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S'està carregant… Born Weird (2012)de Andrew Kaufman
  
Cap No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra.   ) beentsy | Aug 12, 2023 |  Now there's two things you can take from this. One, that there is a critically acclaimed, professional author working in the English language that doesn't know the word 'nauseating'. Two, that there is such an author that does know the word 'nauseating', but for some reason thinks that 'nausea-making' works better. Both options leave me a little queasy. This book is filled with similar bad choices, 'nausea-making' being just one example. The idea of listing them in detail seems like a perverse waste of time, and more than a little cruel. I'll limit myself to a few adjectives: lazy, sentimental, simplistic, awkward, unfunny. Recommendation: smile politely and cross the street to avoid. (  ) ralphpalm | Nov 11, 2019 | It’s a story of the grown children’s quest to gather themselves together to meet their grandmother who they all cynically refer to as the Shark, before the deadline of her own prophetic death. Why must they do this? Because much to what they’ve guessed about themselves, their grandmother reaffirmed their beliefs about being “cursed” with special gifts they each received from her and promises to lift each curse upon her death. Though the premise of the story sounds absurd, its telling is easily readable and entertaining enough for the reader to be drawn into its fantastical plausibility. The Weird Family consists of intelligent, witty, and creative, imaginative siblings, though different in personality, are all bound by the sentimental act of building a model city together as children from cardboard boxes and their vivid imagination—and also by the trauma of an absent father who is tragically killed in a car accident. The five siblings—Richard, is given the ability to keep himself safe; Lucy, is never lost; Abba, never loses hope; Angie, is given the power to forgive anyone, anytime; and Kent, has powerful physical strength in order to defend himself. And while these “gifts” appear as blessings, bound by the absolutism of them, the bearers are hindered and the gifts become a curse. It’s in their quest to search out and gather each sibling to make the deadline to visit their dying grandmother that they’re able to cope and come to terms with not only the bafflement of their individual gifts, but also the mental deterioration of their mother who lives in a janitorial closet in a nursing home, and the mysterious nature of their father’s missing body. To read the rest of my review, you're more than welcome to visit my blog, The Bibliotaphe Closet: http://zaraalexis.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/book-review-born-weird-by-andrew-kauf... Thanks, Zara (  ) ZaraD.Garcia-Alvarez | Jun 6, 2017 | The five siblings of the Weird family have all been given a blursing (should be a blessing but has turned into a curse) by their grandmother when they were born. The blursings give the Weirds particular capabilities or predispositions; Lucy never gets lost, Abba never loses hope, Richard always keeps safe, Kent will win any physical fight, and Angie always forgives.. These have pushed the sibling’s lives in strange directions and the grandmother realises that she can remove these blursings upon her deathbed, which she accurately predicts to be on her birthday. She charges Angie to gather the Weirds together and bring them to her bedside at the moment of her death. What follows is a strange family dysfunctional road trip across Canada and beyond which skirts whimsy and plays with weird. This is a much better novel than the waterproof bible which had put me off his books, but someone I trust a lot recommended this. I’m still not 100% sure I’m a Kauffman fan but I did read this straight after watching Wes Anderson’s latest film and I think that helped put me in the right frame of mind. Overall – Off the wall slice of gentle weirdness ( ) psutto | Mar 12, 2014 | This leads to a riotous journey for the siblings, where they learn all sorts of things about each other and their Weird family and draw closer together in the process. Very amusing, quite surreal, definitely unusual but oh so entertaining! ( ) Glorybe1 | Feb 12, 2014 |
In Andrew Kaufman’s third novel, five siblings with the surname Weird feel they don’t quite fit into the world. The Weirds don’t have the exaggerated strangeness of some of Kaufman’s previous characters, like The Waterproof Bible’s green-skinned, underwater-city resident Aberystwyth. They only feel different. On the occasion of his or her birth, each Weird child is bestowed with a “blursing,” an ostensible blessing that over the course of a lifetime becomes a curse. The blursings don’t give the Weirds superpowers, just particular capabilities or predispositions: Lucy never gets lost, Abba never loses hope, Richard is programmed to keep himself safe from harm, Kent is able to defend himself from all threats, and Angie always forgives. It’s clear Kaufman has buried a lot in his narrative. The specific and repeated noting of addresses, flight and seat numbers, dates, and spans of time suggest a deeper meaning. For a reader not particularly disposed to puzzles or code games, deciphering the significance of these elements is difficult. Other non-numerical mysteries in the narrative – the meanings of overly wordy epitaphs, for example, or clues to the Weird father’s disappearance –require time and attention to appreciate. Figuring these things out are the rewards of repeated readings. Perhaps because of the attention devoted to codes and puzzles (or because of the distraction they create), the novel sometimes feels shallow, especially when it devolves into a plethora of platitudes in its last quarter. Once assembled, the siblings descend upon their mother’s retirement home, where she acts as a sort of oracle. The Shark offers further life lessons at the moment of her death, and each sibling does likewise at the novel’s end. The careful demolition of each blursing is made meaningless by such repetition. Born Weird does not suffer overmuch from these missteps. Spending time with the Weirds is enjoyable, and Kaufman has a gift for quick repartee among his characters. However, it’s ironic that as the siblings get closer to accessing their genuine feelings, the novel begins to pull away from the urgency of real emotion. The Weirds’ motto is “truth isn’t fair,” so why does the book conclude so tidily? Perhaps it’s because this is what fairy tales and children’s books do, and it serves the characters’ inner children to allow them their happy endings. PremisLlistes notables
A family drama unlike any other from the internationally acclaimed author of All My Friends are Superheroes. The Weirds have always been a little peculiar, but not one of them suspected that they'd been cursed by their grandmother. At the moment of their birth Annie Weird gave each of her five grandchildren a special power that she thought was a blessing. Richard, the oldest, always keeps safe; Abba always has hope; Lucy is never lost and Kent can beat anyone in a fight. As for Angie, she always forgives, instantly. But over the years these blessings have proved to be curses and ruined their lives. Now Annie is dying and she has one last task for Angie, her favourite grandchild. Angie has to gather her far-flung brothers and sisters and assemble them in her Grandmother's hospital room so that at the moment of her death, she can lift these blessings turned curses. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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 Google Books — S'està carregant…GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana: (3.62)
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