Adèle: A Novel
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.19 (698 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0393045471 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-06-25 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
That's so Perils of Pauline," one protests. Throughout this novel of lascivious twists and turns, Flanagan stays several steps ahead of her crusaders and makes the grotesque moving. This child, Adele, uniquely agile and undeniably oversexed, becomes an obsession for the doctor, his sister, and, it seems, half of brothel-going Paris. Sound broad, and unlikely? Mary Flanagan more than mitigates this possibility by making her knowing perpetrators well aware of their outlandish situation: "Oh please, darling. Though some readers will be revolted by Adele, more will be surprisingly touched. . Sylvester, the girl's protector, turns out to be vile, proprietary, and far too interested in fashionable notions of eugenics (it is 1936). Is she retard
A strange novel with strange characters A Customer The characters Blanche, her brother Jonas, and the unexplainable Adele are interesting, but the author never gives us much.What exactly was Adele? And what caused her to be whatever it was, that she was?What experiments DID Jonas perform? What did he learn about Adele? And what is the connection between Marcel and Adele?Adele's story is a sad one, as is Blanche's.The author never comveys any true compassionate for Adele or Blanche, although they are plainly badly treated.There is no understanding on the author's part regarding Adele. The author seems to regard her as no more than a creature, a freak--a. Fascinating concept; disappointing execution Anne-Marie A. The mystery surrounding Adele's mesmerizing sexuality and the decadent secrets of 1930s Paris drew me to this book. Despite witnessing the passions and fears of the book's characters including one of two protagonists, Celia (museum-robbing, sleuthing magazine publisher), the reader never gets to know why these people act as they do. Adele should perhaps remain a mystery, but the fascination behind Celia's relentless search should have been explored. On the other hand, Blanche (Adele's captor/slave/lover) is as fully fleshed as Celia should have been.Overall, I thought that for such sensual (often grote. "Enthusiastic sadomasochism" according to Eileen G.. Skillful narrative, amazing events; hideousness and beauty; attention to sexual (and historical) details, gruesome and original plot. But there's a chilly lack of heart in this novel which all the brains and visual effects in the world can't fix. One of the characters, Blanche, says of her brother, "His eyes revealed more than the usual contempt common to his kind of Englishman () pure hatred." Flanagan's meticulous emotionless descriptions almost seem like a form of cruelty.On second thought, is that the point? Puzzling.
When Sylvester brings over sister Blanche to look after Adele, he is not prepared for the love between them nor their escape from him. Fifty years before, Adele had been rescued from Bez by Dr. The effects of the revelation are shatteringAdele's erotic power extends beyond the grave, melding past and present into a single reality. He brought her to Paris where she captured the city's attention with her alluring beauty and air of secrecy. Joined by her friend Martin, a filmmaker, and American academic Tamara, she flees to Bez in southern France to escape detection and to pursue the trail of the beguiling Adele. Moving between Blanche's life with Adele and Celia's search for clues into that life, the stories converge in Bez where the three friends discover Blanche's existence and Adele's true, if unbelievable, identity. He takes his revenge. Jonas Sylvester. The mystery of Adele infuses this erotic novel, which starts in decadent 1930s Paris and ends in today's brash London. Celia Pippet, founder of a feminist magazine, impulsively steals a bizarre artifact from the British Museum. A provocative and original novel by an accomplished literary writer who steps beyond the boundaries of what we know as male and female.