Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously

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An Exercise Self-Study

Tear-jerker of a read

Read it whether you ski or not

a mortal's perspective on endurance sport

For the armchair athlete; Competitors need not apply

Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously
Bill McKibben
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Essays | Miscellaneous | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Sports | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0452282705
Release Date: 2001-10-30

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At the age of 37, bestselling author and journalist Bill McKibben stepped out of the ordinary routine of his life to spend a year in "real training" as a cross-country skier. With the help of a trainer-slash-guru, McKibben took on a regimen equivalent to that of an Olympic endurance athlete's, running and skiing for hours every day in preparation for a series of grueling long-distance ski races. What prompted this successful writer with an admitted aversion to competitive sports to push himself so hard, for so long?

Partly it was pure selfishness; after a decade as an environmental writer and activist, I needed a break from failing to save the world. But mostly it was curiosity that drove me. By year's end I hoped I'd have more sense of what life lived through the body felt like.

If Long Distance begins as a story about the transformation of the body and what it means to challenge one's physical limits, it evolves into a thoughtful lesson about a wholly different kind of endurance. Halfway through McKibben's training, his father was diagnosed with the most virulent form of brain cancer. As McKibben was reaching peak condition, his father's life lurched toward an end, forcing McKibben to snap out of his self-inflicted self-absorption. He had tried to think of endurance as "the ability to fight through the drama of pain. But now I understood it, too, as a kind of elegance, a lightness that could only come from such deep comfort with yourself that you began to forget about yourself." And the elegance of Long Distance is in its ultimate lesson that each of us has a mind, a body, and a spirit, and we must find our strength in all three realms. --Svenja Soldovieri

Book Description

From the author of the groundbreaking book The End of Nature, a "wry, wise, thought-provoking book about what it takes-and what it means-to endure for the long haul." (Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air)

Bill McKibben was thirty-seven when he decided to put himself to the ultimate test: training to become a competitive cross-country skier. Taking a year out of his life, the celebrated environmental writer and journalist began a rigorous fitness program followed by world-class athletes and Olympic hopefuls. McKibben's year of living strenuously would culminate in a series of long-distance races-including a major ski event in Norway.

Along the way, he learns to cope with his physical limitations and discovers something about the real meaning of endurance when his father is diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor.

Both an action-packed memoir and a moving and inspiring meditation on what it means to endure, Long Distance tells the story of a man at midlife who pushes his body and soul to the breaking point. Written with the author's trademark humor and honesty, it offers insight into conquering fear, overcoming obstacles, and achieving balance in our lives. It is "a wonderful book-funny, humane, inspiring." (Bill Bryson, author of A Walk in the Woods)

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The bestselling author of The End of Nature and Hundred-Dollar Holiday presents a provocative, unconventional book: approaching middle age and never much of an athlete, he trains to be a world-class skier and learns some unexpected lessons about his body -- and life. A celebrated essayist, journalist, and author, Bill McKibben is renowned as an original thinker. Here, writing with his trademark honesty and insight, he documents his year as an impostor of sorts in the demanding world of competitive skiing. The result is a fascinating portrait of a man in mid-life pushing his body and soul to the breaking point. McKibben decided, in his late thirties, that the time had come to really test his body. Cross-country skiing his challenge of choice, he lived the fantasy of many amateur athletes and trained -- with the help of a coach/guru -- nearly full time, putting in hours and miles typical of an Olympic athlete. McKibben's year would culminate in a series of long-distance, grueling cross-country races as he experienced his body's rhythms and possibilities like never before. But the year also brought tragedy to McKibben and his family as his father developed an illness that would eventually cause his death. Forcing a further exploration of both body and spirit, this illness transforms McKibben's action-packed memoir into a moving account of two men coming to terms with the limits of the flesh. Long Distance will appeal to athletes of all types -- from the casual health-club member to the world-class competitor -- and to anyone seeking physical or spiritual renewal.

