- Hardcover
- Publisher: Picador (7 Aug 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330464434
- ISBN-13: 978-0330464437
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 630,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Love and Obstacles
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Product Description
Review
'New generation of American writers...is bringing about a paradigm shift in Anglo-American writing. Hemon is the brightest star.'
--The Times
'Such nimble control of register allows the stories to swing from the broadest comedy to the most painful tragedy' --The Guardian
'A dream sequence of endlessly shifting memories of sex, disappointment, violence, migration and ambition... a traumatised, exhilarating state of flux' --Metro (4-star review)
'In this book of sparse love and darkened humour, the surprising and innovative author makes new endings seem possible, negotiating some brutal obstacles along the way'
--TLS
'There really is something startlingly fresh and original about his prose... The writing is muscular and aggressive, and also tender and sentimental. This is the work of a man absolutely in his prime. Read and rejoice.'
--GQ
`I've written admiringly about him before, but he deserves more. If there is a more inspired writer of fiction than Aleksandar Hemon currently at work in English, I haven't read him. ...This new book is a treat and a tonic, and you should seek it out even though you don't read short stories. '
--GQ
`Aleksandar Hemon's short story collection is eccentric, witty, and alive with compassion... His wry, bathetic humour is one of Love and Obstacles's greatest pleasures'
--Observer
'The most alluring fiction I have read is Aleksandar Hemon's collection of short stories Love and Obstacles... Hemon writes wonderfully vivid and idiosyncratic English and tells tales that are both hauntingly strange and terribly funny.'
--Rupert Christiansen, Books of the Year, Spectator
--The Times
'Such nimble control of register allows the stories to swing from the broadest comedy to the most painful tragedy' --The Guardian
'A dream sequence of endlessly shifting memories of sex, disappointment, violence, migration and ambition... a traumatised, exhilarating state of flux' --Metro (4-star review)
'In this book of sparse love and darkened humour, the surprising and innovative author makes new endings seem possible, negotiating some brutal obstacles along the way'
--TLS
'There really is something startlingly fresh and original about his prose... The writing is muscular and aggressive, and also tender and sentimental. This is the work of a man absolutely in his prime. Read and rejoice.'
--GQ
`I've written admiringly about him before, but he deserves more. If there is a more inspired writer of fiction than Aleksandar Hemon currently at work in English, I haven't read him. ...This new book is a treat and a tonic, and you should seek it out even though you don't read short stories. '
--GQ
`Aleksandar Hemon's short story collection is eccentric, witty, and alive with compassion... His wry, bathetic humour is one of Love and Obstacles's greatest pleasures'
--Observer
'The most alluring fiction I have read is Aleksandar Hemon's collection of short stories Love and Obstacles... Hemon writes wonderfully vivid and idiosyncratic English and tells tales that are both hauntingly strange and terribly funny.'
--Rupert Christiansen, Books of the Year, Spectator
Review
'A dazzling collection of stories ...further cementing his position among the finest fiction writers working in English.'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Aleksandar Hemon has an insider's view on outsiders.
He is one himself.
Translocated from a disintegrating Bosnia to the USA
in 1992 he has made a new life and a new home there.
His new book of stories 'Love and Obstacles' demonstrates
a strong association with marginal characters. We encounter many
of them within these pages, vividly and sympathetically drawn.
The shady Spinelli, weaving a dark thread through the life
of a young aspiriring writer in 'Stairway To Heaven'.
Mobutu's Zaire in the early eighties is chillingly reimagined.
'Everything', the tale of a young poet's quest to appropriate
a new chest freezer for his family from a distant town is enchanting.
His journey becomes a small modern 'Odyssey' with its trials and
lucidly depicted grotesques. The old man drowning his sorrows in a
bar called 'Bar' is affectionately and movingly brought to life.
In 'Good Living' Mr Hemon juxtaposes the mundane with the
seedily dramatic in this condensed story of a door-to-door
magazine salesman in Chicago's Blue Island district.
The drunken priest with a dark secret is a powerfully
ambiguous and unsettling invention.
It is his eye for small human details which imbues this
rich collection with an aura of truth and vibrant reality.
One senses that Mr Hemon writes about what he has seen
and held in his mind's eye; lyrically transformed but
transcendentally whole.
A real feast of a read.
Recommended.
He is one himself.
Translocated from a disintegrating Bosnia to the USA
in 1992 he has made a new life and a new home there.
