- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (26 Nov 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140276009
- ISBN-13: 978-0140276008
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,487,038 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
For Victor's 80th birthday his right-hand man Rook prepares a country feast in the heart of the city. But Victor is making preparations of his own: to dismiss Rook and to leave an indelible mark on the city before he dies.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It is Victor's 80th birthday and he is rich enough to celebrate it in exactly the style he designates. There is to be no fuss, no presents, just six of his oldest acquaintances, men like himself, though not quite as rich, who started off as mere traders in the city's market place. Soapies, like him, named for the washing fountain at the centre of the city, where the remnants of a garden provide the setting for the chaos of the unregulated market. He will have an old-fashioned troupe of female accordionists for his birthday music, and he will have his trout brought to him by taxi, from the countryside, still living and transported very carefully in a special tank. In his somewhat reptillian brain, Victor is planning a new monument to his ego - but it will mean the destruction of the market place from where he rose to prominence after the most inauspicious of beginnings.
The birthday fish, however, have to make their initial journey by train, and in the same freight-carriage a country boy, Joseph, wearing a catalogue-bought suit of cream linen, stows away - tired of the hard work in the fields, he fancies himself a city boy at heart, for the streets of the city are paved, not with gold, but hope. It is a long journey and Joseph's bladder is strong, but not that strong, and so he relieves his bladder in the tank carrying the fish.
This atmospheric novel tells us about Joseph (and the fish) in the future, goes back over Victor's past and his romantic ideals about a countryside he barely remembers, and documents the present affairs (of all kinds) experienced by Victor's 'fixer', Rook, once a Soapy firebrand always dressed in black, now co-opted by the usual means to Victor's cause.
It must be said that the pace is a little stately in places. In compensation there is the creative brilliance of Crace's language and the absolute security of his imagination in bringing to life this place and time. Again, as with most of Crace's work, time and place are not made plain, though this city most resembles somewhere in Italy, and is Mediterranean in feel and culture. The story will end with the aftermath of a city riot, with death, with imprisonment, and with the triumph of those worldly enough to see that the future is in money. Not tradition, not romance, quite simply - capitalism.
This novel is one of Crace's best, though it isn't quite equal in power and impact to, say, Signals of Distress, Quarantine, Six, or my particular favourite, The Pesthouse.
The birthday fish, however, have to make their initial journey by train, and in the same freight-carriage a country boy, Joseph, wearing a catalogue-bought suit of cream linen, stows away - tired of the hard work in the fields, he fancies himself a city boy at heart, for the streets of the city are paved, not with gold, but hope. It is a long journey and Joseph's bladder is strong, but not that strong, and so he relieves his bladder in the tank carrying the fish.
This atmospheric novel tells us about Joseph (and the fish) in the future, goes back over Victor's past and his romantic ideals about a countryside he barely remembers, and documents the present affairs (of all kinds) experienced by Victor's 'fixer', Rook, once a Soapy firebrand always dressed in black, now co-opted by the usual means to Victor's cause.
It must be said that the pace is a little stately in places. In compensation there is the creative brilliance of Crace's language and the absolute security of his imagination in bringing to life this place and time. Again, as with most of Crace's work, time and place are not made plain, though this city most resembles somewhere in Italy, and is Mediterranean in feel and culture. The story will end with the aftermath of a city riot, with death, with imprisonment, and with the triumph of those worldly enough to see that the future is in money. Not tradition, not romance, quite simply - capitalism.
This novel is one of Crace's best, though it isn't quite equal in power and impact to, say, Signals of Distress, Quarantine, Six, or my particular favourite, The Pesthouse.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's a few years since I read (and re-read) this book, but such was the effect of the novel, that I'm straight back in my mind to the bustling market and Victor's gleaming office.
I love the way that Jim Crace can invent a place and time for his characters, especially in the earlier works like this, which is recognizably of this world but tantalizingly different. It gives him room to explore his themes more freely but without losing the feeling of it being 'grounded'. I find myself trying to 'place' it and 'time' it ( - if this is real place when was all it happening?) before giving in and just enjoying the plot and, for example, the loving depiction of the market and the luxurious descriptions of the (sometimes invented) fruit.
I also like the rhythm of the prose: it is hypnotic and persuasive. With Crace I sometimes catch myself reading the sentences as if they were written as iambic pentameters, and the effect can be quite beautiful.
I guess that to write such poetic prose for a young novelist must have been quite brave, but for me it works, and this particular opening led me to the delights of the earlier stories and his later novels.
I love the way that Jim Crace can invent a place and time for his characters, especially in the earlier works like this, which is recognizably of this world but tantalizingly different. It gives him room to explore his themes more freely but without losing the feeling of it being 'grounded'. I find myself trying to 'place' it and 'time' it ( - if this is real place when was all it happening?) before giving in and just enjoying the plot and, for example, the loving depiction of the market and the luxurious descriptions of the (sometimes invented) fruit.
I also like the rhythm of the prose: it is hypnotic and persuasive. With Crace I sometimes catch myself reading the sentences as if they were written as iambic pentameters, and the effect can be quite beautiful.
I guess that to write such poetic prose for a young novelist must have been quite brave, but for me it works, and this particular opening led me to the delights of the earlier stories and his later novels.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Crace embarks on a journey, taking the reader through the life of self-made billionaire, Victor. With precise detail and sensuous language the author manages to captivate his audience in a unique way. It has all the key elements of a successful novel, and on concluding "Aracadia" you will be left duly satisfied. Although the language is at times too descriptive, the theme portrayed (that we're all important and that in some way or another we all leave our mark on the world) is greatly satisfying. The eccentric Victor, and Rook, his calculating right-hand man, will leave their mark on you, similar to the permanent mark that Victor leaves on the city he calls home. "Arcadia" is a triumph that even Charles Dickens would be happy with.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Things Change Or Do They
Jim Crace is one of the most original authors I have had the pleasure of reading. I've now read four of his works having completed, "Arcadia", the third novel the author... Read more
Published on 14 Nov 2002 by taking a rest
Extremely satisfying
It says a lot about Jim Crace as a writer that this book 'Arcadia', while being a phenomenally powerful book, is not one of his best. Read more
Published on 4 Nov 2000 by D. C. Njoku
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