Customer Reviews:

An Exercise Self-Study.......2007-08-23

This book reports on a year-long exploration of the effects of strenuous exercise. Prior to the study described in this book, McKibben had considered himself endowed with no more than average physical ability. He was in his late-30s, in decent shape, but had never been a competitive athlete. He was curious about the natural physical limits of his body, and decided if he were ever going to discover what those limits were, he needed to act soon, before middle age took its toll. In this book, McKibben relates his experiences while training and competing in his first long distance ski races. At the same time he was monitoring the changes in his own body as he improved his physical conditioning, he was observing the rapid decline of his father's body as he succumbed to a fatal illness.

In the book, McKibben provides some interesting details about the science of athletic training, but as he discovers, the more interesting part of the journey is the spiritual aspect. From the outset, McKibben is aware that his chances of becoming a world-class athlete are practically nil, just as his father's chances of surviving brain cancer are practically zero. In such circumstances, what matters is not the final outcome, but one's attitude in facing the inevitable. The book is not meant as an athletic training guide, but rather a description of the mental conditioning one must master in order to successfully negotiate any long-term challenge.

Tear-jerker of a read.......2005-06-14

I guess they say real men don't cry, but this book really tests you. It's written from the first-person perspective about a guy's yearlong effort to get in shape through cross-country skiing, and also to enjoy his relationship with his father during the latter's long bout with terminal cancer.

Because I enjoy all kinds of outdoor activity (I cycle toured around Australia not too long ago!), I was initially attracted to the book by the sports angle. From that perspective, the book was great. Having down-hill skied since the age of 5 I'm not overly versed about the world of cross-country skiing, but the author delves into different kinds of techniques, skis, waxes, and other equipment, as well as the underlying physiology in a detailed way that shed some light on the sport that I never got riding the lifts. Additionally, I definitely enjoyed gaining greater insight into the subculture (Did you know that the major event in the sport is called the "Birkebeiner"?)

What I didn't expect at first was such an emotionally gripping book about family relations during serious illnesses. The author describes the gradual decline of his father's health, and the toll that takes on the whole family. There are some really nice passages where you recognize the moments that all of us enjoy with our families, but the not-so-fun moments are part of the reality portrayed, too. By the end, I was glad for having read this book, because it was a lot more than just a journal of a year spent skiing.

Read it whether you ski or not.......2005-02-07

Bill McKibben does a fabulous job of writing about his experience trying to be a better person. He learns, and shares with us, that it is more than just a physical challenge, its an emotional and interpersonal one as well. Beautifully written.

a mortal's perspective on endurance sport.......2003-08-18

Using a casual tone, the author allows the non-elite athlete to vicariously live the "what-if" scenario we all think of -- what if I REALLY trained...? A good, casual read that offers no answers, but plenty to think about.

For the armchair athlete; Competitors need not apply.......2002-08-04

This book is disappointing. It purports to chronicle a year of high performance endurance training for a not quite elite athlete. It also, surprisingly, chronicles his father's death from cancer. Neither topic has anything much to do with the science and psychology of world class level compeition in endurance sports. There is no training data, only anecdote; there is no bibliography, but many references to other books which sound like they are better; there are almost no racing experiences in this book - believe it or not, the author only races 8 times in a year. (Why doesn't he enter a few running races in the skiing off season or during the snow drought he whines about ad nauseam?) If nothing else, this book demonstrates that training without competitive drive equates to zero racing results. (If his point is that serious training can only augment genetic capabilities in small ways, serious athletes already know that.) This is really a personal account of the loneliness of the long distance runner - why does the author train for 2-4 hours a day if he isn't really a racer? I don't know what he is looking for, but he is never going to find it on a race course of any kind.

Book Description

Nitrogen fixation by leguminous plants is especially important when farmers are trying to minimize fertilizer use for cost or environmental reasons. This second edition of the highly successful book, first published in 1991, contains thoroughly updated and revised material on the theory and practice of nitrogen fixation in tropical cropping systems. The significant research advances in the last ten years on both a fundamental and applied level are covered, including those relating to the classification and description of N2-fixing bacteria and symbioses and the processes of N2-fixation.