His new book of stories 'Love and Obstacles' demonstrates
a strong association with marginal characters. We encounter many
of them within these pages, vividly and sympathetically drawn.
The shady Spinelli, weaving a dark thread through the life
of a young aspiriring writer in 'Stairway To Heaven'.
Mobutu's Zaire in the early eighties is chillingly reimagined.
'Everything', the tale of a young poet's quest to appropriate
a new chest freezer for his family from a distant town is enchanting.
His journey becomes a small modern 'Odyssey' with its trials and
lucidly depicted grotesques. The old man drowning his sorrows in a
bar called 'Bar' is affectionately and movingly brought to life.
In 'Good Living' Mr Hemon juxtaposes the mundane with the
seedily dramatic in this condensed story of a door-to-door
magazine salesman in Chicago's Blue Island district.
The drunken priest with a dark secret is a powerfully
ambiguous and unsettling invention.
It is his eye for small human details which imbues this
rich collection with an aura of truth and vibrant reality.
One senses that Mr Hemon writes about what he has seen
and held in his mind's eye; lyrically transformed but
transcendentally whole.
A real feast of a read.
Recommended.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I did not enjoy this book very much. "Love and Obstacles" is a series of short stories all making up part of the life of an un-named narrator and all revolving around the general themes of life, love, loss and a sense of "not quite belonging" - whether that be to society or to a country or to relationships.
I didn't like the way it was written, unfortunately. I found it overtly verbose - particularly in the early stories - with far too much use of a thesaurus. It's a peculiar book because it's meant to be honest and about feelings and passions and angst and yet it's written in a really false, synthetic way. It just didn't seem to flow properly and I didn't enjoy it at all, unfortunately.
I didn't like the way it was written, unfortunately. I found it overtly verbose - particularly in the early stories - with far too much use of a thesaurus. It's a peculiar book because it's meant to be honest and about feelings and passions and angst and yet it's written in a really false, synthetic way. It just didn't seem to flow properly and I didn't enjoy it at all, unfortunately.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a brilliantly written book and the descriptive language and energy in it was superb. However, I felt that the short stories were more like taster chapters of a novel, rather than a complete story. Many of them seemed to just get me desperate to find out more, only to turn the page and find that was the end. The style and humour was excellent and I would definitely read a novel by the author rather than more short stories.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mmmm
This book is suposed to be a coming of age tale but to be honest it did not resonate with me and seemed very contrived at times. Read more
Published 11 days ago by Andrew Foulds
Strange sense of deja vu
This book, more than any other story other than "for those I loved" reminded me of a song by Leonard Cohen, "the Partisan". Read more
Published 13 days ago by Mark Grindell
Doesn't quite work for me.
I really like the idea of this book, several story lines set along a common theme. Unfortunately I never really got in to it, (in fact, the book even went back on the shelf for a... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Kevin
Fresh
Fresh, original and funny, these short stories are intriguing and engrossing, centred on the experience of exile from a Bosnian homeland torn apart. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Kentish Sir Byng
The Immigrant Experience Redux
Alexander Hemon then - He presents us with 8 interwoven storylines that, even though for this Bosnian novelist his mastery of the English language is something slightly recent for... Read more
Published on 5 Mar 2010 by Brady Orme
Intriguing and enjoyable
I requested this, and another Aleksandar Hemon book from vine on the basis of the intriguing blurbs, and I have to say I wasn't disappointed with either. Read more
Published on 31 Dec 2009 by Graeme Stewart
Not cohesive enough
A few of the short stories in this collection are very good, but others are rather slight and fail to hold the attention. Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2009 by AlanMusicMan
Short story format didn't work for me this time
I completely understand why those giving this book 5 stars did so.
It's worth you reading their reviews, to see if they resonate for you. Read more
It's worth you reading their reviews, to see if they resonate for you. Read more
Published on 23 Nov 2009 by Sunshine
Like Marmite... you'll love it or hate it
Each of Hemmon's short stories - loosely connected by theme, atmosphere and the author's tendency to create characters that appear autobiographical, but are not - is a gem. Read more
Published on 18 Sep 2009 by Stephen Newton
Artbiography
Ah, the green eyed demon of the frustrated writer. Every novel that is published is a victory for one writer, and a defeat for another - with only so much space and time in the... Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2009 by Mr. M. A. Reed
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