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Review
"* 'It's a droll, ingenious comedy-thriller, packed with clever gags and boasting a cast that includes Alfred Hitchcock, Marshal Tito and- in pride of place - the supremely dapper Cary Grant. Perfect holiday reading... Daft and...delicious... the Wu Ming clan have pulled off this second coup... Their blend of outrageous burlesque and offbeat satire sparkles like a bottle of the best prosecco from a worker's-coop vineyard...as many contented readers will notice this summer.' Boyd Tonkin, Independent * 'A sprawling epic... A formidable feat of imagination that moves restlessly between Bologna, Naples, California, Moscow, Dubrovnik and Marseilles... Utterly convincing' The Times * 'This diverting post-modernist entertainment...is skilled in teasing fact and fiction.' Guardian * 'A stupendous, charming, provocative and profound novel. It makes most modern books seem paltry in comparison.' Scotland on Sunday"
Review
Praise for "Q":
"Big and bloody and breathtaking: a crush of colour and crowds, exotic locations and war."
--"The Times"
"If ever there was a novel that deserved to win prizes, accolades and plaudits, it is Q . . . A rich, inventive and immensely powerful book . . . Q is a great novel, one that tells us about ourselves and how we came to be here."
--"Scotland on Sunday"
"As a historical blockbuster, it boasts pace, colour, excitement and suspense to spare...Q works like a charm as a sordid, splendid period romp."
--"Independent"
"The air is full of blistering debate, revolutionary preaching and the smell of smoke, both from burning icons in the churches and the pyre on which the heretics are burned . . . A sprawlng epic."
--"Guardian" --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
"Big and bloody and breathtaking: a crush of colour and crowds, exotic locations and war."
--"The Times"
"If ever there was a novel that deserved to win prizes, accolades and plaudits, it is Q . . . A rich, inventive and immensely powerful book . . . Q is a great novel, one that tells us about ourselves and how we came to be here."
--"Scotland on Sunday"
"As a historical blockbuster, it boasts pace, colour, excitement and suspense to spare...Q works like a charm as a sordid, splendid period romp."
--"Independent"
"The air is full of blistering debate, revolutionary preaching and the smell of smoke, both from burning icons in the churches and the pyre on which the heretics are burned . . . A sprawlng epic."
--"Guardian" --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Being a huge fan of Q I have been eagerly awaiting the follow up from the Luther Blissett/ Wu Ming collective. And '54 is not a disappointment, although it is different. Q was the story of one man, doggedly so (arguably even the extracts from Q's diary, as they were given to the protagonist in the end are not outside the central characters sphere of knowledge) and its pace was from the way in which the book would flicker between periods in time. '54 however, is the story of several characters moving through a strict timeline that marches on day by day each chapter. And it is the characters who inhabit '54 that make it such a rich book. There is Pierre, a young Italian who reminded me of Tony in Saturday Night Fever, and his relationship with a married woman. There is Steve "Cement" an American gangster living in Italy wanting to break free from his powerful boss. Then of course, Cary Grant. The Cary Grant sections, as another reviewer has said are excellent, especially when he is struggling with his own identity - is he Cary Grant or Archie Leech?
'54 maintains the fast pace of Q and as a result suffers from some of its failings. The chapters are often very short and frequently move between distant and unrelated characters in the blink of an eye and for much of the book it is uncertain why we are being told the story of these people. The connections become apparent towards the end and the glue that holds them together is Cary Grant who is taken to the Eastern Block and sees the madness of the world the other two characters live in. The solution to this however is to enjoy the character's stories and involve yourself in the densely populated and richly historical world of the book. Like Q a lot of the minor characters are instantly memorable and add an extra level of enjoyment.
There are a lot of in jokes in '54. One of my favourites involves Casino Royale, a book Cary Grant reads on his sojourn to Yugoslavia, and a book he doesn't enjoy. At one point he is sipping cocktails with David Niven complaining about it and suggesting that there is no way it could ever be made into a film. Another involves an Italian character thinking Alfred Hitchcock is Winston Churchill.
In short, this is a book with the range and scholarly depth of Q, but whilst there were very few precedents to Q, '54 has the accessibility of a le Carre or Len Deighton novel. With '54 Wu Ming have again marketed themselves out of the range of the readers who want the next American crime thriller and as a result, '54 is deep and provocative in a way so many books and films these days simply aren't. Treat yourself, read it.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Cary Grant's assignment by MI6 to play the role of Yugoslav leader Marshall Tito in a film biography is just one of the plot lines in this jam-packed novel, filled with subplots from its 1954 setting. The west is trying to form closer ties with Tito, while the Soviets, with whom he has already broken, are acting to prevent this. Many Italian partisans fought on the Yugoslav front during World War II and have remained there, supported by friends and family in Bologna as they engage in the smuggling of oil into Trieste. As members of the local communist party, these Bolognese supporters are trying to control the future of "Italian" Trieste. In Naples, Salvatore Lucania ("Lucky Luciano"), recently deported from the US, works at controlling the world's drug trade.
