The Tree of Life - Hardcover

The Tree of Life

Hardcover. Zustand: Fine. Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Fine. 1st Edition. 3rd printing. 159pp. Finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Bright, clean & tight copy, unread, in FINE condition. "This is a novel about America in its youth. The story takes place in 1811-12 in a frontier settlement in Richland County, Ohio, and it is told by means of the diary kept by Thomas Keene--an educated New Englander tormented by his past. The heart of the narrative is Tom's love for Fanny, a young widow, and his obsession with John Chapman, the half-crazed mystic who became known as Johnny Appleseed. Tom is also bound to Lettiece Shipman, a freed black from Kentucky, in a sexual relationship that degrades them both. [] Tom and his companions are pioneers who learn to survive in the wilderness. They hunt, farm, bear children, and build a community. The drama of daily life is heightened when their Delaware neighbors go on the warpath against them, heeding Tecumseh's command to unify the Indian nations and exterminate whites. [] Tom is not only a terse, powerful diarist but also an artist, whose poems and paintings illuminate the text. His journals reveal every aspect of the American pioneering experience, and Tom's own spiritual journey. In the presence of violence and death, struggling with the dark aspects of sex, he saves himself through art and love. [] In this original and stirring novel, Hugh Nissenson integrates his poetry and painting with his prose to create a dynamic new form. Its immediacy brings Tom, Fanny, Johnny Appleseed--all the characters--directly into our lives, and we, in turn, are plunged into the heart of our American past." [jacket copy] "THE TREE OF LIFE is one of the most powerful, original, and disturbing books I have read in a long time. Hugh Nissenson has caught the voice of the old-time diary keeper just exactly. It's uncanny, marvelous, so direct and deceptively simple that you know what pains he has taken. The book is a work of art and no one who reads it will ever forget it. With a second reading, the impact is even stronger. It's like Picasso, often hard to take, but vivid and unforgettable in a way all its own."--David McCullough. "This small novel works like a laser beam, penetrating the American experience with searing and concentrated intensity."--Los Angeles Times. "It is a tale more moving and haunting than one thinks it can possibly be."--The Village Voice. Pristine hardcover w/brilliant corners & crisp edges, a square & tight binding, wrapped in an intact, handsome jacket featuring art by Thomas Keene (Nissenson). Quite presentable. Artikel-Nr. RUB2896

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