Something New Under the Sun
A Novel
(Sprache: Englisch)
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A novelist discovers the dark side of Hollywood and reckons with ambition, corruption, and environmental collapse in “a darkly satirical reflection of ecological reality” (Time)
...
...
lieferbar
versandkostenfrei
Buch (Kartoniert)
15.30 €
- Lastschrift, Kreditkarte, Paypal, Rechnung
- Kostenlose Rücksendung
Produktdetails
Produktinformationen zu „Something New Under the Sun “
Klappentext zu „Something New Under the Sun “
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A novelist discovers the dark side of Hollywood and reckons with ambition, corruption, and environmental collapse in “a darkly satirical reflection of ecological reality” (Time) LONGLISTED FOR THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Vulture, Thrillist, Literary Hub
“An urgent novel about our very near future, and a deeply addictive pleasure.”—Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies
Novelist Patrick Hamlin has come to Los Angeles to oversee the film adaptation of one of his books and try to impress his wife and daughter back home with this last-ditch attempt at professional success. But California is not as he imagined. Drought, wildfire, and corporate corruption are everywhere, and the company behind a mysterious new brand of synthetic water seems to be at the root of it all. Patrick finds an unlikely partner in Cassidy Carter—the cynical starlet of his film—and the two investigate the sun-scorched city, where they discover the darker side of all that glitters in Hollywood.
Something New Under the Sun is an unmissable novel for our present moment—a bold exploration of environmental catastrophe in the age of alternative facts, and “a ghost story not of the past but of the near future” (The New York Times).
Lese-Probe zu „Something New Under the Sun “
Chapter TwoIn the photographs posted online, the restaurant is enchanting: shady and cool in a land of so much sunlight and bare, exposed skin. In one photo, a close-up of a whole spatch-cocked quail, grilled with preserved kumquat, is set against a colorful salad of shaved fennel, caraway seeds, and smoked juniper berries. The body of the quail is fragile and precise, like a tropical flower. Small crooked wings and glossy drumsticks encircle a vacated center, where the guts have been extracted with the tender skill of a model-airplane hobbyist. Past the tight-focus food, the background is a murk of charcoal grays and moody blues, indistinctly stylish. In another photo, a gray granite bar slopes a mellow S, bordered on one side by a line of gleaming gold-tone Art Nouveau barstools, on the other by a wall of artisanal tequilas reaching all the way up to the vaulted ceiling. At the right side of the image, individual dining tables in dark wood and oiled metal are cast in somber window-light and shadow, like a Vermeer painting of a high-end gastropub. In reality, the place feels like a cave: dark and in-set, with a guillotine of expensive brass lights dangling overhead.
Patrick sits in the corner of a large, steep-backed booth upholstered in cerulean velvet, with two brand-new copies of his novel Elsinore Lane on the table before him. He s tall enough, five foot ten, which is almost six feet, but the booth is designed to make all guests feel small and weak, regardless of their size or body type. The tufted back rises up over his head, culminating in a forward-curving cushion that pushes his head down slightly, forcing him to slouch. On the way here, his rideshare had gotten stuck in traffic, and he had spent most of the trip trying to think of how he d play his tardiness off to Jay Arvid and Brenda Billington, the film s executive producers. Lateness, a sign of irresponsibility, could be transformed into a sign of power under the right
... mehr
circumstances: What if he was late because he had to take an important call from his agent? What if he had traveled farther, say from Malibu or Venice Beach, where he had been meeting with a celebrity film editor that he might want to bring on board? What if he had been on the phone with his family, a diligent and beloved father, handling one of their problems from afar?
But instead he had shown up only a few minutes late to find the restaurant nearly empty, the only people in the dining room the waitstaff and hostess, staring into the bottomless depths of their smartphones, exchanging short, flirtatious jokes that made him feel invisible. It had been forty minutes already, and Patrick was devoting himself, now, to thinking about how he might play off his earliness. What if he, too, had only just arrived a few minutes ago? What if, on entering, they found him immersed in a phone call that he wrapped up, graciously, before greeting them with a strong slap on the back? A half-hug handshake? With a raised hand toward the waiter, he requests another plate of bread and olive oil.
Arvid and Billington arrive, greeted by the mai tre d , the slender hostess, the bread sommelier, and the waitstaff by the door, all wishing them well. It s impossible to see them, but Patrick infers where they are from the direction in which the black-trousered bodies of waiters are turned. He s looking for the face that came up on the image search, a soft-necked man with an angular nose and a gentle chin, but the man who emerges from the throng of restaurant staffers has a more chiseled appearance. His neck has the tanned, sinewy heft of an artisanally crafted hatchet, something sold with its own hand-worked leather carrying case. He reminds Patrick of someone famously good-looking, some interchangeable leading man or a smooth, liquid blend of them all. First he thinks of Gerard Butler, then Edward Norton, then Russell Crowe, thou
But instead he had shown up only a few minutes late to find the restaurant nearly empty, the only people in the dining room the waitstaff and hostess, staring into the bottomless depths of their smartphones, exchanging short, flirtatious jokes that made him feel invisible. It had been forty minutes already, and Patrick was devoting himself, now, to thinking about how he might play off his earliness. What if he, too, had only just arrived a few minutes ago? What if, on entering, they found him immersed in a phone call that he wrapped up, graciously, before greeting them with a strong slap on the back? A half-hug handshake? With a raised hand toward the waiter, he requests another plate of bread and olive oil.
