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The Fermata
 
 

The Fermata (Paperback)

by Nicholson Baker (Author)
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (5 Jan 1995)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099286718
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099286714
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.4 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 106,705 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #2 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > B > Baker, Nicholson

Product Description

Literary Review

'The funniest book about sex ever written' --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.


Product Description

A story about sexual fantasy in which the main character, Arno Strine, a temporary typist, has mastered the technique of freezing time so that he can undress women. Nicholson Baker is the author of "Vox".

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Fermata
74% buy the item featured on this page:
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£5.99
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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (5)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.3 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars If you're not easily shocked..., 3 Jul 2001
By A Customer
It's true that this book contains extremely descriptive sexual passages and is certainly not for the faint-hearted. But call me smutty; I enjoyed it enormously - the dirty bits and the rest. I find it intruiging that on the one hand, Baker, a big, red-faced, blustery middle-aged bear of a man turns out books like this (and Vox, the book Monica Lewinsky gave Bill Clinton to excite his intrest), and then puts out scholarly items like his defence of paper-based library systems - and they're all equally readable. A remarkable book, based on a daring, schoolboy fantasy. Read it when you're alone though, or you'll go scarlet-faced.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Provocative account of a different form of time abuse, 19 Dec 1999
I bought this novel on the strength of a reference to it in James Gleick's recent book: "Faster: The acceleration of just about everything". Gleick dissects our changing attitude - particularly in the last decade - towards time. He examines how there never seems to be enough time to get things done, how we feel dissatisfied when we feel we are not making the most of our time.

In the Fermata, Arno Strine is lucky enough to have the power to stop the planet, to "explore the instant", and the idea is certainly imaginative and interesting. Yet his time-halting powers are used solely for selfish, sexual and often, masturbatory pleasures. On this level, the book is funny, highly charged and erotic.

Yet you can't help feeling that there is something empty and missing from the novel. For me, it loses two stars simply because Baker's fails to explore issues of "the abuse of time" in more depth. He doesn't allow his character to exploit his powers positively (unlike in the film, Groundhog Day, in which the central role, Phil played by Bill Murray, managed to emerge from different circumstances as a better human being).

With the Fermata, you just get the feeling that the time-stopping idea provides Baker with the opportunity to write a pornographic account, which despite the Blurb on the cover, does at times come over as very misogynist and unsettling.

Nevertheless, The Fermata is provocative - you find yourself questioning how you would apply Arno Strine's power if you had it. It's just a shame Baker doesn't do this himself within the context of the story.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Orifice-boggling pornathon from the geek's geek, 14 April 1999
By A Customer
Baker's earlier outings, The Mezzanine and Vox, just hinted at the porn-script writer scrambling to escape the bounds of the popular fiction imagination. Flick to the dirty bits in The Fermata and you'll be left with little. But what a little it is - I mean, what would you do if you could switch time on and off at will? Save babies from the path of oncoming trucks? Avert international crises? Maybe for a couple of days. Then you'd be peeping down people's pants just like Baker's anti-hero. You might not like all of what you read (note: I suspect the chances of this are higher if you're female) but if you've ever fantasised about anything, you'll love most of it.

Whatever you feel about The Fermata (and let's face it, double-ended dildos aren't the subject of much contemporary fiction outside of 'specialist' booksellers) don't let it cloud your opinion of Bakers back catalogue - U and I, for example is an erudite examination of Baker's personal and literary relationship with John Updike, whilst the Mezzanine is a thoughtful, hilarious and heavily annotated trawl through the minutae of a pen pusher's day.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Weird
It was ranked as one of the funniest sex books written but for me I foun d it difficult to get into and not the slightest bit funny
Published 8 months ago by Mr. Hugh Allen

2.0 out of 5 stars A waste of a good idea
Baker takes an interesting and amusing concept - the ability to stop time - and squanders it. Whilst one doesn't necessarily expect high minded intellectual moral quests, the lead... Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars The rudest book my wife has read.
If you're not aroused by this, you're unarousable. Clever, pacey, and very horny.
I bet no one who read it didn't try at least once to see if they could stop time! Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2002 by Owen Boyd(owen@merrill.demon.c...

5.0 out of 5 stars A compellingly good read.
I just love this book. It is clever, funny, erotic, thought-provoking and well thought-out. Those who carp about the 'hero' not becoming a better person or the author breaking his... Read more
Published on 14 Dec 2001 by david@museum2uk.com

2.0 out of 5 stars Stop the world, I want to get off.
Baker's book introduces us to Arno Strine, a morally ambiguous hero who is blessed with the ability to stop time in it's tracks and go about his business without interruption from... Read more
Published on 10 Oct 2001

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your time
Not a very good or enjoyable book. The idea of being able to stop time so that you are free to act as you please whilst everybody and everything around is frozen has been... Read more
Published on 15 Aug 2000

4.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful and disturbing novel.
Nicholson Bakers' novel is an impressive investigation of sexual politics. Despite extremely graphic sexual content, the book is intensely literary. Read more
Published on 16 April 2000

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting idea, creepy story
Unlike his earlier book, Vox, in which the characters are human and likeable, Nicholson Baker has created a self-centred and vaguely sinister character in Arno Strine. Read more
Published on 17 Oct 1999

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