrator)
The Disastrous Tale of Vera and Linus is a book of short tales describing the love affair between the two eponymous characters. They are tricksters and subverters, and they roam through the book, as free in their lives as in the pages. The writing is lyrical and passionate, but also cunning and careful. In certain tales Vera triumphs over Linus, in others, Linus triumphs over Vera, though more common still, are tales in which they, together, triumph over their enemies.
| 
| The Body Artist: A Novel
by Don DeLillo (Author)
For thirty years, since the publication of his first novel, Americana, Don DeLillo has lived in the skin of our times. He has found a voice for the forgotten souls who haunt the fringes of our culture and for its larger-than-life, real-life figures. His language is defiantly, radiantly American. Now, to a new century, he has brought The Body Artist. In this spare, seductive novel, he inhabits the muted world of Lauren Hartke, an artist whose work defies the limits of the body. Lauren...
|
|
|