Arvid and Billington arrive, greeted by the mai tre d , the slender hostess, the bread sommelier, and the waitstaff by the door, all wishing them well. It s impossible to see them, but Patrick infers where they are from the direction in which the black-trousered bodies of waiters are turned. He s looking for the face that came up on the image search, a soft-necked man with an angular nose and a gentle chin, but the man who emerges from the throng of restaurant staffers has a more chiseled appearance. His neck has the tanned, sinewy heft of an artisanally crafted hatchet, something sold with its own hand-worked leather carrying case. He reminds Patrick of someone famously good-looking, some interchangeable leading man or a smooth, liquid blend of them all. First he thinks of Gerard Butler, then Edward Norton, then Russell Crowe, thou
... weniger
Autoren-Porträt von Alexandra Kleeman
Alexandra Kleeman
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Alexandra Kleeman
- 2022, 368 Seiten, Maße: 12,8 x 20 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Penguin Random House
- ISBN-10: 1984826328
- ISBN-13: 9781984826329
- Erscheinungsdatum: 29.07.2022
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Kleeman is a visionary writer . . . She s also very funny. These two qualities are shown to great effect here, as she turns her attention to the movie business, our looming climate crisis, corporate malfeasance and the Disney child star system. It s a brilliant, ambitious book. Refinery29With nods to Beckett and Stoppard, Kleeman juxtaposes fiery doom with passages of sharp, absurdist dialogue and a sprinkle of one-liners reminiscent of Fleabag. Instyle
The varieties of emergency ecological, psychological, familial, medical are the half-hidden subject of Kleeman s novel, burning at the periphery of what begins as a modishly detached rollick through Hollywood and its empty promises. . . . It is a ghost story not of the past but of the near future, a ghost story as alarm bell, one hard to leave in the realm of fiction. The New York Times
Kleeman s world is unsettled, but so is ours. And she leans into that unsettledness to create a world that is just a few notches more uncanny than our own, starkly making the absurdity of ours that much more clear. Nylon
Kleeman s great skill, and this novel s abiding triumph, is how seamlessly she blends the horrific with the mundanely troubling, the ridiculous or the impossible with the ordinarily absurd. LA Review of Books
Throughout, Kleeman writes expressively about place and the manifold ways our lives are shaped by our imperiled environment, foregrounding the slow-motion catastrophe of climate change and its attendant anxieties. Vulture
Because this is an Alexandra Kleeman novel, none of it goes where you think it s going to, but it s all so wildly entertaining and beautifully written that it really doesn t matter where you end up. Literary Hub
Written with tremendous verve and flair, Something New Under the Sun is both an urgent novel about our very near future and a deeply addictive pleasure. . . . Kleeman is a phenomenon, one of the most
... mehr
brilliant and gifted writers at work today. Katie Kitamura
Alexandra Kleeman expertly conjures California noir filtered through the ambient and not-so-ambient apocalypse. Emma Cline
A magnificent and stunning novel, by turns hilarious, satirical, moving, and so very, very much what we need in these uncertain times. Jeff VanderMeer
With this novel, Alexandra Kleeman confirms her place as one of the major writers of her generation. Reading it is like looking at a familiar room through warped glass: What you perceive is distorted and unsettling while remaining curiously beautiful. Esmé Weijun Wang
Something New Under the Sun is a richly rendered ecological novel, characterized not only by how it sets the landscape but also by the fact that the landscape is quite often allowed to run the show. Kleeman is at her very best here. This is a book I ll be thinking about for years to come. Kristen Arnett
Readers will be captivated by this intelligent, rip-roaring story. Publishers Weekly
Alexandra Kleeman expertly conjures California noir filtered through the ambient and not-so-ambient apocalypse. Emma Cline
A magnificent and stunning novel, by turns hilarious, satirical, moving, and so very, very much what we need in these uncertain times. Jeff VanderMeer
With this novel, Alexandra Kleeman confirms her place as one of the major writers of her generation. Reading it is like looking at a familiar room through warped glass: What you perceive is distorted and unsettling while remaining curiously beautiful. Esmé Weijun Wang
Something New Under the Sun is a richly rendered ecological novel, characterized not only by how it sets the landscape but also by the fact that the landscape is quite often allowed to run the show. Kleeman is at her very best here. This is a book I ll be thinking about for years to come. Kristen Arnett
Readers will be captivated by this intelligent, rip-roaring story. Publishers Weekly
... weniger
Kommentar zu "Something New Under the Sun"
Schreiben Sie einen Kommentar zu "Something New Under the Sun".
Kommentar verfassen