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Surprisingly warm and very witty (STYLIST )
"fluent, unusual (Lesley Chamberlain TLS )
An ambitious, powerful and funny work, taking the reader through 20th-centruy history and the human psyche (THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"fluent, unusual (Lesley Chamberlain TLS )
An ambitious, powerful and funny work, taking the reader through 20th-centruy history and the human psyche (THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
A panoramic debut about love and loss, people and politics, THE BREAKING OF EGGS announces a major new talent
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
The story of this book is that of an expatriate Pole coming to terms with the end of communism. It plods along at a fairly pedestrian pace, flagging up any plot twists long before they happen, making the life-changing sequence of events that happen to the protagonist after the fall of the Berlin wall seem ridiculous and unlikely.
I found the first three quarters of the book to be a somewhat monochrome look at the protagonist's coming to terms with these changes. The characters lack distinctive voices, the narrator fails to excite, and it all plods along without really exciting the reader. In the final quarter of the book things start to come to life as the human elements collide, creating the kind of crashing, chaotic ground-shifting atmosphere and narrative that the rest of the book aspired to and would have benefited from.
The protagonist's reflections on politics, truth, love and life and how 20th century Europeans developed their perspectives on all of these things move to another level for this final quarter, elevating the book and making the trawl through the previous 200-odd pages worthwhile.
It will be of interest to anyone intrigued by the political upheavals in Europe after World War II and beyond the fall of the Berlin Wall, and in how those who played a part in supporting now-undermined political systems came to terms with their demolition.
I found the first three quarters of the book to be a somewhat monochrome look at the protagonist's coming to terms with these changes. The characters lack distinctive voices, the narrator fails to excite, and it all plods along without really exciting the reader. In the final quarter of the book things start to come to life as the human elements collide, creating the kind of crashing, chaotic ground-shifting atmosphere and narrative that the rest of the book aspired to and would have benefited from.
The protagonist's reflections on politics, truth, love and life and how 20th century Europeans developed their perspectives on all of these things move to another level for this final quarter, elevating the book and making the trawl through the previous 200-odd pages worthwhile.
It will be of interest to anyone intrigued by the political upheavals in Europe after World War II and beyond the fall of the Berlin Wall, and in how those who played a part in supporting now-undermined political systems came to terms with their demolition.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
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The choices people make and their consequences form the bedrock from which is carved this poignant and absorbing novel. Feliks Zhukovski is 61, lives in Paris, having for many years spent his time travelling in the eastern bloc and writing a guide book for those who wished and were allowed to visit there. A staunch left winger in political terms, he believes in the communist ideal and promulgates it within his guide. However, when circumstances force a sale of the rights to his publication,his past unfolds and unravels as he discovers many truths that he believed in both political and personal are hollow and empty. He is forced to confront many people who have shaped wittingly or not his adult life and in doing so his perceptions change.
This journey is both sad and uplifting by turns and proved an outstanding read. This story is fiction, but could so easily be mirrored in the real lives of countless others. I found Jim Powell a fine and distinctive voice, bringing this story to life, and I recommend it very highly indeed.
This journey is both sad and uplifting by turns and proved an outstanding read. This story is fiction, but could so easily be mirrored in the real lives of countless others. I found Jim Powell a fine and distinctive voice, bringing this story to life, and I recommend it very highly indeed.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Perfect Paperback
"One can't make an omelet without breaking eggs." - attributed to (among others) Lenin, Napoleon and Robespierre. Well, to whomever.
"I grew up in an age of mass movements ... and it was a question only of which one to choose, and you chose the one that most opposed the ones you did not wish to choose." - Felix Zhukovski
Born in Poland, 9-year old Felix Zhukovski, the protagonist of THE BREAKING OF EGGS, was sent by his mother, with his older brother Woodrow - named after the former U.S. President - to live with their aunt in Basel, Switzerland a week before the Nazi invasion in September 1939. Woodrow soon left to join the French Resistance. Felix has not discovered the whereabouts of his mother, or attempted to contact his brother, since.
Now, it's 1991 and Felix is 61 and has been living in the same Paris apartment for thirty-six years. Almost his entire life, he's been a committed communist, though his own term for his political stance is "leftist." Felix despises capitalism and the United States, where his brother has long since gone to live. Zhukovski's spiritual home is the Eastern Bloc, and he makes an annual tour of its member countries to research and update a travel guide he authors and publishes for the benefit of those few Westerners visiting the nations on the far side of the Iron Curtain.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and Eastern Europe changed drastically - so much so that Felix can't keep up with the changes in his book. Then, a New York publisher - one of those detested Americans - offers to buy him out.
THE BREAKING OF EGGS is the story of a man who discovers late in life that his worldview and the most important decisions of his adulthood have been based on misconceptions, misperceptions, disinformation, misinformation and self-deception. Felix is about to have his basket of eggs force fed to him as an omelet of gargantuan proportions. Can he suck it up and co-exist with the new world order?
