Oxford Days
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.35 (792 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0945167520 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 269 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-01-04 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"A Touching Memoir" according to Lauren S. Kahn. Paul West is a brilliant novelist but it wasn't easy for him to get into Oxford. When he was finally accepted at one of the less well known colleges he had, well, arrived.This is a touching memoir full of humor and just nice experiences in a world long gone. Oxford still exists of course but the Oxford attended by Paul West exists only in memory. He has, however, put it all down for us in this wonderful book.. Omni-sensual remembering A Customer Oxford Days is a omni-sensual remembering -- of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches of mid-C20th Oxford University. West brings to life some of the people with whom he lived (he is especially good on Edith Sitwell, George Steiner, Warden John Sparrow, and his supervisor F. W. (?Freddy?) Bateson), loved (several girlfriends are introduced, though discretion gets the better part), and laughed (particularly the camaraderie he enjoyed with fellow undergraduates). There is a series of vignettes of supporting cast members (a custodian, a baroness visiting the college, a coll. another great memoir from West A Customer West is one of the most versatile writers I know, as his ever-growing list of both fiction and nonfiction titles show. He's particularly fabulous when recalling in his elegrant and playful prose those events and places he experienced first-hand. This recollection and preservation of his youth defines the moments that will eventually make the great stylist he became. He is a writer and a man extraordinaireand this is a book to be cherished.
The special ethos of Oxford University continues to take hold on award-winning author Paul West. Recreating the ambiance with infinite care-from the ancient scent of colleges to witty interpretations of the Oxford accent-Oxford Days is a literary treasure not only for Oxford alumni but also those who appreciate literature.. His vivid descriptions and rhapsodic language are enhanced by the personality on show. Now a world-renowned writer and acclaimed literary stylist, West illuminates the reader regarding one of the oldest and most venerable universities in the world. Writing with an affectionate smile, West takes you beyond the classroom with vignettes and memories that made his Oxford experience unforgettable
The result is an entertaining and occasionally enlightening read, from its dissection of the Oxford way of speaking ("Are you getting snobby?" West's mother was pressed to ask him after only eight weeks at the school) to its examination of the "cloistered amenity" of Oxford's culture. West's version of a memoir is a veritable feast for fans of his inimitable literary stylings, at once an artfully rendered distillation of the world's most eminent academic institution as only a writer of West's insight and literary prowess might create, as well as a lyric, often humorous recollection of the author's own emerging genius. . West is as adept at rendering the physical Oxford from its architecture to its musty scents as he is in bequeathing its cultural and historic meaning, all the while keenly aware of his own unique place in Oxford's cultural, class and academic milieu. From Publisher