Autor:
Verlag:
Granta Books
Jahr:
2020
Seitenzahl:
286
ISBN:
978184708813
Medium:
Taschenbuch
Sprache:
Englisch
Zustandsbeschreibung
gut, einmal gelesen. Rechte obere Ecke vorne minimal angemackt, ebenso eine kleine Stelle hinten. Leichter Leseknick.
Artikelbeschreibung
(Review taken from theguardian.com)
August, the eponymous hero of Callan Wink’s debut novel, receives his fair share of unwanted advice. Mostly from other men, mostly about women. He does his level best to forget it all and strike out on his own.
Like Wink’s previous stories, August is set in the open expanse of the American midwest. It begins on the family dairy farm and follows characters from his short story “Breatharians” – teenage August, father Darwin, and mother Bonnie. His father wants him to carry on at the farm; his mother wants him to go to college. Young Augie is happy with his job killing stray cats, a dollar a tail.
Violence erupts throughout. While at school August witnesses a near fatal stabbing; while at a party he witnesses a sexual assault. Trying to avoid a fight he runs his friend over with his car. Another friend dies in Iraq. Fed up, August heads west.
He eventually ends up at the Virostok ranch in Montana. All around is sky and silence and August takes solace in his work. He explores the local area alone, hunts alone, fishes alone. Wink has a precise, clear prose style and these quieter moments are finely rendered: he has the hunter’s attentive appreciation of his surroundings. The landscape is a character in itself – well-known, but changeable.
In Montana August is taken under the wing of his boss and his neighbour. Both are happy to dispense advice, such as “One weenie can service many wombs,” or “The sweetest meat is closest to the bone.” August tends to keep his own counsel.
When not bragging about women laid or fish landed the local men are monosyllabic: “I guess”; “probably true,”; “sounds about right”. It’s hamburgers while out and pork chops at home. No one ever eats the salad. There is a touch of black comedy and a shadow of the Southern Gothic and always the threat that restraint will erupt into violence or laughter boil over into rage. Wink skilfully weaves in a subtle sense of foreboding that never leaves.
August ignores most advice but he does learn something about his country, his family and himself. In this tightly controlled yet highly unpredictable novel we discover what it is like to come of age in a part of America that is always changing, always the same.
August, the eponymous hero of Callan Wink’s debut novel, receives his fair share of unwanted advice. Mostly from other men, mostly about women. He does his level best to forget it all and strike out on his own.
Like Wink’s previous stories, August is set in the open expanse of the American midwest. It begins on the family dairy farm and follows characters from his short story “Breatharians” – teenage August, father Darwin, and mother Bonnie. His father wants him to carry on at the farm; his mother wants him to go to college. Young Augie is happy with his job killing stray cats, a dollar a tail.
Violence erupts throughout. While at school August witnesses a near fatal stabbing; while at a party he witnesses a sexual assault. Trying to avoid a fight he runs his friend over with his car. Another friend dies in Iraq. Fed up, August heads west.
He eventually ends up at the Virostok ranch in Montana. All around is sky and silence and August takes solace in his work. He explores the local area alone, hunts alone, fishes alone. Wink has a precise, clear prose style and these quieter moments are finely rendered: he has the hunter’s attentive appreciation of his surroundings. The landscape is a character in itself – well-known, but changeable.
In Montana August is taken under the wing of his boss and his neighbour. Both are happy to dispense advice, such as “One weenie can service many wombs,” or “The sweetest meat is closest to the bone.” August tends to keep his own counsel.
When not bragging about women laid or fish landed the local men are monosyllabic: “I guess”; “probably true,”; “sounds about right”. It’s hamburgers while out and pork chops at home. No one ever eats the salad. There is a touch of black comedy and a shadow of the Southern Gothic and always the threat that restraint will erupt into violence or laughter boil over into rage. Wink skilfully weaves in a subtle sense of foreboding that never leaves.
August ignores most advice but he does learn something about his country, his family and himself. In this tightly controlled yet highly unpredictable novel we discover what it is like to come of age in a part of America that is always changing, always the same.
Schlagworte
k.A.
Kategorie
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