- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd (26 Aug 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0241140722
- ISBN-13: 978-0241140727
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.2 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,101,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
In Alessandro Baricco's celebrated debut, it was silk that exerted a fatal attraction. This time it's the ocean, whose watery charms cause an entire cast of characters to convene at the isolated Almayer Inn. The guests include a seductress, an eccentric professor, and a painter with a pronounced penchant for metaphysics. They're soon joined by the beautiful young daughter of a local aristocrat, who's been stricken with a mysterious illness. In a sense, however, all these characters are suffering from maladies--psychological, existential, erotic--which makes the Almayer Inn a kind of Magic Mountain with beachfront footage. The author is a renowned opera critic in his native Italy. Perhaps this accounts for his love of linguistic arias, which can overpower the plot of Ocean Sea. When Baricco gets rolling, of course, his intricately worked prose is a delight. Even the inn itself, situated alone on a promontory, gets the red carpet treatment: "So alone it was there, it seemed a thing forgotten. It was almost as if a procession of inns, of every kind and vintage, had passed by there one day, skirting the coast, when, out of tiredness, one had detached itself from the rest, and, as its travelling companions filed past, it decided to stop on that slight rise, yielding to its own weakness, bowing its head and waiting for the end." At his best, Baricco recalls Italo Calvino--there's the same pleasure in elegant riddles and rococo storytelling. Here and there the narrative of Ocean Sea vanishes down a dead end, and the author's weakness for typographical trickery doesn't help. Still, Baricco's novel remains a refreshing dunk in what Christina Stead called "the ocean of story"--and a brainy exploration of the littoral truth. --Bob Brandeis
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"An acclaimed and haunting tale of love and vengeance - from the author of the bestselling Silk * 'Baricco is an exemplary storyteller... [he] shows a Bertolucci-like, chair-hopping, gesticulating sense of sheer joy, that turns this tragic tale into a bittersweet tragicomedy.' - Time Out * 'Compelling, profound and sharply funny' - Stephanie Merritt, Observer * 'Highly romantic and breathtakingly lyrical' - New York Times Book Review * 'Baricco has produced a work of miraculously spun sugar, at which many people will gasp in admiration.' - Spectator"
--This text refers to an alternate
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
-Sometimes I wonder what are we waiting for. -For it to be too late, madame.
I have read OCEANO MARE in its original language, but the grammatic is so clear that the translation can easily keep the beauty of Baricco's writing. It recalls the style fo the naturalists fo the XIX century. It is an original story. There are differents settings that runs parallel and then blend together. Several characters with different stories find a personal meaning in the ocean that can be either terrible or beautiful, gentle of furios, can carry joy oy death. A group of men abandoned on a boat; two men that look for the end or the beginning of the sea; storytellers that comes from the waves; lovers walking on the beach; children that know more than adults about everything; they are all connected to the ocean sea somehow. The book is strong and delicate. It goes beyond the love and hate human feel for the sea, it is a story that goes deep in the human soul, it is a rappresentation of the most secret desires, that goes beyond rational thinking. Enigmatic and pure. OCean blue. I loved it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It's the book I give to everyone I really love... because it's hard to find a novel, a poetry, and a piece of art all in one book!!! It talks of the love the goes beyond love, of the friendship that goes beyond friendship, and it will delight you with the music of its words... read it, it's too beautiful to be missed! Let it cuddle you in a land where nothing's real, but everything is far more cruel than you expected it to be... Make friends with the characters, Elisewein, the painters, the murderer, the lover... you'll never be able to forget this book!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not quite the 5 stars that 'Silk' deserves, but this is a lovely rich story with wonderful characters.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The ideal book for a day with yourself
I don't lie when I say that "Ocean Sea" by Alessandro Baricco is the most amazing book I ever read. A story of human illnesses on the sea shore: a girl that CANNOT live because she... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Keely
A strange tale
Having read several of Baricco's books and enjoyed almost every one, this one left me a bit puzzled. Read more
Published 11 months ago by E. S. Moorhouse
Baricco at his best
This is the second Baricco novel that I have read (the other being Without Blood) and once again I was moved emotionally. Translations can be hit and miss. Read more
Published on 9 July 2009 by Avid Reader
Ocean Sea by Alessandro Baricco
Blending all the elements of the supernatural, adventure and romance, Alessandro Baricco has written the most beautiful book I have ever read. Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2009 by L. G. F. Bedini
All At Sea
Normally I would start a review with a summary of the plot, but having only read "Ocean Sea" once, I don't feel competent to aummarise it. Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2008 by Ms. D. R. Moorhouse
Sweet and dreamlike
A sweet book with lovable characters, generous humour and some interesting thoughts on the human condition. The ever-present sea gives a dreamlike quality to the writing. Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2007 by Mr. Nigel JB McFarlane
good dream
unusual, dreamlike piece of writing. the author isn't particularly concerned with characterisation, and his characters are of interest only in so far as they represent a particular... Read more
Published on 5 Mar 2003 by I. J. Mclachlan
SEEING THE SEA
Some never see it. The sea in their hart. But never mind, those who see it still have books. But they also have troubles sometimes. Read more
Published on 31 July 2001 by marjanalbumine@hotmail.com
really powerful
This book is really powerful. The characters are disturbingly bizarre and the storyline intense enough to stay with you when you have finished reading it. Read more
Published on 17 May 2001
Ocean Fog
Ocean Sea doesn't live up to the promise of its beautiful cover. Although there are several remarkable ideas that light up the story, these rarely make into more than half-ideas. Read more
Published on 26 Mar 2001
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