"There is something both marvelous and hilarious," writes Lawrence Weschler, "in watching the humdrum suddenly take flight. This is, in part, a collection of such launchings." Indeed, the eight essays collected in A Wanderer in the Perfect City do soar into the realm of passion as Weschler profiles people who "were just moseying down the street one day, minding their own business, when suddenly and almost spontaneously, they caught fire, they became obsessed, they became intensely focused and intensely alive." With keen ...
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"There is something both marvelous and hilarious," writes Lawrence Weschler, "in watching the humdrum suddenly take flight. This is, in part, a collection of such launchings." Indeed, the eight essays collected in A Wanderer in the Perfect City do soar into the realm of passion as Weschler profiles people who "were just moseying down the street one day, minding their own business, when suddenly and almost spontaneously, they caught fire, they became obsessed, they became intensely focused and intensely alive." With keen observations and graceful prose, Weschler carries us along as a teacher of rudimentary English from India decides that his destiny is to promote the paintings of an obscure American abstract expressionist; a gifted poker player invents a more exciting version of chess; an avant-garde Russian ???migr??? conductor speaks Latin, exclusively, to his infant daughter; and Art Spiegelman composes Maus . But simple summaries can't do these stories justice: like music, they derive their character from digressions and details, cadence and tone. And like the upwelling of passion Weschler's characters feel, they are better experienced than explained. "Weschler seems so hungry for life that the rest of us become hungry for him . . . a magician, a performer, and a scholar. All in one."--from the Foreword by Pico Iyer "Weschler's essays are exquisitely written--so perfectly and unobtrusively organized that one can't imagine telling them a better way." -- New York Times Book Review "Weschler is the owner of a large dose of novelistic vision, and a particularly poetic set of ears, but . . . as important an endowment as a novelist's eye or a poet's ear is still the journalistic nose which led him down the proverbial alley."-- National Post (Canada) "Weschler is a thoughtful observer and a superb storyteller."-- Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Add this copy of A Wanderer in the Perfect City: Selected Passion Pieces to cart. $5.42, good condition, Sold by Midtown Scholar Bookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Harrisburg, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2006 by University of Chicago Press.
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Good-Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text block, may have remainder mark or previous owner's name-GOOD Standard-sized.
Add this copy of A Wanderer in the Perfect City: Selected Passion Pieces to cart. $9.50, very good condition, Sold by Firefly Bookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Kutztown, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2006 by University of Chicago Press.
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Used Very Good. Front and back covers have very slight edge and corner wear. Spine intact with no creasing or warping. Binding is tight and intact, pages clean and unmarked. In nice, but previously owned condition. Firefly Bookstore sells items online and in our store front. We try to add images and descriptions when we can, but if you need additional information or photos of the books we list, please contact us.
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Add this copy of A Wanderer in the Perfect City Format: Paperback to cart. $18.27, new condition, Sold by Websew Inc rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Avenel, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 2006 by University of Chicago Press.