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NITROGEN FIXATION WITH NON LEGUMES
Hegazi
Manufacturer: AUC Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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Nitrogen Fixation with Non-Legumes (Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences)

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Nitrogen Fixation with Non-Legumes (Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences)

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Nitrogen Fixation with Non-Legumes (Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences)

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ASIN: 0792348737
Release Date: 2007-03-30

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Book Description

Explore Hanoi's unique fusion of Asian and French cultures, discover its temple and pagodas, savour its tastes, or simply stroll the bustling streets with this comprehensive guide to Vietnam's capital.

special sections on the Temple of Literature and Walking the Old Quarter
restaurant and accommodation listings for all tastes and budgets
handy Vietnamese language section
excursions to the Perfumed Pagoda and Halong Bay
detailed full-colour city maps

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A Thorough Thoughtful Guide to a Charming City.......2000-07-04

Hanoi is one of my favorite cities in Vietnam and this compact guide will serve you well as you navigate its colorful streets. It contains 193 pages of up to date information on transportation, where to stay, day trips and other excursions as well as all the things Lonely Planet readers have come to expect. Maps, glossary of terms, language and more. Also of great use in a country which is so "foreign" to us is a section on etiquette, history and religion. Food in Vietnam is unbelievably good and the Guide includes an excellent section explaining some of the types and variety of dishes and eating etiquette. And, of course, a comprehensive listing of restaurants separated by type. Highly recommended.

Lonely Planet Hanoi & Halong Bay Encounter

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Lonely Planet Hanoi & Halong Bay Encounter
Tom Downs
Manufacturer: Lonely Planet Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Asia | Travel | Subjects | Books

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What Will Your Hanoi & Halong Bay Encounter Be?

...dodging motorbikes and food vendors in the maze of the Old Quarter (p40)
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...bargaining for silks, ceramics and art 'til you're blue in the face (p132)
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Discover Twice the City in Half the Time...

...full-color pull-out map and detailed neighborhood maps make navigation easy
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Developed after a meeting at the Santa Fe Institute on extinction modeling, this book comments critically on the various modeling approaches. In the last decade or so, scientists have started to examine a new approach to the patterns of evolution and extinction in the fossil record. This approach may be called "statistical paleontology," since it looks at large-scale patterns in the record and attempts to understand and model their average statistical features, rather than their detailed structure. Examples of the patterns these studies examine are the distribution of the sizes of mass extinction events over time, the distribution of species lifetimes, or the apparent increase in the number of species alive over the last half a billion years. In attempting to model these patterns, researchers have drawn on ideas not only from paleontology, but from evolutionary biology, ecology, physics, and applied mathematics, including fitness landscapes, competitive exclusion, interaction matrices, and self-organized criticality. A self-contained review of work in this field.

Experimental study of heat regimes on a dry, partially or completely wetted and liquid filled catalyst particle [An article from: Chemical Engineering Journal]

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Experimental study of heat regimes on a dry, partially or completely wetted and liquid filled catalyst particle [An article from: Chemical Engineering Journal]
V.A. Kirillov , A.V. Kulikov , N.A. Kuzin , and Shigarov
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B000RQZ3AE

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Chemical Engineering Journal, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Steady-state and dynamic-heat regimes on the dry, partially wetted, and completely filled catalyst particles were studied using the model reactions of benzene, @a-methylstyrene and octene hydrogenation over the several catalysts with different porous structures, apparent catalytic activities, and heat conductivities. A rise in the particle temperature at the external limitation regime was studied and the effective diffusion coefficients of limiting species were determined. The regime of particle preheating, gas temperature, hydrogen saturation of AMS or octene vapors, and the liquid mass flow rate on the top of a catalyst particle were varied. The phase equilibrium between the vapor saturated hydrogen and the partially wetted catalyst particle is found to essentially affect for dynamic runaway of the particle. According to the measured center and surface temperatures of each particle, there are two significantly different steady states in the range of liquid flow rates. A catalyst wetted by liquid and blown off with dry hydrogen provides a temperature hysteresis phenomenon. This phenomenon is characterized by the regime when the catalyst particle is almost liquid filled and its temperature is lower than that of gas. Another high-temperature regime occurs if a catalyst particle is almost dry and its temperature is higher than that of gas. Ignition and extinction dynamics of the catalyst particle were studied under conditions of the combined evaporation and hydrogenation processes.

