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The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy, Cusk, Rachel, Good Book
US $8.06
ApproximatelyS$ 10.33
Condition:
“softcover book light wear to cover and book edges, has some light reader wear.”
Good
A book that has been read but is in good condition. Very minimal damage to the cover including scuff marks, but no holes or tears. The dust jacket for hard covers may not be included. Binding has minimal wear. The majority of pages are undamaged with minimal creasing or tearing, minimal pencil underlining of text, no highlighting of text, no writing in margins. No missing pages.
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Located in: Georgetown, Colorado, United States
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Estimated between Thu, 28 Aug and Wed, 3 Sep to 94104
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eBay item number:187496519024
Item specifics
- Condition
- Good
- Seller Notes
- “softcover book light wear to cover and book edges, has some light reader wear.”
- ISBN
- 9780312429652
About this product
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Picador
ISBN-10
0312429657
ISBN-13
9780312429652
eBay Product ID (ePID)
111067617
Product Key Features
Book Title
Last Supper : a Summer in Italy
Number of Pages
256 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2010
Topic
Women Authors, Europe / Italy, Personal Memoirs, Customs & Traditions, History / Renaissance, European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
Illustrator
Yes
Genre
Literary Criticism, Art, Travel, Social Science, Biography & Autobiography
Format
Trade Paperback
Dimensions
Item Height
0.6 in
Item Weight
8.5 Oz
Item Length
8.5 in
Item Width
5.5 in
Additional Product Features
Intended Audience
Trade
TitleLeading
The
Reviews
[Cusk] writes with the intelligence, wit, and keen eye for detail demanded by any kind of reporting., Engaging. . . 'The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy' is not your typical rosemary-scented, ready-for-cable ode to renovating a rustic house and rubbing shoulders with jolly peasants. A very talented novelist and observer, Cusk has a knack for drilling down into the thick of things and finding strangeness in even the most ordinary experiences.. . . The author approaches everything she sees through the prism of history and literature, allowing herself to be captivated by her surroundings even while she is trying desperately to detach herself from the tourists all around. Cusk may hate tourists -- her descriptions of them are usually hilarious and sometimes cruel--but she makes a passionate, sharp-tongued tour guide in this book about fleeing the ordinary in search of something beautiful., "A fascinating inquiry into expectations and our desire to rigidly control our lives." -Susan Salter Reynolds,Los Angeles Times"Cusk knows how to write vibrant prose. She also has a keen eye that notes the small yet crucial details that recreate the look of a fresco, the shimmer on water, the color of truffle paste. . . . Stunning."-Tony Lewis,The Providence Journal "[Cusk] writes with the intelligence, wit, and keen eye for detail demanded by any kind of reporting." -The New Yorker "Cusk has an amazing ability to strike to the heart of things, to look afresh and not to overlook, which is suited to this journey into other-ness. . . . Cusk's sections on art, as she follows the Piero della Francesca trail or explores the museums of Florence and Naples, are lively, ardent, and suffused with generous empathy."-Justine Jordan, The Guardian(UK) "Exquisite prose." -Amanda Heller,The Boston Globe "[A] fine, exultant book . . . Praise be . . . for novelist Rachel Cusk, who brings to her three-month sojourn in Italy a characteristic strangeness and charm." -Olivia Laing,The Observer(London) "Elegantly written and astutely observed . . . Cusk's assessments of art are wonderfully idiosyncratic . . . Rigorous and compelling." -Kirkus Reviews "A writer of almost electrifying intensity . . . [Cusk's] rigorous intellect is always at play, whether she's writing about a tomato or a tomb, and it is this very archness, this passion, that gives her beautiful, moving book such power. Indeed, her detailed examination of the tiny nuances that embroider family life gives her account of her Italian summer the kind of luminosity she seeks, and finds, in visual art." -Hilary Fannin,The Irish Times "Cusk is often bracing and rigorous, . . . applying her phrases like the brushstrokes of the masters she so admires. This is the finest memoir of Italy I have read since-twenty years ago more or less-Jonathan Keates'Italian Journeysmade Italy suddenly seem irresistible and present in all its dimensions. Cusk makes Italy sing." -Tom Adair,The Scotsman "The traumatic juxtaposition of sublime paintings and tourist tat inspires Cusk to writing that will sit honourably in an anthology with Byron and Forster . . . Travel writing about Italy might be an oversubscribed genre, butThe Last Suppermore than earns its place at the table." -Celia Brayfield,The Times(London), Elegantly