Female Ruins: A Novel
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- Synopsis
- &“An elegantly constructed and often funny story about a man, a woman and . . . &‘the greatest modern English architect never to have built a building&’&” (The New York Times Book Review). Geoff Nicholson&’s novel tells the story of Christopher Howell, a cult architect who allegedly built just one building, and the search for that fabled building―reputedly a wild, willful amalgam of styles ranging from eleventh-century Norman to twentieth-century Neutra. Ingeniously built into the narrative are bits of Howell&’s essays that celebrate the idea of the &“Cardboard House&” and the architecture of impermanence. When Howell&’s daughter—and keeper of his flame—Kelly, and a Howell groupie named Jack Dexter hook up in a free-falling love affair, the search for this apocryphal building becomes a search for a lost past. Brilliantly funny and seriously obsessive, Female Ruins shows how the castles we build are often symbols of our own needs, follies, and magnificent obsessions. &“A meditative tale of a physical and psychological homecoming that builds its quiet and riveting plot through the dreams, achievements and theories of a dead architect with a mysterious legacy. . . . Nicholson eschews the sarcastic bite of his earlier books (such as Whitbread-nominee Bleeding London), unraveling a complex, subtle story with equally intricate and modulated characters. This restraint, which artfully leads the reader to the poignant yet satisfying denouement, gives the novel special appeal.&” —Publishers Weekly &“With his two protagonists, Nicholson has created believably flawed human beings, and if they sometimes come off as mouthpieces for architectural theory, it is a forgivable sin in an otherwise enjoyable novel.&” —Booklist
- Copyright:
- 2000
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- Book Size:
- 228 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9781468305371
- Related ISBNs:
- 9781585670369
- Publisher:
- ABRAMS, Inc.
- Date of Addition:
- 12/17/24
- Copyrighted By:
- Geoff Nicholson
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- Literature and Fiction, Humor
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.