- Paperback: 135 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books; Reissue edition (Jan 1990)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679725768
- ISBN-13: 978-0679725763
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 1 x 20.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 487,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Turns an ordinary ride up an office escalator into a meditation on our relations with familiar objects--shoelaces, straws, and more. Baker's debut novel, and a favorite amongst many of us here.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Every so often, one comes across a book that is truly unique. As far as I am concerned, this, for me, is it. The life and times of a lunch hour set out in a highly descriptive and annoyingly accurate tale of life. The book is divided into sections outlining the various thoughts of one man going to lunch, who has more in common with us than we may care to realise. We are told of the subject's inner most thoughts, such as office etiquette, the transition from paper to plastic straws, and the 'obvious' trials encountered when your shoelace decides to die. The true genius of this book can be realised when one reads a section on the life expectancy of a shoelace. I admit, one may find it difficult not to skip to the next chapter in the hands of an ordinary author, yet one becomes fascinated with the depth of thought that has gone into this (and every other) section, which has been brought together through an amazing eye for wit and detail.
Not only is this book a pleasant change from the normal "paint-by-numbers" approach to story formulation, one is surprised at the simple humour that can be found in the apparently simple acts that our subject performs during his day.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ever wondered how things work,the everyday little things we use and do? Do you like footnotes and digressions?Baker is on acid,but superbly controlled -I don't know how he did it. He grabs approaches from early Beckett,Georges Perec,Paul Auster and even self improvement like Pirsig's Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance.It is probably at the end a lament for childhood memories or a rite of passage through minutiae to what?I read it in alcohohol recovery and it showed me the small picture can be the big one.Unfortunately all the shared references are USA it would be good to have a GB cultural edition.At the end a work of possible genius.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are a million and one tiny thoughts that flit unbidden through the human mind every day, and most slip through the fingers before they are even acknowledged. Baker has a gift for retaining these wraith-like filaments of imagination and making them concrete. In what is ostensibly a collection of the thoughts of a man on his lunch hour, Baker takes us through a wildly diverting tour of the minutiae of everyday life, from the coincidental but strangely logical patterns of shoelace wear and tear, to the merits and aesthetics of Soviet-esque stapler arms. Brilliant and jaw-droppingly intuitive, Baker serves up a lunchbox treat of hyper-stylish trivia liberally seasoned with backhanded jokes and a supreme understanding of the human mind.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Entering someone else's mind, if only for a little while...
I really enjoyed this book. I am not a book critic by any means, I have only just started reading on a regular basis, but I am enjoying it greatly, good books, bad books, all... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Charlie Styr
disappointed
This is the first time I am disappointed - I ordered a new copy of the book "The Mezzanine". What I received was a very well-used copy. Read more
Published 9 months ago by ulla tarras
Love this!
I bought my first one of these when I was at university had to buy another because the first one was so worn out. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Ginger
Great book! It is one to experience but may not appeal to all readers...
The Mezzanine (Granta Paperbacks)
Read this book! You will be enriched by detail and astonished by your empathy.
Read this book! You will be enriched by detail and astonished by your empathy.
Published on 13 July 2009 by Mrs. C. A. Hedges
Proust with Asperger Syndrome
Proust with Asperger Syndrome. Baker describes one work lunch-hour with dizzying detail, and an array of huge, memory-saturated asides about the little, technical things in life:... Read more
Published on 27 Sep 2008 by Daniel Bor
Series of observations about minutiae
It seems to be fairly dividing the audience down the middle, this book. A couple of other reviewers have given it just one star, & said the author's trying too hard to be clever. Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2006 by Martin Harley
Smart but Vacuous
It's a strange concept to be sure but reading about the main character's lunch hour is certainly a smart and, initially at least, engaging concept. Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2004 by mitch_mitchum
Short, but not Baker-lite
Great fun to read, but still thought-provoking. The epicycles of diversion from the main "plot" are, of course, the entire point of the novel, and re-reading it now it seems oddly... Read more
Published on 9 Jun 2003 by N. R. Dunlavey
The Mezzanine
This is as great a book as 'Catcher in the Rye'. If you like a book where nothing much happens, but everything ( and I mean everything) is noted down, mulled over, and given great... Read more
Published on 7 Mar 2003
Clever, but ultimately dull.
Crammed into a single lunch hour of a rather odd, obsessive main character, this book begins as a series of witty observations and thoughts on the mundane but intricate details of... Read more
Published on 3 April 2002
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