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Philip Caputo Exiles
New York, NY, U.S.A. Knopf 1997 0679450386 / 9780679450382 First Edition Hardcover/Ex-Library Good
0679450386 Good-/Good c. 1997, gray/orange bds. w/d.j., 353pp., (shelf wear, corners bumped, spine slightly cocked, text clean, d.j. taped to bds., very lt.edge wear, rubbing, lt.soiled, mylar cover). From Publishers WeeklyDespite an absorbing premise, multiple adventures at sea and ashore, and a succession of colorful characters, this account by Pulitzer Prize-winner Caputo (Rumors of War) of a nautical voyage from Maine to the tropics, and from innocence to disillusionment, lingers in the doldrums before acquiring the tragic velocity of its denouement. In 1901, in an apparently quixotic character-building exercise, "grim and intransigent" Boston Brahmin Cyrus Braithwaite banishes his three adolescent sons (16-year-old daredevil Nathaniel, sharp-tongued Eliot, 15, and rational but timid Andrew, 12) to sea for the summer in the family schooner, the Double EagleAwith food supplies, $30 and orders not to show their faces until September. When an old salt advises them, "Keep yer hawsers free fer runnin', yer eyes on the weathah, an' remember that any idjit kin crack it on but the wise man knaowsta shorten sail on time," however, it's obvious that their plan to try to emulate their father's early career as a wrecker will bring them all the disaster the sea can deliver. Storms, fog, sharks and alligators, encounters with unscrupulous people from every social strata and other misadventures all build toward the inevitable, presaged hurricane, two tragic deaths and the wreck of the Double Eagle. Once the long-awaited hurricane finally hits, off the coast of Cuba, Caputo generates real excitement and suspense as the romantic salvage venture concocted by the three boys and their Yale sidekick and crew member becomes a life-or-death test of character. But the chapters on the trip from Maine to the Florida Keys are thickly coated with local and historical color, including dialect-heavy oystermen and sponge-harvesters. The gothic subplot of Cyrus's motives and the Braithwaite family's secrets, played out against the Civil War's aftermath and the Spanish-American War, adds ballast on a vessel already laden with a heavy cargo of Original Sin, inherited character flaws, parents who destroy their children and the decline of America's "barons of mercantile aristocracy," whose guilty secrets haunt them down the generations. The concatenation of all these elements may daunt some readers; others will appreciate Captuo's meticulous research and his Conradian vision of America's past. 40,000 first printing; BOMC alternate. (Nov.)Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.From Library JournalEver since his first book, the much-acclaimed A Rumor of War (LJ 5/15/77), a memoir of his Vietnam experience, Caputo has explored the dehumanizing and alienating impact of war. These three stories continue the trend, although the first, "Standing In," is only indirectly war-related. In it, a young barber grieving over his mother's death finds himself "adopted" by a wealthy couple whose real adopted son was killed in a supposed jet accident during the Persian Gulf crisis. In the process, he loses his sense of self?until each side is forced to confront the unpleasant truth. The second story is set in Vietnam and focuses on a sergeant whose fear of fear (in the form of a man-eating tiger) leads him down a path of no return. The third involves a Vietnam veteran haunted by ghosts real and imagined even as he flees to the Australian outback, then to a tiny island. In these stories, the sense of place and fragility of the human psyche are both powerfully evoked. Highly recommended.?David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.From BooklistIn three novellas, Caputo offers a range of settings and contexts, and each displays consistently precise and atmospheric storytelling. In the first, and most satisfying, story, "Standing In," a young man must return from Florida to his home in suburban Connecticut when his mother dies. On the train, he meets a middle-aged couple whose son died in the Gulf War, and the young man strikes the couple as a "dead ringer" for their late son. As it turns out, the man and woman live in the same general locale as he does; now motherless, he is welcomed into their life of creature comforts but also into their personal and marital dysfunction. In "Paradise," the least affecting of the trio, the reader is whisked off to an island off the lush northern coast of Australia. A stranger is washed up on the beach; he is taken care of--in terms of being brought back to health--by the inhabitants of the island. But his identity turns out not to be what he has claimed, and now he gets "taken care of" in terms of local justice. The last novella, "In the Forest of the Laughing Elephant," presents a group of soldiers in the Vietnamese jungle who have volunteered to track down a tiger, a huge beast that has made off with one of their own number. The tiger may be their enemy, but his magnificence is, nonetheless, breathtaking, which two of the soldiers find out only too well. Expect demand based on the author's reputation, which rests particularly on A Rumor of War (1977). Brad HooperFrom Kirkus ReviewsThree impressively varied and dramatic novellas, the first collection of shorter fiction from the author of such novels as Horn of Africa (1980) and Equation for Evil (1996), as well as the acclaimed Vietnam memoir A Rumor of War (1977). The first and longest story, ``Standing In,'' traces the emotional course travelled by Dante Panetta, a young barber who, while returning by Amtrak to Connecticut for his mother's funeral, meets an older married couple--Greer and Julian Rhodes--to whom he finds himself helplessly bound by an ``incredible accident of genetics.'' The ways in which Dante's eerie physical resemblance to their dead son affects both him and them are explored with brisk economy and skillful pacing in a memorable depiction of identity crisis and class conflict. ``Paradise'' describes the volatile impact of a shipwreck survivor on the inhabitants of a small island off the Australian coast. Caputo renders the locals' speech patterns expertly and shifts viewpoints to dazzling effect, creating enormous tension as the disturbed islanders wonder whether the mysterious Anson Barlow is a drug runner, or murderer, or something altogether worse. There's also a splendid surprise ending, in a terrific piece of storytelling that Peter Matthiessen or Robert Stone might well envy. ``In the Forest of the Laughing Elephant'' records a ``rescue mission'' carried out in the jungles of Vietnam by American soldiers whose mess sergeant has been carried away by an enormous tiger. The mission's obsessed leader is determined to exert authority over every enemy, even one motivated by nothing more combative than natural appetite (``It had to be shown who ruled this jungle''). The story is a tour de force: an inventive and haunting parable about men out of their element in a strange and dangerous new land. A possible homage to literary mentors (the novellas respectively recall The Great Gatsby, The Nigger of the ``Narcissus,'' and ``Heart of Darkness''), and the finest work of Caputo's career--a quantum leap beyond his previous fiction. -- Copyright ?©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.Review... the lead story, "Standing In," ... is one of the most engaging works of fiction he has yet produced. -- The New York Times Book Review, Christopher Lehmann-HauptProduct DescriptionWith Exiles, his first collection of shorter fiction, the author of the universally acclaimed, best-selling memoir A Rumor of War ("It will make the strongest among us weep", wrote John Gregory Dunne) sends the reader on a tripartite adventure.
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1.61 USD
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Philip Caputo Horn of Africa: A Novel
Holt Rinehart & Winston 0030421365 / 9780030421365 Hardcover Good
0030421365 Former library book with the usual markings and stickers, otherwise clean inside and out May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability.
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1.69 USD
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Philip Caputo Means of Escape
HarperCollins Publishers 1991 0060183128 / 9780060183127 First Edition/first Printing Hardcover/Ex-Library Good
0060183128 Good/Good c. 1991, tan/black bds. w/d.j., 405pp., (lt.shelf wear, d.j. taped to bds.)
Price:
5.95 USD
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