Last Words from Montmartre by Qiu Miaojin (2014, Trade Paperback)

Bargain Book Stores (1129283)
99.2% positive Feedback
Price:
US $16.04
Approximately£12.08
+ $10.50 postage
Estimated delivery Fri, 23 May - Fri, 30 May
Returns:
No returns, but backed by the eBay Money Back Guarantee.
Condition:
New
Format: Paperback or Softback. ISBN: 9781590177259. Condition Guide. Item Availability.

About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherNew York Review of Books, Incorporated, T.H.E.
ISBN-101590177258
ISBN-139781590177259
eBay Product ID (ePID)171752441

Product Key Features

Book TitleLast Words from Montmartre
Number of Pages176 Pages
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2014
TopicLgbt / Lesbian, Biographical
GenreFiction
AuthorQiu Miaojin
FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.6 in
Item Weight6.5 Oz
Item Length8 in
Item Width5 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2013-049765
Dewey Edition23
Reviews"Qiu's voice, both colloquial and metaphysical, enchants.... It would be wrong to interpret the book's--or, for that matter, the author's--ultimate surrender to death as a rejection of the richness of life; rather, like Goethe's young Werther, this 'last testament' (an alternative translation of the title) affirms the power of literature." -- Publishers Weekly " Last Words from Montmartre is urgent, ecstatic, unbridled, and breathtakingly intimate. Qiu Miaojin is a writer who truly defies categorization, and this book, her last--part confession, part love letter, part fiction, part memoir, part suicide notes--is a thrilling testament to her original mind and impassioned heart." --Sarah Shun-lien Bynum " Last Words from Montmartre is deeply, soulfully moving in its excruciating revelation of the author's innermost self, which is after all what makes the magic of literature. I felt a secret intimacy with Qiu Miaojin from the first page." --Wang Dan   "Qiu Miaojin...had an exceptional talent. Her voice is assertive, intellectual, witty, lyrical, and intimate. Several years after her death, her works continue to command a huge following." --Tze-lan Deborah Sang   "What makes Kerouac or Salinger timeless is not necessarily literary, but perhaps didactic: the fact that there is wisdom to be found at the fountain of youth, no matter what time one arrives. Of course, there is also a saintliness reserved for those authors who are able to make an interesting life story for themselves, and that order includes Qiu Miaojin." --Bonnie Huie, PEN America blog   "Qiu's unique literary style mingl[es] cerebral, experimental language use, psychological realism, biting social critique through allegory, and a surrealist effect deriving from the use of arrestingly unusual metaphors." --Fran Martin "In  Last Words from Montmartre , selves and emotions hurtle through time and space with terrifying force -- both destructive and productive -- and ecstasy and pain exist in very close proximity." -- FullStop " Last Words from Montmartre  [is] intense, brutal and beautiful. A love letter and a suicide note." -- The Rumblr  "Few writers use the confession and aphorism as purely and effectively as Qiu, whose poetry offers a distinct type of clarity; Last Words from Montmartre achieves a profoundly intimate portrait of an individual whose life unravels before us." --Jenn Mar, Rain Taxi , "Moving in its honest revelation of her innermost self, [which is] after all the magic of literature." --Wang Dan, Chinese Tiananmen dissident and Harvard PhD   "Qiu Miaojin...had an exceptional talent. Her voice is assertive, intellectual, witty, lyrical, and intimate. Several years after her death, her works continue to command a huge following." --Tze-lan Deborah Sang   "What makes Kerouac or Salinger timeless is not necessarily literary, but perhaps didactic: the fact that there is wisdom to be found at the fountain of youth, no matter what time one arrives. Of course, there is also a saintliness reserved for those authors who are able to make an interesting life story for themselves, and that order includes Qiu Miaojin." --Bonnie Huie, PEN America blog   "Qiu's unique literary style mingl[es] cerebral, experimental language use, psychological realism, biting social critique through allegory, and a surrealist effect deriving from the use of arrestingly unusual metaphors." --Fran Martin, "Qiu's voice, both colloquial and metaphysical, enchants.... It would be wrong to interpret the book's--or, for that matter, the author's--ultimate surrender to death as a rejection of the richness of life; rather, like Goethe's young Werther, this 'last testament' (an alternative translation of the title) affirms the power of literature." -- Publishers Weekly " Last Words from Montmartre is urgent, ecstatic, unbridled, and breathtakingly intimate. Qiu Miaojin is a writer who truly defies categorization, and this book, her last--part confession, part love letter, part fiction, part memoir, part suicide notes--is a thrilling testament to her original mind and impassioned heart." --Sarah Shun-lien Bynum " Last Words from Montmartre is deeply, soulfully moving in its excruciating revelation of the author's innermost self, which is after all what makes the magic of literature. I felt a secret intimacy with Qiu Miaojin from the first page." --Wang Dan   "Qiu Miaojin...had an exceptional talent. Her voice is assertive, intellectual, witty, lyrical, and intimate. Several years after her death, her works continue to command a huge following." --Tze-lan Deborah Sang   "What makes Kerouac or Salinger timeless is not necessarily literary, but perhaps didactic: the fact that there is wisdom to be found at the fountain of youth, no matter what time one arrives. Of course, there is also a saintliness reserved for those authors