When Howard Barton visits the remote north coast for a vacation, he has no idea what he is getting into. He is robbed by "gluers" - an anarchist group - and locked in an attic. Even when he escapes things don't improve because the entire local community seems to consist of oddballs and lunatics.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The Paper Grail
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Special Offer until June 30, 2013: Receive an additional £5 promotional Gift Certificate, when you trade-in at least £10 worth of books. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
From the Back Cover
Howard Barton comes to the remote northern coast of California in search of a folded scrap of paper rumoured to bear a sketch by the legendary Japanese artist Hokusai. Unfortunately, there are plenty of others in search of the Paper Grail …
Mrs Lamey, who waters her garden with blood, among other strange and noxious substances; the enigmatic Mr Jimmers whose garden shed conceals a bizarre invention designed to raise the dead; Uncle Roy, founder of The Museum of Modern Mysteries and builder of haunted houses.
In Mendocino, nothing is what it first appears … but everything is connected, and Howard will have to work out whose side he’s on, as he is led into o a vicious battle between mysterious underground societies …
“Blaylock is better than anyone else at showing us the magic that secretly animates our world”
TIM POWERS
“Blaylock allows us to see the mundane world through new eyes, to perceive the familiar as strange and therefore fascinating – for what it is as well as for what it might be”
OTHERREALMS
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.1 out of 5 stars
8 reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderfully Offbeat Grail Quest
21 Oct 2001
By Pauline J. Alama
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
The quiet curator of a small museum in California has no idea what he's getting into when he begins a trip to claim a rare Japanese sketch for his museum. He finds himself in the middle of a life-and-death struggle for the Paper Grail, an origami cup with mystical powers over land and water. Blaylock slips adeptly from the everyday to the sublime, pitting unlikely heroes -- failed small businessmen and eccentrics -- against some pretty likely villains of our time: greedy real estate tycoons and cynics who would use the Grail's powers for their own aggrandizement rather than the good of the land. You're more likely to enjoy this beautifully written, highly literate book if you have read a good deal of Arthurian literature and if you're familiar with the Pre-Raphaelite artists of the late Victorian period. Fans of Tim Powers' _Last Call_ should definitely read _Paper Grail_: to judge by the dedications, the two authors were probably trading ideas the whole time they were writing.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favorite books
13 July 2005
By Colin P. Lindsey
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I love James Blaylock and his quirky, fun, bizarre, mysterious and hilarious novels and this one has to be my favorite. In point of fact, I gave this to my wife to read and it instantly became her favorite book as well. Now how often do married people ever agree? That's how good this book is.
Blaylock weaves an enthralling and soothing world that you love to enter and populates it with not-your-normal people; off-kilter and unlikely, yet intensely lovable heroes and comic-opera, bumbling yet really aggravating villains. Nothing quite like him anywhere, although Tim Powers (who is a friend and collaborator in novels sometimes) has a similar voice.
So go get youself this book, give yourself a night off, and have yourself a heck of good time. You'll never regret reading this one!
Blaylock weaves an enthralling and soothing world that you love to enter and populates it with not-your-normal people; off-kilter and unlikely, yet intensely lovable heroes and comic-opera, bumbling yet really aggravating villains. Nothing quite like him anywhere, although Tim Powers (who is a friend and collaborator in novels sometimes) has a similar voice.
So go get youself this book, give yourself a night off, and have yourself a heck of good time. You'll never regret reading this one!
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Makes you want to move to California
10 Feb 2000
By Michael Battaglia
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I've known people who have lived in California and they never said it was anything like this. Perhaps if it was more like Blaylock's books and less like reality (that being earthquakes and mudslides and the constant feeling that the entire state is going to fall into the ocean . . . but darn isn't the weather nice?) I'd want to actually move there. In any event, in the hands of Blaylock the state and the entire coast becomes a magical place full of mystery and mundanity at the same time. Oddball characters strive for a powerful piece of paper while at the same time trying to pay their rent and get a date. All the people in this book are wonderfully strange (if they're the good guys) or bizarrely strange (if they're evil) but it gives the book a certain angle that very few of today have, the constant contrast between what's normal and what's magical and the thin line that separates them is great. It's fantasy that can exist without elves and trolls and stuff and still be epic and be finished in a concise three hundred pages without an entire two thousand year history. It's about real people and real magic and the things that it can make you do. Both good and bad. Simply put, it's for people who want to be entertained while at the same time immerse themselves in a place that's not all that different from where they might live. No matter how normal they're life might seem.
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 8 reviews
4.1 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
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.
