Orfeo - Couverture souple

Powers, Richard

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0393349845 ISBN 13 : 9780393349849

Editeur : W. W. Norton & Company, 2014

Synopsis

This book builds on the strengths of the previous volumes by the same author to provide the most detailed and nuanced account of the man, his politics and his profound influence on Russian politics, foreign policy and society. However, this is not a new edition of the earlier books but is an entirely new work. The focus now is on the dilemmas of power since 2008. There is a brief biographical sketch of Vladimir Putin and much analysis of his ideas and policies, but the book now focuses on the systemic contradictions that have created a blockage on modernisation and a stalemate in politics, Putin's role as Prime Minister since 2008 and his political successes and failures, analysis of the implications of Putin's third term as President and the 2011-12 electoral cycle and the ensuing crisis which led to thousands protesting on the streets This work assesses the achievements and failing of Putin's rule, but above all tries to make sense of contemporary developments. This is the definitive account of Putin and is essential reading for all scholars and students of Russian politics.

A propos du livre

Quatrième de couverture

"If Powers were an American writer of the nineteenth century he'd probably be the Herman Melville of Moby-Dick. His picture is that big," wrote Margaret Atwood (New York Review of Books). Indeed, since his debut in 1985 with Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, Richard Powers has been astonishing readers with novels that are sweeping in range, dazzling in technique, and rich in their explorations of music, art, literature, and technology. In Orfeo, Powers tells the story of a man journeying into his past as he desperately flees the present. Composer Peter Els opens the door one evening to find the police on his doorstep. His home microbiology lab the latest experiment in his lifelong attempt to find music in surprising patterns has aroused the suspicions of Homeland Security. Panicked by the raid, Els turns fugitive. As an Internet-fueled hysteria erupts, Els the "Bioterrorist Bach" pays a final visit to the people he loves, those who shaped his musical journey. Through the help of his ex-wife, his daughter, and his longtime collaborator, Els hatches a plan to turn this disastrous collision with the security state into a work of art that will reawaken its audience to the sounds all around them. The result is a novel that soars in spirit and language by a writer who may be America s most ambitious novelist (Kevin Berger, San Francisco Chronicle)."

Revue de presse

Orfeo has a galloping finale that is sweet, funny, sad and haunting all at once... A formidably intelligent, ecstatically noisy novel --Guardian
Extraordinary and confounding, mind-spinning and wonderful --Independent on Sunday
This is the best novel about classical music that I have read since Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus... There are passages that make you want to run to your stereo --Independent
A virtuoso performance --Sunday Times
A magnificent and moving novel --Los Angeles Times
Powers is prodigiously talented. Besides being fearfully erudite, he writes lyrical prose, has a seductive sense of wonder and is an acute observer of social life... I [picked] it up eagerly each day and [found] myself moist-eyed when I came to its last pages --New York Times
Extraordinary... His evocations of music, let alone lost love, simply soar off the page... Once again, Richard Powers proves himself to be one of our finest novelists --Newsday

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: W. W. Norton & Company
• Date d'édition: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0393349845
• ISBN 13: 9780393349849
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 400