Impact of non-linearities in density dependence beyond the range of the data on predicting population extinction risk

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Impact of non-linearities in density dependence beyond the range of the data on predicting population extinction risk
D.F. Staples , and M.L. Taper
Manufacturer: Copyright (c) 2006 Elsevier GmbH
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000HDZDXE

Impact of non-linearities in density dependence beyond the range of the data on predicting population extinction risk [An article from: Journal for Nature Conservation]

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Impact of non-linearities in density dependence beyond the range of the data on predicting population extinction risk [An article from: Journal for Nature Conservation]
D.F. Staples , and M.L. Taper
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000PA9SV2

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This digital document is a journal article from Journal for Nature Conservation, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Population viability analysis (PVA) is often used to predict performance of a population in the future. However, a potential bias in PVA exists when population dynamics are predicted for unobserved population densities. The Allee effect, a change in density dependence at low population densities, is one such factor that can have profound effects on PVA. In contrast to the Allee effect, we explore potential effects of a change in density dependence dynamics at unobserved high densities. As a heuristic example, we parameterised a stochastic Ricker model to a time series of Oncorhynchus clarki. In simulations with the model, the majority of extinctions were directly from population densities higher than observed in the data. To explore the potential consequence of a regulation mechanism affecting the population only at high densities, we placed a reflecting upper bound in simulations of the Ricker model as fit to the data. The upper bound prevented the population from attaining unrealistically high densities that directly resulted in extinction leading to a decrease in the probability of extinction and an increase in the expected time to extinction. This demonstrates a possible error in PVA when population models are used for predictions at high, unobserved densities.

Modeling extinction: density-dependent changes in the variance of population growth rates. : An article from: Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences

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Modeling extinction: density-dependent changes in the variance of population growth rates. : An article from: Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences
Thomas E., Jr. Heering , and David H. Reed
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2005. The length of the article is 7847 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Modeling extinction: density-dependent changes in the variance of population growth rates.
Author: Thomas E., Jr. Heering
Publication: Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Page: 183(12)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Modeling the dynamics of natural rotifer populations: Phase-parametric analysis [An article from: Ecological Complexity]

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Modeling the dynamics of natural rotifer populations: Phase-parametric analysis [An article from: Ecological Complexity]
F. Berezovskaya , G. Karev , and T.W. Snell
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000RR6J38

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Ecological Complexity, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
A model of the dynamics of natural rotifer populations is described as a discrete non-linear map depending on three parameters, which reflect characteristics of the population and environment. Model dynamics and their change by variation of these parameters were investigated by methods of bifurcation theory. A phase-parametric portrait of the model was constructed and domains of population persistence (stable equilibrium, periodic and a-periodic oscillations of population size) as well as population extinction were identified and investigated. The criteria for population persistence and approaches to determining critical parameter values are described. The results identify parameter values that lead to population extinction under various environmental conditions. They further illustrate that the likelihood of extinction can be substantially increased by small changes in environmental quality, which shifts populations into new dynamical regimes.

Specific leaf area and nitrogen distribution in New Zealand forests: Species independently respond to intercepted light [An article from: Forest Ecology and Management]

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Specific leaf area and nitrogen distribution in New Zealand forests: Species independently respond to intercepted light [An article from: Forest Ecology and Management]
Joseph.D. White , and Neal.A. Scott
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000RR9WWI

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Forest Ecology and Management, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The foliage of five forested sites across a climatic gradient on the South Island of New Zealand were studied to assess whether the distribution of specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf nitrogen (N) were due to the light environment or intrinsic species characteristics. Within both mixed and single species stands, SLA and N were correlated with relative light interception (@t) but varied greatly. For N, this variation was reduced by expressing N values as relative site N (N/maximum site N) that increased correspondence between N and ln(@t) across sites (r^2=0.79). However, comparison of mixed species composition to a monoculture stands showed difference in the N-@t especially in stands with high species richness. The nitrogen extinction coefficient (k"N) was estimated for canopies based on profiles of measured projected leaf area indices (PLAI) and leaf N, with an average value of 0.17+/-0.06 indicating a conservative relationship between N and @t in these forests. Site maximum leaf N is correlated positively with annual incident irradiance further corroborating the N and light relationship as well as providing a potential mechanism for estimating canopy N over larger areas.

