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Review
'Utterly wonderful... This novel does supremely what novels were invented to do - it confronts the most unbearable sadness with a comic exhilaration that makes you almost pleased that life is tragic' --Howard Jacobson
'Scathing, hilarious and glorious' --New York Times Book Review
'Fascinating. A real satiric invention, loaded with wise outrage' --Arthur Miller
'Karoo has all the ingredients of a truly great novel. The plot has the pathos of a Greek tragedy and enough twists and turns to satisfy the most avid Raymond Chandler fan. The characters come alive as soon as they appear on the page. Fantastic' --Literary Review
'Terrific. Nakedly honest, a tour de force of self-destruction. As Saul spirals into free fall we're with him all the way, because he's so furiously funny' --Deborah Moggach
'Scathing, hilarious and glorious' --New York Times Book Review
'Fascinating. A real satiric invention, loaded with wise outrage' --Arthur Miller
'Karoo has all the ingredients of a truly great novel. The plot has the pathos of a Greek tragedy and enough twists and turns to satisfy the most avid Raymond Chandler fan. The characters come alive as soon as they appear on the page. Fantastic' --Literary Review
'Terrific. Nakedly honest, a tour de force of self-destruction. As Saul spirals into free fall we're with him all the way, because he's so furiously funny' --Deborah Moggach
Review
"Drop whatever else you're reading. It won't be as good as Karoo. It certainly won't be as funny"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Don't be put off by the first 150 pages! At that point, I thought I was in for an endless wallow in slime along the lines of 1980s Martin Amis (which I enjoyed at the time...).
However, 'Karoo' turns out to be far more than an ironic expose of Hollywood hacks and their shallow lives.
Yes, it's concerned with shallowness (and obsessed with the divide between 'public and 'private' selves that once animated the work of Chekhov).
But 'Karoo' goes beyone the entertainment of similarly disgusted satires (e.g. 'The Player') and becomes a howl of mid-life pain, more excrutiating than an entire series of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm', and full of frustrated self-knowledge.
The novel's final third is suffused with a yearning for beauty and truth that put me in mind of 'Seize the Day', a brilliant novella by Saul Bellow, whose name bears a curious resemblance to that of the anti-hero in Tesich's book (and whose protagonist also ultimately finds grace in an uncomfortable encounter with a deathly body).
'Karoo' is written in the flat, fluent syle favoured by screenwriters. Easy to read, then -- but the bleak, tortured, self-circling truths faced by its anti-hero are hard to face, and I can imagine repelled readers throwing it to the floor in disgust.
Angry, male novels like 'Karoo' are bound to divide readers. But I have found this book unforgettable, particularly for the moving final quarter, where it widens out, rising above self-disgust and social satire to become a strange, emotional meditation upon creativity and the soul.
I would like to thank FC Boyce for introducing me to a novel that I would have missed if it weren't for is evangelising!
However, 'Karoo' turns out to be far more than an ironic expose of Hollywood hacks and their shallow lives.
Yes, it's concerned with shallowness (and obsessed with the divide between 'public and 'private' selves that once animated the work of Chekhov).
But 'Karoo' goes beyone the entertainment of similarly disgusted satires (e.g. 'The Player') and becomes a howl of mid-life pain, more excrutiating than an entire series of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm', and full of frustrated self-knowledge.
The novel's final third is suffused with a yearning for beauty and truth that put me in mind of 'Seize the Day', a brilliant novella by Saul Bellow, whose name bears a curious resemblance to that of the anti-hero in Tesich's book (and whose protagonist also ultimately finds grace in an uncomfortable encounter with a deathly body).
'Karoo' is written in the flat, fluent syle favoured by screenwriters. Easy to read, then -- but the bleak, tortured, self-circling truths faced by its anti-hero are hard to face, and I can imagine repelled readers throwing it to the floor in disgust.
Angry, male novels like 'Karoo' are bound to divide readers. But I have found this book unforgettable, particularly for the moving final quarter, where it widens out, rising above self-disgust and social satire to become a strange, emotional meditation upon creativity and the soul.
I would like to thank FC Boyce for introducing me to a novel that I would have missed if it weren't for is evangelising!
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Extremely funny and at the same heart breaking. Unquestionably the best book ever about movies but also one of the best books ever about fatherhood, about failure, about drink, about ... oh and one of the most heart-stoppingly amazing final chapters you'll ever read.
Why is this book not number one?
what is wrong with you all?
Why is this book not number one?
what is wrong with you all?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Saul Karoo is the return of the Anti-hero. Albeit an intellectual one. It is not so much the story that will grab you but Saul's skewed perceptions about love, life & relationships. Saul is a hack. A person who re-writes other peoples movie scripts. He is in an on-going divorce with his wife, suffers from sobriety and 'The evasion of privacy'(he can't stand being alone around people he is supposed to love)Yet, ultimately, Karoo is an immensely sad novel. There is nothing redeeming about our protagonist. Steve Tesich (the author)died four days after the completion of this novel. He won academy awards for the adaption of 'The world according to garp' and 'Breaking away'. If you're into dry inversed logic humour, you'll love it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Age and age's evils
Howard Jacobson recommended this book to the 26 group of writers at their annual lecture at the British Library after he won the Booker Prize. Read more
Published 17 months ago by William Cohen
A brilliant tale of a man at odds with his conscience.
Saul Karoo is the return of the Anti-hero. Albeit an intellectual one. It is not so much the story that will grab you but Saul's skewed perceptions about love, life &... Read more
Published on 22 Sep 2000
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