- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Vintage (1 Aug 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099442582
- ISBN-13: 978-0099442585
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.7 x 2.3 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,790,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'A profound, disturbing and important book' Washington Post; 'They Whisper, Butler's first novel since his Pulitzer prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, is nothing less than a meditation on the spiritual nature of sexuality - its mystical power and its deep connection to death. In this, it is closer to the spirit of Blake than to that of Joyce, though its style is deliberately Joycean. Like all fundamentalists, Ira allows no other god. His incantations have the thythmic repetition of long prayers... And Ira, while singing out his joy in sexual encounters with the prostitutes of Vietnam, or in his erotic tableaux of actual and imagined lovers, embodies that notion of the ecstatic. Real life slips away when Ira contemplates his goddess, who - whatever her shape, race or age - is always Aphrodite' Washington Post
Esquire
‘Remarkable…the most painfully honest depiction of the male heart since Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair’
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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26 reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
One man's desire
2 Mar 2007
Format:Paperback
If you're looking for a great story, you might want to pass on this. If you're someone who can appreciate a book for a writer's command of language, than take the chance. I found the book a beautifully written meditation upon the ever-waxing and waning of one man's desire from that age of ten when he became transfixed by the foot x-ray of Karen Granger through the madness that overtakes his intensely jealous wife, Fiona. For me a very good writer slows down my senses and reminds me to pay attention to all that encompasses moments such as that first glance, that first kiss, that turn of the foot, the first touch, those whispers behind the outward manifestations of desire. "For myself, I'm just trying to understand why my life is so powerfully compelled by soft touching, joined flesh, complex parts of a self unseen." I can't say I loved the book (and there is an element of self-indulgence to it), but I can say this 300 page love letter left me with my senses more attuned to those subtle moments of desire and sensuality that normally get overtaken by life's noisey rush.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
The Writing=5 Stars, The Story? 1 Star
12 April 2008
Format:Hardcover
This is beautifully written. Whether you approve of Ira's point of view about women and sex, I have no doubt from my own life experiences that he speaks the truth from a man's point of view. So I think it can be very illuminating for women who are trying to get how men approach women.
However, as beautifully written as it is, the prose becomes repetitious. Eventually the erotic charge is lost, the desire & longing become predictable and unless you are very patient and committed, you will find yourself skipping long sections.
However, as beautifully written as it is, the prose becomes repetitious. Eventually the erotic charge is lost, the desire & longing become predictable and unless you are very patient and committed, you will find yourself skipping long sections.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Obsessively obsessive?
25 Oct 2000
Format:Paperback
What I admire about the novel is the lyrical intensity of its (often successful) attempt to recreate erotic obsession. What I don't admire is a redundancy of detail and motif that often veers toward monotony. Scenery is well drawn (Southeast Asia, NYC, various rural outposts of the US) and dialogue is generally terse. Though plot is not a dominant element here, being subsidiary to image and tone, it's sometimes a bit formulaic, especially the end. It's worthwhile if you're a patient reader and enjoy psychic/linguistic convolutions.
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