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Fascination: Stories [Hardcover]

William Boyd
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Book Description

4 Jan 2005
A new collection of stories by the internationally acclaimed author of Any Human Heart (“the finest storyteller of his generation” –Chicago Tribune).

In “Notebook No. 9,” a film director’s journal becomes an unintentional record of his obsessive love for his leading lady and the slow destruction of their relationship.

In “Beulah Berlin, an A—Z,” a performance artist, longing for stability and order, reveals the details of her chaotic life through her comments on such varied subjects as angst, hay fever, photography, baby names, sonnets, and tobacco.

In “Fantasia on a Favorite Waltz,” a prostitute finds an unexpected friend in a young man who plays piano in a brothel.

In “Adult Video,” we see a man’s life in film format–rewinding to his years as a struggling student at Oxford, fast-forwarding to his dreams of success as a writer, and watching the present unfold as he proposes to his future wife for all the wrong reasons.

Exploring the ways a life can be dominated by a need for love and the torments that arise when love is misplaced or denied, these stories confirm William Boyd’s reputation as a master of the art.


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Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf (4 Jan 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1400043204
  • ISBN-13: 978-1400043200
  • Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 14.2 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,092,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Product Description

About the Author

William Boyd was born in Ghana in 1952. He was brought up there and in Nigeria. He was educated at the universities of Nice, Glasgow and Oxford. He is the author of eight novels and two previous volumes of short stories, and the recipient of many prizes, including the Whitbread First Novel Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award. He is married and lives in London. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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First Sentence
Springtime in Oxford is vulgar, anyway, but something about this particular spring in Oxford is having me on. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A virtuoso performance 27 Nov 2007
By Philip Spires TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Fascination by William Boyd is a set of sixteen short stories. This may not sound either surprising or original until one considers their form. The author uses at least nine different and clearly identifiable forms in which to present this work. One takes the form of a video. There are childhood memories, a diary, a journal, an A-to-Z listing. One story is a set of dialogues over lunch. Another is a set of monologues. And William Boyd's use of these different forms is not just a writer's trick to impress a critic. In each case to form complements the story, adds interpretation to the events and helps our understanding of the characters. Fascination is thus no less than a fascinating read, a tour de force in miniature by a great writer.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Read it 11 Oct 2010
Format:Paperback
I got this as a present. I've not read any of the author's work before so had no expectations. And I'm not a huge fan of short stories, so I was pleasantly surprised when I read the first story. It was fantastic. And each and every one after was just as good. Superb collection from a talented writer, highly recommended.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Great read. 3 Jun 2013
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was introduced to William Boyd books by a local independent book shop. Fascination is yet another fantastic novel from a great writer. Unfortunately, I read Mr Boyd's books quicker than he writes them! Like many of his books, this deserves to have a screenplay & movie from it.
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1.0 out of 5 stars Book 19 Mar 2013
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Didnt like the book at all, not my scene. I read it for a book club I attend and the only one to like it was the member who suggested it for our book list.That says it all I think!
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4.0 out of 5 stars only so so 3 Mar 2013
By dotmac
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I had not realised that this book was short stories and i do not really likethese. However some of them were good and held the attention and others were not so interesting. I prefer William Boyd novels.
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5.0 out of 5 stars As Good as Ever 31 July 2012
Format:Paperback
Any book with William Boyd's name on the cover is a must buy for me and I must be one of Amazon's favourite customers.

A great set of short stories, each one completely individual in its own right - Boyd's imagination knows no bounds and they take you into different worlds that you've rarely experienced. I always wanted to know more at the end of each story - now that's good writing
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3.0 out of 5 stars Fairly pedestrian 16 May 2012
Format:Kindle Edition
Wide-ranging set of short stories. The focus is often on the seedier side of life which gets wearisome before very long. One or two gems (The Ghost of a Bird, Varengeville) plus some gimmicky ones (Lunch, Adult Video) but mostly fairly pedestrian stuff.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Sophistication, craft, experimentation, range 10 Jan 2010
By Eileen Shaw TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
William Boyd's range is one of the widest I have come across in a British writer. In this collection of short stories he writes about Germany before and after the war, a sleepy French village, a French cineaste scenario and France in wartime, and about Britain and America in several settings. He is also secure writing as a woman or as a child.

There is a sophistication and richness in his work that defies classification. He is easy in his writing, though never casual or loose, but he defies the conventions of traditional story-telling that demand a neat tying up of all the ends of a tale.

These stories demonstrate Boyd's range, but they are not traditional, often taking a deliberately experimental form, suited to the mood of anomie that so many of the characters express or exemplify. Throughout these stories a thin thread of despair runs, which seems to me to be connected to the literary 21st century's rejection of tradition, almost as if the writer is looking around for something with which to replace it. There is certainly a quality here that is hard to find in other writers in this form.
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