The vertical distribution of aerosol over Europe-synthesis of one year of EARLINET aerosol lidar measurements and aerosol transport modeling with LMDzT-INCA [An article from: Atmospheric Environment]

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The vertical distribution of aerosol over Europe-synthesis of one year of EARLINET aerosol lidar measurements and aerosol transport modeling with LMDzT-INCA [An article from: Atmospheric Environment]
S. Guibert , V. Matthias , M. Schulz , and J. Bosenberg
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Incan | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000RR4HW8

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Atmospheric Environment, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Aerosol extinction vertical profiles measured with Raman lidar in the framework of EARLINET in 2000 are compared to profiles modeled by a general circulation model, LMDzT-INCA, at seven stations in Europe. Comparisons based on individual profiles show moderate correlation between model and data. Averaging aerosol extinction values on larger temporal or spatial scales improves the comparison. Furthermore, we show that the model succeeds to reproduce the mean annual aerosol distribution over Europe. Comparisons of the aerosol vertical distribution in two distinct regions of Europe are presented. For the northern stations, the observed yearly average aerosol extinction coefficient vertical profile and the modeled one show an average bias of 22%. For the southern stations the mean bias is slightly higher (29%). Both model and lidar show different extinction profiles in different parts of Europe, with higher values in upper heights in the South. According to modeled profiles of each aerosol component, this is caused by the presence of dust at altitudes between 2 and 6km. In addition vertical mixing in the South seems to be more effective for the other aerosol components.

A comparison of the effectiveness of film and script symbolic modeling in the vicarious extinction of young childrens'fear of dogs

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A comparison of the effectiveness of film and script symbolic modeling in the vicarious extinction of young childrens'fear of dogs
Linda Meyer Winzeler
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Full-scale fire modeling tests of a compact rapid response foam and dry chemical powder dispensing system (AD-A061 090)

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Full-scale fire modeling tests of a compact rapid response foam and dry chemical powder dispensing system (AD-A061 090)
George B Geyer
Manufacturer: available through the National Technical Information Service
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006X359O

Book Description

Soft matter and biological systems pose many challenges for theoretical, experimental and computational research. From the computational point of view, these many-body systems cover variations in relevant time and length scales over many orders of magnitude. Indeed, the macroscopic properties of materials and complex fluids are ultimately to be deduced from the dynamics of the microsopic, molecular level. In these lectures, internationally renowned experts offer a tutorial presentation of novel approaches for bridging these space and time scales in realistic simulations. This volume addresses graduate students and nonspecialist researchers from related areas seeking a high-level but accessible introduction to the state of the art in soft matter simulations.

Book Description

This book provides the mathematical background required for the study of fractal topics. It deals with integration in the modern sense and with mathematical probability. The emphasis is on the particular results that aid the discussion of fractals. The book follows on Edgar's Measure, Topology, and Fractal Geometry. With exercises throughout the text, it is ideal for beginning graduate students both in the classroom setting and for self-study.

Integral, Probability, and Fractal Measures

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Integral, Probability, and Fractal Measures
Gerald A. Edgar
Manufacturer: Springer Verlag 01/1//1998
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Vaque and unimaginative, in a shallow way

Life is a dream

Life is a dream

One way to quiet one's ghosts

An incredible journey throug Lisbon and authors Unconcius

Requiem: A Hallucination
Antonio Tabucchi
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0811215172

Book Description

A private meeting, chance encounters, and a mysterious tour of Lisbon, in this brilliant homage to Fernando Pessoa.

In this enchanting and evocative novel, Antonio Tabucchi takes the reader on a dream-like trip to Portugal, a country he is deeply attached to. He spent many years there as director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Lisbon. He even wrote Requiem in Portuguese; it had to be translated into Italian for publication in his native Italy.

