- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (2 Jan 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099429055
- ISBN-13: 978-0099429050
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 986,773 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
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Elizabeth McCracken seems to specialise in unlikely romance: the inventive Niagara Falls All Over Again is the story of a vaudevillian's love for the one person he can't be without--his partner in comedic crime and her charmingly quirky debut, The Giant's House, was the story of a librarian's passion for the world's tallest boy.
In Niagara Falls Carter and Sharp, a vaudeville team that makes the leap to B-list film fame, have perfected a classic shtick: the stern Professor and the hapless, bumbling Rocky. Off screen, however, their roles are reversed. Mose Sharp is mild-mannered and accommodating, while Rocky Carter is a jovial bully--the kind of guy, Sharp thinks, who "compared the slices of cake on an arriving dessert tray and got disappointed, really disappointed, when the largest was delivered to somebody who wasn't him".
Show business is a subject tailor-made for McCracken's eccentric gifts. Her timing is impeccable, and she's no slouch with the jokes either. But she's not playing this one just for laughs. As anyone who read The Giant's House knows, McCracken writes prose of uncommon beauty, studded with images both arresting and sad. This second novel is a balancing act on an even greater scale: tender but never sentimental, verbally dexterous but never merely clever. Like its predecessor, Niagara Falls will have you reading aloud to whoever will listen. --Mary Park, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'Exquisitely evokes, on an impressively human scale, a long-gone epoch of American comedy. This is a love story - a tale of two men in love with humour' Elle
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
This story-like most of the stories in the history of the world-begins far away from Des Moines, Iowa. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
This story-like most of the stories in the history of the world-begins far away from Des Moines, Iowa. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
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
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Elizabeth McCracken's stunning second novel focuses on the Laurel and Hardy-style partnership of Carter and Sharp, following them from vaudeville to Hollywood and finally to virtual obscurity. Rocky Carter is the bumbling slapstick man who lives for his career and whose personal life is a disaster; his straight man, Mose Sharp, has the lower profile role but a successful marriage and children he adores. Inevitably, conflicts arise in both the act and their friendship before a tragedy in Sharp's life brings both relationships to a premature end. This novel is more about friendship and family than vaudeville and Hollywood (although both, particularly vaudeville, are vividly portrayed) and is interesting, enlightening, very funny and terribly sad.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Anyone who reads this book in the mistaken belief that it will be a pleasant and nostalgic escape into vaudeville, the golden age of film, and the early days of television, may be disappointed. This is not Carter Beats the Devil, delightful as that book is--it's far more ambitious. McCracken uses a narrow focus on one Abbott/Costello type comedy team over a span of sixty years to delve into the broad spectrum of human emotions which makes life meaningful for each of us, insightfully developing themes about family, friendship, love, and the essence of communion and connection.
Mose Sharp (Sharensky), a Jewish boy from Valley Junction, Iowa, is an only son among six sisters, destined to inherit his father's men's clothing store, until his sister Hattie inspires him to take his chances with vaudeville. He runs away, meets up with Rocky Carter, for whom he acts as straight man, and becomes half of a successful team, which goes from vaudeville, to popular B-movies, radio, and TV in the age of Eddie Cantor and Milton Berle. Giving proof to the idea that you can take the boy out of Iowa but you can't take Iowa out of the boy, Mose remains true to the values he learned at home, escaping their narrow limitations while preserving their essence and, in contrast to Rocky, forming lasting and loving relationships.
As McCracken explores the off-again, on-again relationship of Mose and Rocky over the span of sixty years, she draws parallels and contrasts between their relationship and that of a marriage, between friendship and family, between sharing an act and sharing one's life, between the little deaths inherent in a tumultuous partnership and the very real deaths one must cope with in real life. It's a thoughtful, sensitive exploration of ideas within an intriguing framework, loaded with original imagery and observations ("he was a parsnippy-looking guy, scraped and pale..."; "eyebrows so plucked they looked like columns of marching ants"). Though I admired McCracken's earlier novel, The Giant's House, I was thrilled by this one. Mary Whipple
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This writer deserves to be better known in the UK - hers is a distinctive, quirky and observant voice, and this second novel easily matches The Giant's House in scope and execution. Reading this lovely, tragi-comic book will make you smile wryly, break your heart, and leave you better informed about American vaudeville and family life in the small-town Midwest.
Carter and Sharp and the people who contribute to their career and relationships are beautifully drawn, utterly believable, and for the most part, loveable.
I couldn't put it down and wish McCracken turned them out more often!
Carter and Sharp and the people who contribute to their career and relationships are beautifully drawn, utterly believable, and for the most part, loveable.
I couldn't put it down and wish McCracken turned them out more often!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Carter & Sharp - A Love Story
Mose Sharp looks back on his life and his deep love for his comedic partner, Rocky Carter. Mose adores his family, and has many adventures independent of Rocky, but all roads seem... Read more
Published on 4 Aug 2008 by Graceann Macleod
Do try this
I heard this book reviewed on Radio 4 and was inspired to buy it. It follows the life of a vaudeville artist and his partner. Read more
Published on 8 Dec 2002 by Liz
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
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.