written and astutely observed . . . Cusk's assessments of art are wonderfully idiosyncratic . . . Rigorous and compelling., A writer of almost electrifying intensity . . . [Cusk's] rigorous intellect is always at play, whether she's writing about a tomato or a tomb, and it is this very archness, this passion, that gives her beautiful, moving book such power. Indeed, her detailed examination of the tiny nuances that embroider family life gives her account of her Italian summer the kind of luminosity she seeks, and finds, in visual art., What Cusk does not learn, and doesn't need to learn, is how to write. As always in her work, there is a scattering of archaisms ('commence,' 'venture,' 'outlay') that sometimes gives the prose an archness verging on the pretentious, but the intensity of her gaze can also give rise to descriptions of beauty and precision. Alert to nuance, she will catch the 'blanched severity' in a face, the sadness 'that you see in the eyes of people who were unhappy children,' the self-consciousness of an American honeymooner with 'the faux-heroic look of a Kennedy.' And her descriptions of Italian food--pizza 'like a smiling face' that 'assuages the fear of complexity,' dough 'as pliant and soothing' as a mother's breast--are pure joy., "A fascinating inquiry into expectations and our desire to rigidly control our lives." Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times "Cusk knows how to write vibrant prose. She also has a keen eye that notes the small yet crucial details that recreate the look of a fresco, the shimmer on water, the color of truffle paste. . . . Stunning."Tony Lewis, The Providence Journal "[Cusk] writes with the intelligence, wit, and keen eye for detail demanded by any kind of reporting." The New Yorker "Cusk has an amazing ability to strike to the heart of things, to look afresh and not to overlook, which is suited to this journey into other-ness. . . . Cusk's sections on art, as she follows the Piero della Francesca trail or explores the museums of Florence and Naples, are lively, ardent, and suffused with generous empathy." Justine Jordan , The Guardian (UK) "Exquisite prose." Amanda Heller, The Boston Globe "[A] fine, exultant book . . . Praise be . . . for novelist Rachel Cusk, who brings to her three-month sojourn in Italy a characteristic strangeness and charm." Olivia Laing, The Observer (London) "Elegantly written and astutely observed . . . Cusk's assessments of art are wonderfully idiosyncratic . . . Rigorous and compelling." Kirkus Reviews "A writer of almost electrifying intensity . . . [Cusk's] rigorous intellect is always at play, whether she's writing about a tomato or a tomb, and it is this very archness, this passion, that gives her beautiful, moving book such power. Indeed, her detailed examination of the tiny nuances that embroider family life gives her account of her Italian summer the kind of luminosity she seeks, and finds, in visual art." Hilary Fannin, The Irish Times "Cusk is often bracing and rigorous, . . . applying her phrases like the brushstrokes of the masters she so admires. This is the finest memoir of Italy I have read sincetwenty years ago more or lessJonathan Keates' Italian Journeys made Italy suddenly seem irresistible and present in all its dimensions. Cusk makes Italy sing." Tom Adair, The Scotsman "The traumatic juxtaposition of sublime paintings and tourist tat inspires Cusk to writing that will sit honourably in an anthology with Byron and Forster . . . Travel writing about Italy might be an oversubscribed genre, but The Last Supper more than earns its place at the table." Celia Brayfield, The Times (London), The traumatic juxtaposition of sublime paintings and tourist tat inspires Cusk to writing that will sit honourably in an anthology with Byron and Forster . . . Travel writing about Italy might be an oversubscribed genre, but The Last Supper more than earns its place at the table., "[A] fine, exultant book . . . Praise be . . . for novelist Rachel Cusk, who brings to her three-month sojourn in Italy a characteristic strangeness and charm." -Olivia Laing,The Observer(London) "Elegantly written and astutely observed . . . Cusk's assessments of art are wonderfully idiosyncratic . . . Rigorous and compelling." -Kirkus Reviews "A writer of almost electrifying intensity . . . [Cusk's] rigorous intellect is always at play, whether she's writing about a tomato or a tomb, and it is this very archness, this passion, that gives her beautiful, moving book such power. Indeed, her detailed examination of the tiny nuances that embroider family life gives her account of her Italian summer the kind of luminosity she seeks, and finds, in visual art." -Hilary Fannin,The Irish Times "Cusk is often bracing and rigorous, . . . applying her phrases like the brushstrokes of the masters she so admires. This is the finest memoir of Italy I have read since-twenty years ago more or less-Jonathan Keates'Italian Journeysmade Italy suddenly seem irresistible and present in all its dimensions. Cusk makes Italy sing." -Tom Adair,The Scotsman "The traumatic juxtaposition of sublime