- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited (1 Jun 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1904598374
- ISBN-13: 978-1904598374
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 714,692 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
Review
Incredibly funny and clever. --The Independent
Product Description
The novel centres on a colourful group of refugee Tibetans. One of the group's members, the charismatic (and slightly dubious) Rabbi Chod, recognises himself as the reincarnation of Moses, and various friends as reincarnations of key Biblical figures. Despite condemnation from both the mainstream Jewish and Tibetan communities, he declares his followers the true 'lost tribe of Israel', and defiantly opens up a synagogue in a pet shop. The action is seen through the eyes of the narrator, Monlam, who is born into a family where suppression and dysfunction are common currency. Both of his parents are Tibetan Jews, followers of Rabbi Chod. His father owns a cafe called 'Hush Hush', so called because within the cafe, all forms of noise are forbidden. Any customer who speaks is instantly banned and a Polaroid photo of them is pinned to a cork board in case they should dare to return. Monlam himself lives an extraordinary life; as each day goes by, he makes his way not into the future, but the past. He falls asleep each night only to wake up the day before. In this way, as he grows up his parents get younger. By the end of the book his parents are children - too young to manage by themselves - and the adult Monlam has to look after them. In this way he witnesses his own family history, quite literally living backwards into their lives.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
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
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Funny and enjoyable, this novel takes the shape of a circular fable. We begin with the birth of Mo, born to a poor immigrant Tibetan couple living in London, but as Mo grows up, everyone around him gets younger. Each individual day proceeds in normal time, but when he wakes up the next day, it is the day before yesterday. This means that Mo experiences the end of every relationship before it begins or he meets people who know all about his `future' which has actually taken place in the past. Needless to say, this makes things difficult for him, especially with girls. The novel ends ingeniously, with a death and a rebirth, where, promisingly, time seems to be going forward for Mo at last.
Life is complicated enough but Mo also has to bear with his insufferable cousin Rabbi Chod, who has created the Tibetan Jewish religion. The real Jewish establishment will have nothing to do with him, but Chod is happy enough with his tiny inner London congregation, holding services in his pet shop and pronouncing, for a fee, on which Jewish figure of history his motley supplicants are descended from.
Although this humour is the mainstay of the novel, there is some poignancy as poor Mo learns to accept strange occurrences and recognise them as endings rather than beginnings. The time frame is cleverly sustained throughout and the writing is true to the extraordinary logic of the story. Perhaps this is not quite in the top echelons of fabular contemporary literature (Life of Pi, for instance, is a deeper and more enthralling fable), but it is great fun.
Life is complicated enough but Mo also has to bear with his insufferable cousin Rabbi Chod, who has created the Tibetan Jewish religion. The real Jewish establishment will have nothing to do with him, but Chod is happy enough with his tiny inner London congregation, holding services in his pet shop and pronouncing, for a fee, on which Jewish figure of history his motley supplicants are descended from.
Although this humour is the mainstay of the novel, there is some poignancy as poor Mo learns to accept strange occurrences and recognise them as endings rather than beginnings. The time frame is cleverly sustained throughout and the writing is true to the extraordinary logic of the story. Perhaps this is not quite in the top echelons of fabular contemporary literature (Life of Pi, for instance, is a deeper and more enthralling fable), but it is great fun.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
this was truly a remarkable read with fascinating storyline, hilarious humour in parts, and some of the most colorful characters since shapespear. a real breath of fresh air and a stunning debut from the young up and coming cult authur jacob simons .
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's hard to believe that this is a first novel- Simons has a natural fluency and assuredness that makes you feel as though you are in the hands of a connoisseur in the art of storytelling.
The book has a very unusual premise- the central character travels backwards through life. If you have read Martin Amis' Time's Arrow you will make comparisons- but really these are two very different novels. The function of the hero Monlam's backward journey is to make us question the nature of our relationships: it is an existentialist hall of mirrors which allows the reader to contemplate the human condition more clearly.
Monlam has foreseen what everyone has coming to them, and as a result he lives in a state of confused yet resigned isolation. He wavers between solopsism and massive compassion as he sees a host of mysterious friends and relations dance out their absurd lives. How can he ever really know anybody? Why does nobody understand what he can see so clearly? Why is he unable to be a prophet? He is not blind, as Tiresias is, but he is mute- inexplicably silenced in the face of a tirade of pointlessness.
Yet like any true absurdist, Simons speaks the language of comedy fluently. Monlam's world is populated by painfully odd people: the sham rabbi threatens to steal all the thunder but he is only one of many gems: my particular favourite is the fatally reticent nappy launderer, who is always engulfed in a fug of tobacco smoke, or maybe the lewdly enormous brothel keeper... Simons is satirical and there is a tangibly burlesque cruelty in his depictions but the pathos is always there. We can relate so easily- each character just wants a little happiness, but as Monlam knows, they are not going to get it.
I highly recommend this book- it is simple, lyrical, brutal and ten times more insightful than your average chart topper. Read it and make an investment in your future.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Highly Recommended
I thoroughly enjoyed The Exiled Times of a Tibetan Jew.
Conveying the real essence of this book is extremely hard and, judging by the other reviews, curiously personal. Read more
Conveying the real essence of this book is extremely hard and, judging by the other reviews, curiously personal. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Philip Graves
Next Big Thing
I was lucky enough to get hold of a pre-pub copy of this novel. It blew me away. I'd bet on it becoming the next big thing. Read more
Published on 4 May 2005
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.