who are able to make an interesting life story for themselves, and that order includes Qiu Miaojin." --Bonnie Huie, PEN America blog   "Qiu's unique literary style mingl[es] cerebral, experimental language use, psychological realism, biting social critique through allegory, and a surrealist effect deriving from the use of arrestingly unusual metaphors." --Fran Martin "In  Last Words from Montmartre , selves and emotions hurtle through time and space with terrifying force -- both destructive and productive -- and ecstasy and pain exist in very close proximity." -- FullStop " Last Words from Montmartre  [is] intense, brutal and beautiful. A love letter and a suicide note." -- The Rumblr , "Qiu's voice, both colloquial and metaphysical, enchants.... It would be wrong to interpret the book's--or, for that matter, the author's--ultimate surrender to death as a rejection of the richness of life; rather, like Goethe's young Werther, this 'last testament' (an alternative translation of the title) affirms the power of literature." -- Publishers Weekly " Last Words from Montmartre is urgent, ecstatic, unbridled, and breathtakingly intimate. Qiu Miaojin is a writer who truly defies categorization, and this book, her last--part confession, part love letter, part fiction, part memoir, part suicide notes--is a thrilling testament to her original mind and impassioned heart." --Sarah Shun-lien Bynum " Last Words from Montmartre is deeply, soulfully moving in its excruciating revelation of the author's innermost self, which is after all what makes the magic of literature. I felt a secret intimacy with Qiu Miaojin from the first page." --Wang Dan   "Qiu Miaojin...had an exceptional talent. Her voice is assertive, intellectual, witty, lyrical, and intimate. Several years after her death, her works continue to command a huge following." --Tze-lan Deborah Sang   "What makes Kerouac or Salinger timeless is not necessarily literary, but perhaps didactic: the fact that there is wisdom to be found at the fountain of youth, no matter what time one arrives. Of course, there is also a saintliness reserved for those authors who are able to make an interesting life story for themselves, and that order includes Qiu Miaojin." --Bonnie Huie, PEN America blog   "Qiu's unique literary style mingl[es] cerebral, experimental language use, psychological realism, biting social critique through allegory, and a surrealist effect deriving from the use of arrestingly unusual metaphors." --Fran Martin "In  Last Words from Montmartre , selves and emotions hurtle through time and space with terrifying force -- both destructive and productive -- and ecstasy and pain exist in very close proximity." -- FullStop
Afterword byHeinrich, Ari Larissa
Dewey Decimal822.914
SynopsisLast Words from Montmartre is a novel in letters that narrates the gradual dissolution of a relationship between two lovers and, ultimately, the complete unraveling of the narrator., An NYRB Classics Original When the pioneering Taiwanese novelist Qiu Miaojin committed suicide in 1995 at age twenty-six, she left behind her unpublished masterpiece, Last Words from Montmartre . Unfolding through a series of letters written by an unnamed narrator, Last Words tells the story of a passionate relationship between two young women-their sexual awakening, their gradual breakup, and the devastating aftermath of their broken love. In a style that veers between extremes, from self-deprecation to pathos, compulsive repetition to rhapsodic musings, reticence to vulnerability, Qiu's genre-bending novel is at once a psychological thriller, a sublime romance, and the author's own suicide note. The letters (which, Qiu tells us, can be read in any order) leap between Paris, Taipei, and Tokyo. They display wrenching insights into what it means to live between cultures, languages, and genders-until the genderless character Zoe appears, and the narrator's spiritual and physical identity is transformed. As powerfully raw and transcendent as Mishima's Confessions of a Mask , Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther , and Theresa Cha's Dictee , to name but a few, Last Words from Montmartre proves Qiu Miaojin to be one of the finest experimentalists and modernist Chinese-language writers of our generation., An NYRB Classics Original When the pioneering Taiwanese novelist Qiu Miaojin committed suicide in 1995 at age twenty-six, she left behind her unpublished masterpiece, Last Words from Montmartre . Unfolding through a series of letters written by an unnamed narrator, Last Words tells the story of a passionate relationship between two young women--their sexual awakening, their gradual breakup, and the devastating aftermath of their broken love. In a style that veers between extremes, from self-deprecation to pathos, compulsive repetition to rhapsodic musings, reticence to vulnerability, Qiu's genre-bending novel is at once a psychological thriller, a sublime romance, and the author's own suicide note. The letters (which, Qiu tells us, can be read in any order) leap between Paris, Taipei, and Tokyo. They display wrenching insights into what it means to live between cultures, languages, and genders--until the genderless character Zo appears, and the narrator's spiritual and physical identity is transformed. As powerfully raw and transcendent as Mishima's Confessions of a Mask , Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther , and Theresa Cha's Dict e , to name but a few, Last Words from Montmartre proves Qiu Miaojin to be one of the finest experimentalists and modernist Chinese-language writers of our generation.
LC Classification NumberPR9470.9.M53L3713

All listings for this product

Buy it now
Any condition
New
Pre-owned
No ratings or reviews yet
Be the first to write a review