paintings and tourist tat inspires Cusk to writing that will sit honourably in an anthology with Byron and Forster . . . Travel writing about Italy might be an oversubscribed genre, butThe Last Suppermore than earns its place at the table." -Celia Brayfield,The Times(London) "[Cusk] writes with the intelligence, wit, and keen eye for detail demanded by any kind of reporting." -The New Yorker, [Cusk]'s got guts . . . The traumatic juxtaposition of sublime paintings and tourist tat inspires Cusk to writing that will sit honourably in an anthology with Byron and Forster . . . Travel writing about Italy might be an oversubscribed genre, but The Last Supper more than earns its place at the table., There's a reason for the unrelenting stream of literature about moving to Italy--it's everyone's fantasy. Cusk details her family's three-month tour of the country in this delightful romp through rented villas, Amalfi beaches and plenty of pasta and gelato., Unlike day-tripping tourists, the thoughtful visitor doesn't know in advance what will seize her attention. A basket of bread and tomatoes, a Raphael Madonna, a storm that breaks with terrible beauty over the Ligurian coast, the progressively gothic hostelries through which the travelers wend their way home: All are fleetingly illumined by Cusk's exquisite prose, though none more hauntingly than the predawn English countryside, "like a sleeping baby . . . somehow new and unmarked,'' from which they set off for their summer abroad., Charming, restless, idiosyncratic hybrid of classic family road trip and probing personal essay where the roadside attractions include Pompeii, the Basilica of Saint Francis and Etruscan tombs, and the big questions on aesthetics and truth and human nature that such sites elicit are smartly explored . . . improvisatory and sensual., British novelist Rachel Cusk's The Last Supper is a perceptive account of the pleasures and perils that resulted from uprooting her family from England to the Italian countryside for a winter, Cusk is often bracing and rigorous, . . . applying her phrases like the brushstrokes of the masters she so admires. This is the finest memoir of Italy I have read since--twenty years ago more or less--Jonathan Keates' Italian Journeys made Italy suddenly seem irresistible and present in all its dimensions. Cusk makes Italy sing., Cusk takes us from Tuscany and Umbria south to Naples and Capri, writing throughout in the present tense, which makes the journey more immediate, and in the minimalist shorthand of a Raymond Carver short story: 'The fireflies scatter in drifts, like embers'; 'There is a bang at the door: It is a man.' There are several nice takes on food, history and landscape, and splendid observations on artists, as when she writes of Cimabue, that 'he restored to the painted human form its softness and mortality, its animal nature and the grandeur of its emotion., Each sentence is crisply perfect, binding brilliantly detailed descriptions to sensitive, sharp observations., [A] fine, exultant book . . . Praise be . . . for novelist Rachel Cusk, who brings to her three-month sojourn in Italy a characteristic strangeness and charm.
Dewey Edition
22
Dewey Decimal
945
Synopsis
A vivid and elegant account of a family's season abroad by one of our finest contemporary authors Casting off a northern winter and an orderly life, a family decides to sell everything and go to Italy to search for art and its meanings, for freedom from routine, for a different path into the future. The award-winning writer Rachel Cusk describes a three-month journey around the Italy of Raphael and rented villas, of the Piero della Francesca trail and the tourist furnace of Amalfi, of soccer and the simple glories of pasta and gelato. With her husband and two children, Cusk uncovers the mystery of a foreign language, the perils and pleasures of unbelonging, and the startling thrill of discovery -- at once historic and intimate. Both sharp and humane in its exploration of the desire to travel and to escape, of art and its inspirations, of beauty and ugliness, and of the challenge of balancing domestic life with creativity, The Last Supper is an astonishing memoir., A memoir set in Italy, from the author of THE COUNTRY LIFE and ARLINGTON PARK, about one woman's conflict between the intense, solitary pleasures of art and the rigors of commitment to a family.
Item description from the seller
Seller feedback (7,173)
- g***c (2744)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseGood transaction!!! Good book
- k***b (1094)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseNICE BOOK!!!!
- a***s (12478)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseI'm very disappointed with this seller! The sent me a book that had water damage. It wasn't listed correctly. I filed for a return and they took all of the 5 days allotted to approve. I shipped it back and they didn't issue a refund when the book arrived. eBay finally had to get involved and issue the refund. Really terrible customer service...never even heard from the seller. I wouldn't order from this vendor again.