Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Improved Hangdown..., 8 Aug 2006
...which is the best name for an apple, ever, and it's in this funny, intelligent book. The writing is so fluent and engaging, you're half way through Baber's remarkable journeying before you realise it. I'm not going to talk about plot, cos the "official" bit above is enough, and i doubt i could do justice to it, to be honest.
"Baber's Apple" works on many different levels. There's the humour; the informative bits; the dry, sideways look at Things As They Are; and then there's the symbolism and allusions, which mean you'll be going back and re-reading the whole shebang, to say "aha!" at the bits which have extra significance, with hindsight. It's beautifully paced, chock-full of intriguingly bizarre (and "normal") characters, actually has a story (unlike so much of the elevated nonsense around these days), and whisks you along charmingly, without making you dizzy (i read it in one go).
I'm a fussy reader, and like well-written, intelligent and meaningful work, which isn't so literary it disappears up its own bottom, and yet isn't so so lightweight it's unsatisfying. And lo - Baber's Apple is just that sort of book. Michael Marr is one to watch, I'd say, and I'm eager to read "Three Jumpers", his next offering.
"Baber's Apple" - read it. Mainly.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fruity Baber, 25 Jul 2006
Film critics often use the word romp to describe a film. A romp entails a suspension of disbelief, immersion in an often outrageous story, and a determination to enjoy the fights, car chases, impossible athletic feats and improbable love affairs.
Given that definition, Baber's Apple can fairly be labelled a romp, but with one significant difference. Beneath the somewhat startling storyline Michael Marr gives us humour (lots) pathos (a little)and some very shrewd observations of differing relationships.
Baber Mittough is an eccentric but skilled mechanic who is sent by his employer to Kasakhstan to assemble machinery which he has sold to Mr. Daniel Baratozhian. "Dan the Man" turns out to be a different kettle of fish at home and thereby hangs the tale.
Marr's descriptions are sharp - he takes a little time to fully present Baber to us - blue beret, camel coat, multi coloured waistcoat, goatee beard and boots - big boots. He also writes his story in the present tense and by proxy as it were, as the narrator is an imaginary brother (or is it sister?) called Beulah. in no time this device is unusual no longer and in fact it helps to move the narrative along smartly, while giving opportunity for reflections onthe human condition.
There are laugh-out-loud moments (I read the decription of Baber's first attempt at negotiating a ski slope three times - it is best read out loud!) and descriptions which make one blink "(Mr Reason hiding behind his eyebrows and emerging briefly on occasion......a security man with shoulders like a kingsize mattress)"
Marr's treatment of sex is very good. Baber beds five(or is it six) ladies of varying nationality and colour, but Beulah ensures that our imagination is nicely fired up and then with draws us.
Finally, the apples. Marr weaves some lovely stories around apples - his own and those he encounters in foreign parts.
His book is as juicy as the best of them. I recommend it!
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