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Mars-Jones Adam
Pilcrow
 DescriptionMeet John Cromer, one of the most unusual heroes in modern fiction. If the minority is always right then John is practically infallible. Growing up disabled and gay in the 1950s, circumstances force John from an early age to develop an intense and vivid internal world. As his character develops, this ability to transcend external circumstance through his own strength of character proves invaluable. Extremely funny and incredibly poignant, this is a major new novel from a writer at the height of his powers.'I'm not sure I can claim to have taken my place in the human alphabet...I'm more like an optional accent or specialised piece of punctuation, hard to track down on the typewriter or computer keyboard...'Customer ReviewsAdam Mars-Jones's PILCROWWonderful --if long-- novel by one of my favorite writers. Insightful on every page, with a great sense of humor about something not funny at all. Highly recommended; this novel needs to be better known in the US. Why a different title here? An uneven but very enjoyable effort This novel was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2008. The narrator, John Cromer, is the first born son of a mildly eccentric Royal Air Force pilot and his neurotic and socially obsessed wife, who is such a beautiful baby that he appears on a magazine cover in post-war Britain. A couple of years later he is tormented by severe joint pains and fever, and is diagnosed with acute rheumatic fever. He is condemned to bed rest, on the advice of his physicians, as no medications are effective in treating this disorder. This inactivity, however, causes his joints to become stiff and immobile, as he actually has Still's disease, a form of juvenile idiopathic arthritis, which leaves him unable to walk, stand or even sit upright. His parents arrange for him to attend a converted hospital for children with Still's disease, where he encounters a stern but loving matron, and several sadistic physiotherapists and nurses. The other patients, mainly girls, appear to be more fortunate than he, as they were diagnosed earlier and given corticosteroids, a new and potentially revolutionary therapy. The long-term effects of treatment later become tragically apparent; despite his greater immobility, John is actually the most fortunate of the group. In later childhood, he is transferred to a school for chronically ill boys, where he undergoes an intellectual and sexual awakening as he enters his pre-teen years. The first 2/3 of this work was elegantly written and a joy to read, with rich descriptions of the life of a chronic child in mid-20th century institutions that were frequently harmful and repressive. Despite these conditions, John manages to get as much fun out of life as he possibly can, and is as mischievous as one would expect from a boy in his situation. For me, the wheels fell off the story after he moved to the new school, and his sexual experiences with his fellow students and his male teachers overshadowed everything else. The story also ended abruptly, as it is supposedly the first book in a trilogy about John Cromer. I'd give 5 stars to the first 1/3 of the book, 4 stars to the middle 1/3, and 2 stars for the last portion.
Lantern Lecture
DescriptionA collection of short stories for which the author was awarded the Somerset Maugham Award. The author's previous books include "The Darker Proof".
Monopolies of Loss
List Price: $3.99 DescriptionA collection of stories which Adam Mars-Jones has written in response to the AIDS crisis. The author's other works include "Lantern Lecture" and "The Parker Proof".Customer Reviewsintriguing subject, poorly servedThe subject matter is dramatic intriguing and full of genuine anguish, but the writing is so overblown and self-satisfied that one has trouble finishing any of the stories here. The author can't keep away from cliches and hackneyed situations and characters and finally you give up expecting anything fresh or any character who doesn't fit a stereotype.
Venus Envy (Counterblasts)
DescriptionThe author focuses on the two "New Man" authors - Martin Amis and Ian McEwan - and examines the contradictions that surround the 1990s male. He argues that these two authors, beset by obsessions about paternity in the post-nuclear age, neatly sum up the way the image of the modern man is distorted to present its more reputable aspects, by hijacking traditional female qualities and championing them as their own. The author sweeps away the distortions he perceives in the writing of Amis and McEwan, and lays bare the concept of masculinity.Mars-Jones Adam News
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Adam Mars-Jones - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adam Mars Jones - Lantern Lecture - AbeBooks
Adam Mars-Jones | guardian.co.uk
Adam Mars-Jones Biography Summary | BookRags.com
glbtq >> literature >> Mars-Jones, Adam |
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First PostBook review: The Children's BookThe Children's Book "contains magnificent things, but readers are entitled to feel short-changed when a family drama slowly turns into a history lesson", said Adam Mars-Jones in the Observer. The characters and the plot are over-loaded with research,