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Product Description
Book Description
Subtitled The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn, this is a self portrait of a passionate girl who needs to write - in this case the story of her teenage years. It is the last novel in the loosely connected sequence of novels which began with Breaktime in 1978.
Product Description
Subtitled 'The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn' this is the story of Cordelia from the time she is 15 until she is 20. She is pregnant and plans to give this account to her daughter on her 16th birthday so that they can share their youth together.She chooses the old and famous Japanese book ' 'The Pillow Book' by Sei Shonagon' as a model in order to include all kinds of things she has already written as well as the episodes and thoughts she has now as she compiles her book.
She tells of her mother (who died when Cordelia was 5) of her father and her aunt Doris (who marry when she is 16), of her love for William Blacklin, the boy with whom she chooses to have her first sex - and with whom she falls deeply in love. She writes about Julie Martin her teacher who helps her spiritually, describes her love affair with an older married man and her terrifying sexual experience with an unbalanced young man who is obsessed with her. The book includes thoughts on being a women, on poetry, music, reading and writing, on being pregnant and finally of her marriage to William.
This Is All is an anthology, written in six 'books' of Cordelia`s adolescent life, by turns funny, poignant, sad, exciting,fascinating ironic and truthful about topics that parents often do not tell their children.It is a richly entertaining and challenging read.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
****SPOILER ALERT****
I don't hate this book because it is badly written. I hate it because it is so beautifully written, or at least the first art is...
*****SPOILER ALERT******
The first part of this book is absolutely fantastic. Cordelia is a funny, clever, headstrong, confident young woman with a hell of a lot going for her. She decides what she wants in life and goes after it. I wish I had been that confident and go-get-em when I was her age.
But as soon as Cordelia's boyfriend leaves for University, the whole thing changes. She gets paranoid, she betrays him with another man, destroys their relationship, she gets kidnapped and raped, and then dies a horrible death.
Why would the author create such a lovable character as Cordelia and give her such a fab life, only to absolutely destroy her??
I don't hate this book because it is badly written. I hate it because it is so beautifully written, or at least the first art is...
*****SPOILER ALERT******
The first part of this book is absolutely fantastic. Cordelia is a funny, clever, headstrong, confident young woman with a hell of a lot going for her. She decides what she wants in life and goes after it. I wish I had been that confident and go-get-em when I was her age.
But as soon as Cordelia's boyfriend leaves for University, the whole thing changes. She gets paranoid, she betrays him with another man, destroys their relationship, she gets kidnapped and raped, and then dies a horrible death.
Why would the author create such a lovable character as Cordelia and give her such a fab life, only to absolutely destroy her??
Format:Paperback
My daughter loves this book so much that she kept on taking it out from the local library... We came to the point where she just had to have her own copy. We found this one on Amazon. It was delivered quickly and in good condition. It was a very convenient purchase from a reliable source!
Format:Paperback
I bought this because I loved Chambers' book: Postcards from No Man's Land and this is supposed to be the end of a series of books of which Postcards was one. I had also read The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, where the idea for this book came from, and was intrigued to see what he would do with it.
In a nutshell it is the story of Cordelia Kenn, in her own words, in which she tells about her life from the age of 15 to the age of 20, and her first love in particular. It sounds simple, it isn't. The book is rich, complex and full of detail. The story is interwoven with excerpts from Cordelia's own pillow book, a kind of diary in which she records impressions, ideas, philosophies and beliefs, and which give the narrative depth, colour and real emotion.
The book is massive, at over 800 pages, split into sections which correspond to key times in Cordelia's life. It is an enormous undertaking.
I thought it was a great book, but at times too complex (i.e. where the pillow book and the narrative events are split down page by page and in which you have to keep changing threads to make sense of the story). I also found Cordelia less than sympathetic at times, although all credit to Chambers as a writer for coming up with such a psychologically believeable and rounded character, not someone just good or bad, but someone who is sometimes compelling and fascinating and other times dammned annoying.
The book has some fantastic twists and turns, particularly towards the end, and I finished it feeling satisfied that it had told me everything I needed to know in a way that seemed real to me. An excellent book for children in their mid to late teens. I would not recommend it to younger children because the sexual content is quite explicit and there are some descriptions of violence in the later sections of the book which I would not be entirely comfortable with a child of say, less than 14 reading.
In a nutshell it is the story of Cordelia Kenn, in her own words, in which she tells about her life from the age of 15 to the age of 20, and her first love in particular. It sounds simple, it isn't. The book is rich, complex and full of detail. The story is interwoven with excerpts from Cordelia's own pillow book, a kind of diary in which she records impressions, ideas, philosophies and beliefs, and which give the narrative depth, colour and real emotion.
The book is massive, at over 800 pages, split into sections which correspond to key times in Cordelia's life. It is an enormous undertaking.
I thought it was a great book, but at times too complex (i.e. where the pillow book and the narrative events are split down page by page and in which you have to keep changing threads to make sense of the story). I also found Cordelia less than sympathetic at times, although all credit to Chambers as a writer for coming up with such a psychologically believeable and rounded character, not someone just good or bad, but someone who is sometimes compelling and fascinating and other times dammned annoying.
The book has some fantastic twists and turns, particularly towards the end, and I finished it feeling satisfied that it had told me everything I needed to know in a way that seemed real to me. An excellent book for children in their mid to late teens. I would not recommend it to younger children because the sexual content is quite explicit and there are some descriptions of violence in the later sections of the book which I would not be entirely comfortable with a child of say, less than 14 reading.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Every now and again, a book reminds me why I love reading
The sheer size of this book may be daunting but every word and every page is worth it.I settled down with this book with the intention of just passing time and ended up spending... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Arbee
AMAZING BOOK
This was such a good book. Arrived really quickly and in such good condition! I love it!
Published on 8 May 2009 by Katrina Donaghy
A beautifully written novel in a unique format
I picked this book up on impulse at Downtown Disney back in 2006 - Virgin have these great stands with books just sitting there looking inviting and asking to be bought. Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2008 by Clare Swindlehurst
The most beautiful book I've ever read.
If I just wrote a plot-line here, almost no one would buy this book. Beacuse, frankly, it's not the plot that's important. Cordelia Kenn is a 16 year old, living in England. Read more
Published on 30 Jan 2007 by Siavahda
It's Good..
Don't be fooled by the many pages of this book. Its a suprisingly easy to get sucked in and carry on reading for hours. Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2006 by RockinRooster
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