As these plots develop simultaneously, the reader must keep track of dozens of characters and their activities, since the various plots do not overlap until the end. Cary Grant, Alfred Hitchcock, David Niven, Grace Kelly, and the James Bond novels all play parts in Grant's story. The Naples story, with Luciano, involves all the on-going crimes of this don and his henchmen--drugs, race-fixing, gambling, prostitution. The Bologna plot is far more domestic, with a young man searching for his father, who is in Trieste, and a love story involving a married woman who takes care of her mentally ill brother. Minor threads involve the McCarthy hearings, Emperor Bao Dai from Vietnam, Nikita Krushchev, and even Fidel Castro.
Wu Ming, the "author," is actually a collective of five Italian writers (four of whom, known as "Luther Blissett," wrote the Reformation novel, Q). While this device allows for enormous creativity, the accumulation of vast amounts of period detail, and the introduction of more characters than I can recall in one novel in a long time, the novel suffers from a looseness in construction and a lack of control. The grand finale, while worthy of James Bond, is actually anticlimactic as the various plots come together more than five hundred pages after they began.
Filled with local color--bars, casinos, races, card games, and political movements--the novel is often lively and fun to read. The points of view and location change every few pages, however, and the reader often feels as if s/he is reading four separate novels simultaneously. Humor and irony pervade the novel, including sections written from the point of view of a TV set, a scheme to make a Madonna weep, and a satiric view of an FBI agent. There's a lot of everything in this novel! One wishes its authors had subjected it to more vigorous pruning. Mary Whipple
As these plots develop simultaneously, the reader must keep track of dozens of characters and their activities, since the various plots do not overlap until the end. Cary Grant, Alfred Hitchcock, David Niven, Grace Kelly, and the James Bond novels all play parts in Grant's story. The Naples story, with Luciano, involves all the on-going crimes of this don and his henchmen--drugs, race-fixing, gambling, prostitution. The Bologna plot is far more domestic, with a young man searching for his father, who is in Trieste, and a love story involving a married woman who takes care of her mentally ill brother. Minor threads involve the McCarthy hearings, Emperor Bao Dai from Vietnam, Nikita Krushchev, and even Fidel Castro.
Wu Ming, the "author," is actually a collective of five Italian writers (four of whom, known as "Luther Blissett," wrote the Reformation novel, Q). While this device allows for enormous creativity, the accumulation of vast amounts of period detail, and the introduction of more characters than I can recall in one novel in a long time, the novel suffers from a looseness in construction and a lack of control. The grand finale, while worthy of James Bond, is actually anticlimactic as the various plots come together more than five hundred pages after they began.
Filled with local color--bars, casinos, races, card games, and political movements--the novel is often lively and fun to read. The points of view and location change every few pages, however, and the reader often feels as if s/he is reading four separate novels simultaneously. Humor and irony pervade the novel, including sections written from the point of view of a TV set, a scheme to make a Madonna weep, and a satiric view of an FBI agent. There's a lot of everything in this novel! One wishes its authors had subjected it to more vigorous pruning. Mary Whipple
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Q was a marvelous book. It conveyed ideas that could hardly have been put forward in any other way. It uses the reformation as an analogy for a modern political and socialogical struggle and succeeds brilliantly. This is surely the point of the wu ming collective.
54 does not achieve what it sets out to. It retains the thiller-esque style of the authors' debut but does not stike the same pertinent chords and so remains little less than a mediocre thriller. Admittedly, the characters are excellently drawn and it is funny in parts, but I don't think this is enough. I suspect this book remains unique, but I was looking for something else, the something which made Q great and Wu ming stand out as a collective of authors besides being just that, a collective. I just don't think it was there.
I hope Wu Ming's new book Manituana, is a great as Q, certainly the content seems more apt for a politically motivated novel, but 54 dissappointed me.
54 does not achieve what it sets out to. It retains the thiller-esque style of the authors' debut but does not stike the same pertinent chords and so remains little less than a mediocre thriller. Admittedly, the characters are excellently drawn and it is funny in parts, but I don't think this is enough. I suspect this book remains unique, but I was looking for something else, the something which made Q great and Wu ming stand out as a collective of authors besides being just that, a collective. I just don't think it was there.
I hope Wu Ming's new book Manituana, is a great as Q, certainly the content seems more apt for a politically motivated novel, but 54 dissappointed me.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
I can't think of a title. Stop pressuring me!
This is a fabulous book - it's easily as good as "Q", but is more comic in its execution - it's laugh-out-loud funny in a couple of places. Read more
Published on 16 April 2009 by Enzyme
54
When a novel balances itself on the head of a pin, and when the complexities of that novel come to weigh as much as the pyramids, there is always the chance that the whole thing... Read more
Published on 22 Oct 2007 by Damian Kelleher
a great postmodern thriller,
'54 is a great literary thriller, in the vein of Umbert Eco. If you liked In The Name of the Rose, you'll love this. Read more
Published on 19 Aug 2005 by "hiua12"
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