Requiem's narrator has an appointment to meet someone on a quay by the Tagus at twelve. But, it turns out, not twelve noon, twelve midnight, so he has a long time to while away. As the day unfolds, he has many encounters—a young junky, a taxi driver who is not familiar with the streets, several waiters, a gypsy, a cemetery keeper, the mysterious Isabel, an accordionist, in all almost two dozen people both real and illusionary. Finally he meets The Guest, the ghost of the long dead great poet Fernando Pessoa. Part travelog, part autobiography, part fiction, and even a bit of a cookbook, Requiem becomes an homage to a country and its people, and a farewell to the past as the narrator lays claim to a literary forebear who, like himself, is an evasive and many-sided personality.

Customer Reviews:

Vaque and unimaginative, in a shallow way.......2002-02-02

"Requiem" is Antonio Tabucchi's praise for Lisbon. It describes the journey of one man through the Portugalise city, where he meets some people, dead and alive, in the otherwise deserted city.

The peculiarity of the character is the fact that he has lost his superego, with the consequences of his id, the subconscious fludding his contious mind, hence makim him live in a sort of dreamworld. And from that world come the dead of his past.

The book is slightly semi-artistic, and it's message is left to be speculated about. And even if the basic premise of the story is intriquing, it fails to measure up to the potential it contains.

A short, nice read, wich doesn't offer anything to think about.

Life is a dream.......2001-12-09

The lightness of Tabucchi's Requiem makes it a very easy book to like. It helps to be at least a little bit familiar with the Portugese poet and author Fernando Pessoa who is the figure Tabucchi is to meet. The novella is very short (107 pages but lots of chapters so lots of white space and big print) and really more on the amusing than philosophical side. The little conversations read like little asides but soon one realizes that is what the book is, a little aside. There are some amusing references made about modern literature that could very well apply to the book we are reading and also a very interesting reference to a story written that later came true(a kind of mini meditation on how fact and fiction mimic each other or follow the same laws, the same could be said for life and dreams) but the book purposely stays on the surface of things. Food is the real center of the book. That is the most substantial and sustaining ritual at the heart of life, at least that apsect of life that is most real it seems to Tabucchi. So the books pages pass, each meeting a chance for conversations and most of the conversations are just small talk. Kind of like life. It is clear the events are all dreamed and so Tabucchi is free to talk to both friends and relations living and dead. But they say the same kinds of things to each other in the dream world that they did in real life. And the dream world is little different than the real world. That is the charm of the book. Life is a dream, so eat.

Life is a dream.......2001-12-09

One way to quiet one's ghosts.......2000-08-09

Requiem: A Hallucination is a book in which the narrator is obviously a persona of the author. The action takes place within a single day - the action being a dream, an hallucination of the narrator. The narrator is introduced as he is annoyed that the person he is to meet has missed their appointment at 12 noon - only to realize that 12 to a ghost is more likely midnight. The person he is to meet is not explicitly identified but is most likely the poet Pessoa.

The narrative then covers the time until the midnight meeting. In this time the narrator meets a drug addict in the park, a seller of lottery tickets, a gypsy who reads his fortune, a dead friend, a madame of an unsavory hotel, his deceased father, a barkeeper, a painter of details from the Temptation of St. Anthony, a lighthouse keeper's wife who is caretaker for a house in which he once lived, a former lover, a seller of stories, and finally the intended guest. Along the way one gathers recipes, literary history, a bit of philosophy ...

I highly recommend this book; it is an excellent text to first encounter Tabucchi.

An incredible journey throug Lisbon and authors Unconcius.......1998-06-23

This book suplies a very rich mix of portuguese culture, Lisbon City and a strugle of a narator to find meanings in his subconcient. The author takes the reader in a journey thoug Lisbon and at the same time in a journey to his memories, doubts and feelings, meeting people from his past, and characters that represent parts of him self, like the "seller of stories". All of wich is seasoned by the narrators love of the food of Portugal. Finally he gets to confront some realy important characters in his unconcient and ends up arguing whiht who we can supose to be Fernando Pessoa -a poet- or Sigmund Freud -a Psychiatrist- Reading this book gives me the feeling that the best things in life are the simple things, not meaning that all the rest must not be dealt with. If you like stories abuot the inside world of characters, you wil ask yourself how could so much be put in few pages, and at the same time be a special 'travel giude` to Lisbon.

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