By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept -

Elizabeth Smart

Vintage

1945

206 páginas

6h 52m

ISBN-13: 9780679738046

Smart was a globe-trotting journalist until she picked up a collection of George Barker's poetry in a London bookshop and decided to fall in love with him. Grand Central , first published in England in 1945, is a poetic prose recreation of her side of the affair, during which she bore him four children and he remained with his wife. Many will be put off by the self-pitying solipsism of this brief work and by its occasional slips into cliche ("Everything flows like the Mississippi"). At best Smart achieves a sort of neurotic, erotic hysteria, and in part 4 she pulls off an astonishing technical feat, counterpointing the Song of Songs with the hideous minutiae that accompany her arrest with Barker in Arizona for an undisclosed crime. However, this cult book will best suit those whose taste runs to the more maundering Romantic poets. Accompanying the novella is its putative sequel, The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals , which wasn't published until 1978. This brief work shifts the emphasis toward the concrete and quotidian. As a result, Smart's more poetical conceits seem forced. Robbed of the central focus that her affair with Barker gives the first novel, Assumption meanders dully.
[Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.]

Resenhas (2)

4.5 (Muito bom)

You almost made me wept / Você quase me fez chorar

4.5 stars. This is one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. While the plot might not appeal to everyone, the author's writing is profound and deeply immersive. I could feel her sorrow, longing, and pain throughout the narrative. I’m surprised I was so complacent with the homewrecker character. Elisabeth challenged my morals and made me fall in love with her writing.

Portuguese:
4,5 estrelas. Este é um dos livros mais belos que já li. Embora a trama possa não agradar a todos, a escrita da autora é profunda e imersiva. Eu pude sentir sua tristeza, anseio e dor ao longo da narrativa. Fiquei surpreso por ter sido tão complacente com o personagem traidor. Elisabeth desafiou minha moralidade e me fez apaixonar pela sua escrita. Gostaria que este livro fosse traduzido para o português em um futuro próximo.