Rate this book

Come Si Vende (2009)

by Clancy Martin(Favorite Author)

3.07 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

8845925277 (ISBN13: 9788845925276)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Adelphi

review 1: Martin is a professor of philosophy, and this novel has a deep philosophical subtext. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it's very interesting. Martin's prose is very clear. Unfortunately, I'm not sure etc... Martin has chosen a fascinating setting for his novel (the jewelery business), and an excellent theme (the way 'sales' infiltrates our everyday lives). Unfortunately, I'm not etc... On the surface, this one had a lot going for it, whether you mean surface figuratively (setting, obvious theme highlighted by the title, general moral seriousness) or literally (great front cover; back cover plumping by Lipsyte ('addictive prose'), Franzen ('greatly original'), Kunkel (has 'the inevitability of a classic'), Shteyngart and Zadie Smith.) But all that surface glitter obscures whatev... moreer depth it was meant to have. Another review tells me that Martin himself worries that he put 'too much speed in the fastball,' that is, hid his philosophical concerns under too much drugs and sex, and that's probably accurate. I had a very tough time discerning much other than the drugs and sex. Martin's worry also explains the novel's occasional 'deep' sections, which have all the subtlety of G. B. Shaw at his most ornery. That said, the theme is a great one, and so is the setting, and you can kind of imagine that he's writing about something more interesting than the idea that people will lie to make money. You can also imagine that there's some connection between the 'love' stories and the fraud stories, although that's a little harder. But, always a but, the novel hews so close to the archetype of contemporary American fiction that it's hard to imagine what Franzen was smoking/reading when he called it greatly original. First person narrator? Check. Unwillingness or inability to grasp the importance and interest of distance between narrator and narrative? Yessir. Weird combination of improbable coincidence, static plot and un-self-consciousness? Absofreakinlutely. Sub-Hemingway prose? Indeed- Martin seems to be unaware that the English language includes the words 'which,' 'who,' 'whom,' or 'that;' that English writing is allowed to use punctuation other than the full stop; or that it is unnecessary, e.g., to stick 'I/she/he said' in the middle of every instance of direct speech. So I imagine this ending up as a fairly dreary period piece in about 15 years, profitable movie rights or no. On the other hand, Martin could end up being our generation's Richard Yates, and go on to write two or three legitimately amazing novels, which will be rediscovered in about 40 or 50 years.
review 2: I was seduced into reading this book johnathan franzen when he wrote the short review that follows. I am not literary enough to get what he got. Enjoyed it but not gaga. Will try another of his must reads now called "hundred brothers"At The Daily Beast, Jonathan Franzen tagged four new novels you shouldn’t miss.One of Franzen's recommendations:How to Sell by Clancy MartinMartin, who in his other life teaches philosophy and writes lucid essays on Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, here channels the voice of a young cokehead selling jewelry for various shady outfits in Fort Worth in the early 1980s. The book has pretty much every strength I could ask for in an American novel: a distinctive and original tone; a first-person voice that’s fully invented, not merely borrowed from the writer’s own voice; great sophistication and authority and daring in its management of narrative chronology and point of view; but, at the same time, a lovely loose feel of riff and improvisation; a subtle but clear engagement with mainstream philosophical debates (e.g., Kierkegaard vs. Nietzsche); but, here again, an admirable lightness in its wearing of its erudition and its wedding of it to a street-wise modern tone; head-on engagement with vital American questions and preoccupations; powerful atmospherics of place and weather and era; vivid thumbnail portraits of eccentric minor characters; fascinating volumes of inside dope about a little-known subculture; great stories-within-stories; an impressive capacity to revel in dirtiness without losing sight of the larger moral picture; a toughness that feels real (i.e., born of pain and hard truth, not donned for an effect); lots and lots of laugh-out-loud gags and throwaway lines; good old-fashioned page-turning urgency, with casually shocking reversals and revelations; and an ending so harrowing it gave me nightmares.Read about the other books on Franzen's list.Learn more about the book and author at the Farrar, Straus and Giroux website and at Clancy Martin's Facebook page.The Page 69 Test: How to Sell.--Marshal Zeringue less

Download links for: Come si vende

Advertising