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What Members Thought

Tosh
Oct 30, 2007 rated it really liked it
Shelves: books-bought
A very strange socially elegant short novel that deals with a hawk that sort of observes the world or at the very least this particular world. It sort of reminds me of going to a dinner party and not really knowing anyone - yet you stay too long. The novel had that affect on me, yet I am going to re-read it shortly. Why? My first reading some years ago made me think 'this is really good, why?' So there is an essence of a mystery of it all that pleases my sense of aesthetic. ...more
11 likes ·   · see review
Sean
Dec 02, 2009 rated it really liked it
This is an entertaining novella to read in one sitting. The action takes place in a single afternoon of cocktails, artful mannerisms and controlled, almost blasé, hostility. And in one location: a parlor, of course. So it feels more like a play. It also feels more European in tone, but written by an American. And the setting, also European, mirrors the pampered cocoon lifestyle of the leisure class - a la The Great Gatsby.

The action is observed through the hindsight perspective of a (gay) cynic ...more
 · see review
Stewart
Dec 02, 2007 rated it really liked it
Shelves: united-states, nyrb-classics
"That the novel occurs over such a short period it’s a wonder that Wescott has managed to stretch it out to just over one hundred pages, but the voice he gives to Tower ensures a lazy, measured tone, never hurrying past a scene and recounting it in all its beauty; at times philosophical but always, like a hawk, observant."

Read my full review here. ...more
1 like ·   · see review
Sarah
Oct 26, 2008 rated it liked it
Shelves: animals, read-in-2008, love-the-cover, nyrb
Wonderfully written, and the story is interesting, but failed to enthrall. Terrific cover.
 · see review
John
Jan 05, 2008 rated it really liked it
Kimley
Mar 16, 2008 marked it as to-read
Shelves: 20th-century, american, nyrb
Corey
Jul 30, 2008 rated it really liked it
Kat Warren
Jan 15, 2010 rated it it was amazing
RandomAnthony
May 09, 2010 marked it as to-read
Jon
Jul 07, 2011 rated it really liked it
Shelves: nyrb, american
Odette
Sep 26, 2011 rated it liked it
Matt
Jan 29, 2012 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Laura
May 12, 2012 marked it as to-read
Shelves: nyrb-classics
Andrew
Jul 19, 2012 rated it really liked it
Shelves: nyrb
Jacob
Jul 26, 2012 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: fiction-and-literature, i-own, nyrb, 2014-2015
Jocelyn
Sep 09, 2012 rated it really liked it
Shelves: own, nyrb, 2016
Seán
Oct 30, 2012 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: 2012, brick-city-library, nyrb
Armen
Nov 27, 2012 marked it as to-read
Heather
Oct 26, 2013 marked it as to-read
Shelves: own, nyrb
Matt
Jan 08, 2014 rated it it was amazing
Mark
Feb 20, 2014 marked it as to-read
Giovanna
Feb 24, 2014 marked it as to-read
Shelves: novellas, nyrb
Cynthia
Oct 05, 2014 rated it liked it
Shelves: 2014, nyrb
1 like · 
Janice
Feb 16, 2015 rated it liked it
Shelves: nyrb
Patrick Brown
Nov 19, 2015 marked it as to-read
Liz M
May 17, 2016 marked it as do-not-own
Shelves: nyrb, __to-read
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