The Angry Island: Hunting the English - Couverture rigide

Gill, A. A.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1416531734 ISBN 13 : 9781416531739

Editeur : Simon & Schuster, 2007

Synopsis

Unusual book

A propos du livre

Revue de presse

'In a series of fascinating essays, Gill reveals there is a swell of suppressed anger in the English . . . Much of it is extremely funny, the reader is left with the queasy question: what if he is right?' (SUNDAY TIMES)

'An entertaining polemic . . . A thought-provoking, some would say overdue, book that challenges the English self-image of genteel reserve' (CHOICE)

'His prose floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee and, just when you least expect it, lands a deft and lethal blow beneath the belt' (Terence Blacker SUNDAY TIMES)

'The author is on typically quick-witted form' (Jim Blackburn WANDERLUST)

'It annoys, arouses feelings and forces one to confront received opinions. Whether one sides with it or not, one can admire the zest of the writing and applaud its splendid lack of political correctness' (Beryl Bainbridge MAIL ON SUNDAY)

'He writes beautifully. His chapter on war memorials should be a set text, his defence of political correctness is bold and true, and he really nails the philosophy of the queue' (Peter Watts TIME OUT)

'He's as much sentimentalist as satirist - listen to him, some time, eulogising stalking in Scotland - and, as everyone knows, he's very, very funny' (GQ)

'The book not only evolves into a surprisingly evocative meditation on England and the English, but it also showcases Mr. Gill's gifts as a writer of rude invective, hyperbolic description and splenetic asides - a writer who seems to have inhaled the prose styles of Auberon Waugh, Clive James and Alexander Theroux and come up with an idiosyncratic voice all his own' (Michiko Kakutani NEW YORK TIMES)

his prose floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee and, just when you least expect it, lands a deft and lethal blow beneath the belt. (Terence Blacker THE SUNDAY TIMES)

the author is on typically quick-witted form. (Jim Blackburn WANDERLUST)

Présentation de l'éditeur

Think of England, and anger hardly springs to mind as its primary national characteristic. Yet in The Angry Island, A. A. Gill argues that, in fact, it is plain old fury that is the wellspring for England's accomplishments.

The default setting of England is anger. The English are naturally, congenitally, collectively and singularly livid much of the time. They're incensed, incandescent, splenetic, prickly, touchy, and fractious. They can be mildly annoyed, really annoyed and, most scarily, not remotely annoyed. They sit apart on their half of a damply disappointing little island, nursing and picking at their irritations. The English itch inside their own skins. They feel foreign in their own country and run naked through their own heads.

Perhaps aware that they're living on top of a keg of fulminating fury, the English have, throughout their history, come up with hundreds of ingenious and bizarre ways to diffuse anger or transform it into something benign. Good manners and queues, cul-de-sacs and garden sheds, and almost every game ever invented from tennis to bridge. They've built things, discovered stuff, made puddings, written hymns and novels, and for people who don't like to talk much, they have come up with the most minutely nuanced and replete language ever spoken -- just so there'll be no misunderstandings.

The Angry Island by turns attacks and praises the English, bringing up numerous points of debate for Anglophiles and anyone who wonders about the origins of national identity. This book hunts down the causes and the results of being the Angry Island.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Simon & Schuster
• Date d'édition: 2007
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1416531734
• ISBN 13: 9781416531739
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 227
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible