- Hardcover: 276 pages
- Publisher: Holt Rinehart & Winston; First Edition edition (Sep 1983)
- ISBN-10: 0030616891
- ISBN-13: 978-0030616891
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.5 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,482,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
Oliver Jewett, fifty seven, an actor who never quite made it to the top, has reached the point in his life when he considers what he has achieved though his career; and he is not particularly proud of what he finds. He is a strikingly handsome man, and the years have taken nothing away from that, and while he blames part of his failure on his good looks he also acknowledges the fact that he just is not a great actor.
He lives with his lover of ten years, the now thirty two year old Billy, but their relationship is reaching a crisis point, Billy is perhaps more in love with Oliver the actor than Oliver the private person. This year he also reconnects with his sister, five years his senior and crippled since childhood, now an internationality renowned artist; she is terminally ill. But Oliver's dream is to quit acting and buy a local bakery, the bakery owned by the Pfeffer family, now run by the son of Joey Pfeffer who when they were nineteen was one of Jewett's first intimate loves of his youth.
Oliver is an easy going, self-effacing and caring man; a fact which causes others at times to take advantage of him. He is a most appealing character, and while he make mistakes, these are not the frustrating sort that some authors seem to delight in leading their main characters into, but they are mistake with which one can empathise. Job's Year is a leisurely and melancholy tale, but not without its occasional dramas. As we follow Jewett through the year we also gradually piece together his past, his early struggles, his lovers both male and female. Told in twelve chapters, one for each month of the year, in typical Hansen fashion, it has all the Hansen trademarks: set in his beloved California, references to changes not always for the better that time has wrought, handsome older man sought by younger lovers, a main protagonist who loves the finer things of life, and is rich in detail which yet never gets in the way of the story.
It is a most absorbing story, poignant and very moving. While one might feel terribly sad for Jewett's lot, and while he himself perhaps is happily resigned to the whatever might be the outcome, surely only a hard hearted reader will be left unaffected by Job's Year
He lives with his lover of ten years, the now thirty two year old Billy, but their relationship is reaching a crisis point, Billy is perhaps more in love with Oliver the actor than Oliver the private person. This year he also reconnects with his sister, five years his senior and crippled since childhood, now an internationality renowned artist; she is terminally ill. But Oliver's dream is to quit acting and buy a local bakery, the bakery owned by the Pfeffer family, now run by the son of Joey Pfeffer who when they were nineteen was one of Jewett's first intimate loves of his youth.
Oliver is an easy going, self-effacing and caring man; a fact which causes others at times to take advantage of him. He is a most appealing character, and while he make mistakes, these are not the frustrating sort that some authors seem to delight in leading their main characters into, but they are mistake with which one can empathise. Job's Year is a leisurely and melancholy tale, but not without its occasional dramas. As we follow Jewett through the year we also gradually piece together his past, his early struggles, his lovers both male and female. Told in twelve chapters, one for each month of the year, in typical Hansen fashion, it has all the Hansen trademarks: set in his beloved California, references to changes not always for the better that time has wrought, handsome older man sought by younger lovers, a main protagonist who loves the finer things of life, and is rich in detail which yet never gets in the way of the story.
It is a most absorbing story, poignant and very moving. While one might feel terribly sad for Jewett's lot, and while he himself perhaps is happily resigned to the whatever might be the outcome, surely only a hard hearted reader will be left unaffected by Job's Year
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Excellent, Quiet Book
1 April 2005
Format:Hardcover
Job's Year describes a year in the life of a talented, aging television actor, who shares his life with a much younger, irresponsible, but highly gifted furnisher restorer. During the year, he must care for his sister, who is dying of cancer, and transition to a new career, having lost his interest in acting. (There is a very amusing sequence when he gets a role on a "Dynasty"-like show and then is written out of the script because he is too good.) His partner loves him because of his minor stardom, which makes the transition from acting to operating a bakery (his dream) particularly difficult.
Joseph Hanson writes with humor and a well-developed sense of irony. His hero is a stoic, who persists with very little in life to nourish him. Job's Year is a rewarding read.
Joseph Hanson writes with humor and a well-developed sense of irony. His hero is a stoic, who persists with very little in life to nourish him. Job's Year is a rewarding read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Job's Year
17 Sep 2005
Format:Mass Market Paperback
One of the finest novels I have ever read. Superior crafting of characters. I rank this novel by Joseph Hansen along with the best of Mary Renaud, and by far supreior to anything written bt Hemingway, Tennesseee Williams, and many others.
Absorbing, poignant and moving
27 Mar 2009
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Oliver Jewett, fifty seven, an actor who never quite made it to the top, has reached the point in his life when he considers what he has achieved though his career; and he is not particularly proud of what he finds. He is a strikingly handsome man, and the years have taken nothing away from that, and while he blames part of his failure on his good looks he also acknowledges the fact that he just is not a great actor.
He lives with his lover of ten years, the now thirty two year old Billy, but their relationship is reaching a crisis point, Billy is perhaps more in love with Oliver the actor than Oliver the private person. This year he also reconnects with his sister, five years his senior and crippled since childhood, now an internationality renowned artist; she is terminally ill. But Oliver's dream is to quit acting and buy a local bakery, the bakery owned by the Pfeffer family, now run by the son of Joey Pfeffer who when they were nineteen was one of Jewett's first intimate loves of his youth.
Oliver is an easy going, self-effacing and caring man; a fact which causes others at times to take advantage of him. He is a most appealing character, and while he make mistakes, these are not the frustrating sort that some authors seem to delight in leading their main characters into, but they are mistake with which one can empathise. Job's Year is a leisurely and melancholy tale, but not without its occasional dramas. As we follow Jewett through the year we also gradually piece together his past, his early struggles, his lovers both male and female. Told in twelve chapters, one for each month of the year, in typical Hansen fashion, it has all the Hansen trademarks: set in his beloved California, references to changes not always for the better that time has wrought, handsome older man sought by younger lovers, a main protagonist who loves the finer things of life, and is rich in detail which yet never gets in the way of the story.
It is a most absorbing story, poignant and very moving. While one might feel terribly sad for Jewett's lot, and while he himself perhaps is happily resigned to the whatever might be the outcome, surely only a hard hearted reader will be left unaffected by Job's Year
He lives with his lover of ten years, the now thirty two year old Billy, but their relationship is reaching a crisis point, Billy is perhaps more in love with Oliver the actor than Oliver the private person. This year he also reconnects with his sister, five years his senior and crippled since childhood, now an internationality renowned artist; she is terminally ill. But Oliver's dream is to quit acting and buy a local bakery, the bakery owned by the Pfeffer family, now run by the son of Joey Pfeffer who when they were nineteen was one of Jewett's first intimate loves of his youth.
Oliver is an easy going, self-effacing and caring man; a fact which causes others at times to take advantage of him. He is a most appealing character, and while he make mistakes, these are not the frustrating sort that some authors seem to delight in leading their main characters into, but they are mistake with which one can empathise. Job's Year is a leisurely and melancholy tale, but not without its occasional dramas. As we follow Jewett through the year we also gradually piece together his past, his early struggles, his lovers both male and female. Told in twelve chapters, one for each month of the year, in typical Hansen fashion, it has all the Hansen trademarks: set in his beloved California, references to changes not always for the better that time has wrought, handsome older man sought by younger lovers, a main protagonist who loves the finer things of life, and is rich in detail which yet never gets in the way of the story.
It is a most absorbing story, poignant and very moving. While one might feel terribly sad for Jewett's lot, and while he himself perhaps is happily resigned to the whatever might be the outcome, surely only a hard hearted reader will be left unaffected by Job's Year
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
