Observatory Mansions : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Observatory Mansions stays with you
Review: A touch of magic realism, the bizarre story of a dysfunctional (to say the least) family of misfits was an exciting read. Gruesome, yet lovely, i read this book a year ago and it has stayed with me. i have read everything from Atonement to Crimson Petal and White since then..loved this weird little book best though. I highly reccomend it!

Rating:
Summary: A strangely compelling book
Review: Although it took me a little while to fall into the rhythm of Carey's somewhat stylized prose, I was glad I stuck with it. By the end of the book, I was completely engrossed by the strange, sad, surreal world of Observatory Mansions. It is so difficult to pull off a narrator with as many flaws and unfavorable qualities as Francis Orme, the protagonist of this tale, but Carey does it, and it is a refreshing and exhilarating thing to read a story from such a unique perspective.

Rating:
Summary: The Rules for Gloves
Review: Carey, Edward
Observatory Mansions
Random House Canada, 2000
356 pages

Somewhere in urban Britain, Observatory Mansions is a tenement which was once an impressive country estate. Over time, the city has not only encroached upon it, but has surrounded it. Now it is a mostly empty, decrepit building waiting for the demolisher's wrecking ball. Meanwhile, however, it is home to Francis Orme and his aged parents, members of the wealthy and respected family once owners of Observatory Mansions and the lands around it.

Converted into an apartment block some time ago, it has never been a desired place for anyone to live except the very needy and the very eccentric, and as it deteriorates, a succession of bizarre characters passes through the place: a woman who has adopted the behaviour of a lost dog, a lascivious porter who hisses and badgers the tenants over misdemeanors against cleanliness, a woman whose real world unfolds behind the TV screen.

Told in the first person by Francis Orme, we learn very quickly that he is probably the most off beat of all the characters. He wears white cotton gloves at all times, is a meticulous collector of memorabilia of love - objects which meant a lot to people, mostly stolen by him - and makes his living busking, standing motionless on an abandoned plinth in the vicinity of Observatory Mansions and moving only to acknowledge coins dropping into his can by blowing soap bubbles at the donors.

Edward Carey is a playwright and freelance illustrator and his drawings of the faces of some of the characters of the "mansion" add to the surreal quality of the text. His narrator, an obsessive/compulsive collector and maker of lists and rules, turns out to be the perfect spokesperson for the people of the world whom time has left behind. I would be hesitant to put a theme to the novel - Carey's first - but I was struck mostly by the struggle for meaning in each characters attempts to survive on a shifting sea they barely recognize.

The dust jacket, incidentally, is wonderfully done. All hand drawn and printed, it is of a piece with the books contents, an achievement only the best book designers can rightfully claim.

****

Rating:
Summary: One of my favourite books in the last few years
Review: Decidedly off-beat story populated by enthrallingly bizarre characters. This book is very human and peculiarly English, or Englishly peculiar. You realize that no matter how impersonal a city becomes, it never stops being a home, and people's eccentricities grow to fill the vestiges of remaining open space.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favourite books in the last few years
Review: Decidedly off-beat story populated by enthrallingly bizarre characters. This book is very human and peculiarly English, or Englishly peculiar. You realize that no matter how impersonal a city becomes, it never stops being a home, and people's eccentricities grow to fill the vestiges of remaining open space.

Rating:
Summary: Kooky guy writes a fantastically kooky book
Review: Great book. Really. And it's not one of those books you have to read a couple pages into to start to like it. It pulls you in right away, seduces you like a 15-yr-old hooker. It's artistic. It's very creative, imaginitive, original. This is a good book to read after you've read a kindof boring one and don't feel like reading for awhile after that. It's completely refreshing. What I like best of all? Edward Carey switches between kinda long sentences and really short, precise and concise sentences. That's art. I know that sounds strange, but man. Some really great stuff in that book. Buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Visit the Mansions
Review: I wanted to curl back up into this book for days after finishing it. The self-contained world Edward Carey creates is so crooked, dusty and credible. One trusts completely what the characters see and experience because one is being guided so kindly by the hand. Think twice the next time you sit next to a myopic albino on the bus; chances are they have a far richer inner life than we tidy commuters.

Rating:
Summary: Wow! Could have read about a thousand more pages of this!
Review: So I happened to pick this book up at work because I was lacking something to read before I went to bed. Lets cut to the chase and say that I didnt make it to bed at the planned hour. I stayed up and read the whole thing in one sitting. It has been a long time since I read such a refreshing, brillant novel. Carey has breathed life into the reclusive world of those possessing the ability to turn their backs on the rest of humanity. Anna Tap enbodies a vision of the outside world that turns their existance upside down. With such memorable characters as Twenty-Dog Woman, Peter Bugg, Porter,Claire Higg, and of course Frances Orme, this novel will stay with you long after you read the last word. Take it from a voracious reader like myself, debut novels dont get much better than this. Bravo Carey! I look forward to future novels.

Rating:
Summary: A Favorite...THE Favorite
Review: This book got me hooked on Edward Carey, and I practically held my breath until he came out with his second, Alva & Irva, which I also strongly recommend. It is an extremely obscure novel, with an innocent but twisted romance that either sex can read about in enjoyment. Everything about it is beautiful. Carey pull all the lunacy out of sanity and magnifies it. I found extreme truth in this book, even through all of the abstractness. Every character is just abosutely FASCINATING, I can't say enough!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Favorite
Review: This book is bursting with twisted humor, and I must say that it is certainly in my top three (although first, second and third are not designated for I am always changing my mind). It is a love story, yes, but I could hardly call it even remotely schmaltzy,although the main character's love for Anna is sort of innocently and naively cute. If you question your own sanity, check this book out. Nearly all of the characters have their own little post-traumatic neurosis, which keeps you wrapped up in the novel's witty juices.