Viewing the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent dissolution of the Warsaw Pact from the unflappable serenity of my armchair in the United States, I, and presumably most others from similar vantage points, didn't pause to contemplate the enormous repercussions of those events on people whose lives were tied to the fortunes and political philosophy of the Eastern Bloc nations. As a topic for reflection, then, the plot of author Jim Powell's THE BREAKING OF EGGS is, at least for me, both fresh and winning. While there are no plot twists that would categorize this novel as a "thriller", Felix encounters enough unexpected revelations to severely perturb his post-Cold War state of mind.
This is, apparently, Powell's first published novel, and kudos are due. The characters are engaging and distinctly drawn and the dialogue between them is believable. This is a fine read that's worthy of your consideration about the tragedies, humor and absurdities of politics taken oh so seriously and the human condition.
"I grew up in an age of mass movements ... and it was a question only of which one to choose, and you chose the one that most opposed the ones you did not wish to choose." - Felix Zhukovski
Born in Poland, 9-year old Felix Zhukovski, the protagonist of THE BREAKING OF EGGS, was sent by his mother, with his older brother Woodrow - named after the former U.S. President - to live with their aunt in Basel, Switzerland a week before the Nazi invasion in September 1939. Woodrow soon left to join the French Resistance. Felix has not discovered the whereabouts of his mother, or attempted to contact his brother, since.
Now, it's 1991 and Felix is 61 and has been living in the same Paris apartment for thirty-six years. Almost his entire life, he's been a committed communist, though his own term for his political stance is "leftist." Felix despises capitalism and the United States, where his brother has long since gone to live. Zhukovski's spiritual home is the Eastern Bloc, and he makes an annual tour of its member countries to research and update a travel guide he authors and publishes for the benefit of those few Westerners visiting the nations on the far side of the Iron Curtain.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and Eastern Europe changed drastically - so much so that Felix can't keep up with the changes in his book. Then, a New York publisher - one of those detested Americans - offers to buy him out.
THE BREAKING OF EGGS is the story of a man who discovers late in life that his worldview and the most important decisions of his adulthood have been based on misconceptions, misperceptions, disinformation, misinformation and self-deception. Felix is about to have his basket of eggs force fed to him as an omelet of gargantuan proportions. Can he suck it up and co-exist with the new world order?
Viewing the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent dissolution of the Warsaw Pact from the unflappable serenity of my armchair in the United States, I, and presumably most others from similar vantage points, didn't pause to contemplate the enormous repercussions of those events on people whose lives were tied to the fortunes and political philosophy of the Eastern Bloc nations. As a topic for reflection, then, the plot of author Jim Powell's THE BREAKING OF EGGS is, at least for me, both fresh and winning. While there are no plot twists that would categorize this novel as a "thriller", Felix encounters enough unexpected revelations to severely perturb his post-Cold War state of mind.
This is, apparently, Powell's first published novel, and kudos are due. The characters are engaging and distinctly drawn and the dialogue between them is believable. This is a fine read that's worthy of your consideration about the tragedies, humor and absurdities of politics taken oh so seriously and the human condition.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Breaking no records
By the end of the to novel, Feliks Zhukovski describes himself as a 61 year-old man, nominally Polish, quarter Jewish, domiciled in France, living with a German woman with Nazi... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kartowidjojo
Very Good Book
A book that I enjoyed very much. Very well written, couldn't lay it down. The main character goes through an amazing development after having been locked up for many decades. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Hanne
Self-indulgent
I was given this book as a present, and all I can say is that I'm glad I didn't spend my own money on this. It was terrible and I couldn't wait to get to the end of it. Read more
Published 8 months ago by happy haggis
Breaking of Eggs
Excellent read.
Very informative although the book is fiction.
The book concentrates on the life of the character,Felix a 60+ year old man living in Paris. Read more
Very informative although the book is fiction.
The book concentrates on the life of the character,Felix a 60+ year old man living in Paris. Read more
Published 12 months ago by suen
The Breaking of Eggs
A really good read, which held my interest. It is well-told with many moving moments but also with touches of humour.
Published 13 months ago by lizziebee
Me And My Life
I bought this after a TV recommendation. However, what drove my purchase was the fact that it was a first novel by an author of my own age. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Seatinthestalls
Subjective, shallow nonsense!
Before reading this confused, meandering novel it would be wise to bear in mind that the author is a staunch Thatcherite who stood as a Tory candidate in the 1980s. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mark G. Goacher
Terrific novel, blending international and personal history -...
I'm still 'digesting' this book. It was such a gripping novel with a unique protagonist in 61 year-old Feliks Zhukovski. I read it in just a few sittings over a couple of days. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Timothy J. Bazzett
Binding the ravelled
An involving character study of Leftist, Feliks Zhukovski.
Having lived a life not-so-splendidly in isolation from both family and any deep emotional attachment, Feliks'... Read more
Having lived a life not-so-splendidly in isolation from both family and any deep emotional attachment, Feliks'... Read more
Published 20 months ago by B. Yeoh
Wobbly plot, but highly readable account of life in the Eastern Bloc
This is a thoroughly enjoyable novel centred around a 61 year old Pole by the name of Feliks Zhukovski who has spent his adult life travelling around the eastern bloc as author of... Read more
Published 22 months ago by M. J. Farncombe
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