- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (3 Mar 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099477548
- ISBN-13: 978-0099477549
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 854,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
From the reviews of X 20:
‘Elegant, witty and confident’
Observer
‘Beard is as good on the sensuality of smoking as on the philosophy. This is an unusually intelligent, funny and readable first book.’
Sunday Times
‘Beard’s prose is dry, nonchalant and fluent. An accomplished first novel.’
TLS
‘Populated by a cast of well-drawn eccentrics, loaded with encyclopaedic detail on the history and iconography of smoking, this comic novel nevertheless aims at deep seriousness. Beard’s writing can be breathtaking’
Daily Telegraph
Book Description
'One of the most ingenious, resourceful and entertaining novelists in England' Philip Hensher
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An impressive book which only just fails to live up to the excellence of Beard's first novel. Beard continues to experiment with structure and is proving to be quite a master of it. Looking forward to his third book when it comes out.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I got quite bored reading this. The characters are quite well drawn, but the plot is random, as you'd expect from something garnered entirely from one newspaper. Very thin on ideas after page one, not something I'd recommend.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
I absolutely loved this book.
21 Nov 1999
Format:Hardcover
This is probably one of the most refreshing books I've read to date. It's rich form kept me interested, allowing me to finish it within a week between long hours at school and tons of homework. The parallel lives of the two main characters--meeting at certain points in their lives without ever knowing it--helped culminate a lovely, almost innocent love story. It's a novel about stepping out of your rut in life, taking chances and risks. I bet the next day was November 2, 1993 :-)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Coincidence...or not?
31 May 2000
Format:Hardcover
Like Geoff Nicholson's Bleeding London, Damascus relies on a great deal of intersecting between characters, times and places. Beard uses this very interesting technique as well as a non-linear timeline to tell a compelling and often hilarious story. His characters are incredibly well developed and his writing is accomplished.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
A complex, excellent and well thought out piece of writing
17 April 1999
Format:Hardcover
In brief, Damascus weaves the stories of relatively anonymous people, any one of which could be your neighbor, or seated next to you on the train, by intertwining their past lives with their present lives. A well thought out and complex piece of fiction, this book is wholy worth reading based on the merits that after every chapter, it forces you to examine your own life, and to question your past, your present, and your future, both in parts and in totem. And not only does it provoke thought, it carries the reader through to the last page, always wanting to know more about the characters, the plot, and eventually the reader himself. Beard develops his plot with uncanny ability to combine what appear to be separate vignettes or snapshots of his characters lives into a cohesive story. The reader inevitably comes away from the book comparing him/herself to one of the characters, and knowing examples of all the others. For anyone who is intelligent and is up to the challenge of a book that will not only entertain but also make you think, Damascus proves an excellent choice.
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