25 used & new from £0.01
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Beautiful Children
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Beautiful Children (Paperback)

by Charles Bock (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Available from these sellers.


11 new from £0.01 14 used from £0.01
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover £14.99 £12.74 36 used & new from £0.01
Paperback (Reprint) 24 used & new from £1.65

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Lush Life

Lush Life

by Richard Price
3.4 out of 5 stars (14)  £5.76
A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil

A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil

by Christopher Brookmyre
3.9 out of 5 stars (39)  £5.37
2666

2666

by Roberto Bolano
3.7 out of 5 stars (49)  £4.74
American Rust

American Rust

by Philipp Meyer
3.9 out of 5 stars (42)  £7.78
The Good Thief

The Good Thief

by Hannah Tinti
3.6 out of 5 stars (9)  £5.99
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 432 pages
  • Publisher: John Murray (8 Jan 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0719596300
  • ISBN-13: 978-0719596308
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 212,866 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review

Ravishing and raw...What should be said of the results of his labors? One word: bravo! As corruptly compelling as Vegas, and as beautiful as the illusions its characters cling to for survival... -- The New York Times Book Review His ability to share a deep understanding of America ... gives the book a whiff of greatness -- Washington Post 'It's wholly original - dirty, fast and hypnotic.' -- Esquire Magazine Has great energy and some lovely writing. Bears comparison to Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections or Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe novels. -- Sydney Morning Herald The brilliant sentence-on-sentence prose gives the book its power an impressive novel -- The London Paper 'Beautiful Children careens from the seedy to the beautiful, the domestic to the epic, all with huge and exacting heart.' -- Jonathan Safran Foer 'It is stunning, near genius. Beautiful Children is brutal, erotic and like a wild potentially dangerous rideit could crash at any moment. The language has a rhythm wholly its owna nervous kind of be-bob. It is as though Bock saved up everything for this momenta major new talent.' -- A. M. Homes 'Beautiful Children is a fucking mind-blower! It is so good practically every sentence shines. You've got a sensation on your hands.' -- Sean Wilsey, author of Oh The Glory Of It All 'Beautiful Children is one of the finest first novels I have ever read. Brilliant, simmering, erotic, this dark adventure takes the world apart and offers it to you, piece by heart-stopping piece.' -- Allison Smith, author of Name all the Animals Rich and compelling -- LA Times

Esquire

'It's wholly original - dirty, fast and hypnotic.'
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Product Description

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Beautiful Children
89% buy the item featured on this page:
Beautiful Children 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
The White Tiger
4% buy
The White Tiger 3.7 out of 5 stars (151)
£3.99
His Illegal Self
3% buy
His Illegal Self 3.0 out of 5 stars (6)
£5.09
Notes from an Exhibition
3% buy
Notes from an Exhibition 3.8 out of 5 stars (119)
£5.00
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars What happens in Vegas, 21 May 2008
By Dr. Cath L. Murphy "drcath" (Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Beautiful Children (Hardcover)
If you like TC Boyle, if the stories of Raymond Carver strike a chord, then Beautiful Children is for you. The story is set in Las Vegas, the throbbing heart of America's lie about itself: that life is a game that can be played and won. It's a downbeat tale, centering on the disappearance of a twelve year old boy, the struggle of his parents to deal with the disaster, the events that led up to it, but most importantly, the connections between this and a carefully selected cast of others, the flotsam and jetsam that wash up on Vegas's grimy shores, or who strive to make a living there and not be overwhelmed by the brutal realities of a city whose sole purpose is to entertain.

Bock says in his afterword that the book took a long time to write. All of that effort shows on the page. There are a lot of words, but they all need to be there. It's rare that I don't become impatient with a story, flipping to the end to get the resolution without having to wade through the author's attempts to keep me engaged. Beautiful Children is one of those rare exceptions. OK, I did weaken and turn to the back at one point, but the story is so well put together, that cheating didn't work. I had to go back and read the rest to find out why things end up the way they do. I like that about a book.

There are a few niggles. Newell, the lost boy, is twelve when he vanishes. I felt he should have been a year older, or more mature, for the logic behind his disappearance to really work. The story of one character, a low rent comic book artist, loses momentum and trails away in the middle section of the book. As he represents the "tourist" in Bock's tarot array of types, his perspective is needed all the way through, to keep us remembering that there is a world outside the oasis of casinos. The lives of the teenage runaways seem a little too gruesome to be true (but I've never been one, so what would I know?).

But these are just niggles. It's not for hopeless romantics. It's not for those who like tidy endings with sunsets. It's not for those who think the porn industry is good clean fun. Beautiful Children is for those of us who like to be provoked, to be invited to draw connections and to ponder the improbabilities of the world.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject










i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.