Get a Life

A Novel

Fiction & Literature, Literary
Cover of the book Get a Life by Nadine Gordimer, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Nadine Gordimer ISBN: 9780374707415
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: May 15, 2007
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Language: English
Author: Nadine Gordimer
ISBN: 9780374707415
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: May 15, 2007
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English

A young man's treatment for cancer inspires profound changes in his family.

Paul Bannerman, an ecologist in South Africa, believes he understands the trajectory of his life, with the usual markers of vocation and marriage. But when he's diagnosed with thyroid cancer and, after surgery, prescribed treatment that will leave him radioactive, for a period a danger to others, he begins to question, as Auden wrote, "what Authority gives / existence its surprise."

In the garden of his childhood home, where his businessman father, Adrian, and prominent civil rights lawyer mother, Lyndsay, take him in to protect his wife and child from radiation, he enters an unthinkable existence and another kind of illumination: the contradiction between the values of his work and those of his wife, Benni, an ad agency executive. His mother is transformed by the strange state of her son's existence to face her own past. Meanwhile, projects to build a nuclear reactor and drain vital wetlands preoccupy Paul as if he were at work. By the time he is cured, both families have been changed. On his return to his home and career, his parents go to Mexico to fulfill the archaeological vocation Adrian sacrificed to support his family. The consequence of this trip is the final surprise in this extraordinary exploration of passionate individual existences.

"This novel begins superbly and ends wonderfully, and in between there are passages of high intelligence, not without Gordimer's signature asperity.” -- Ward Just, The Washington Post Book World

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A young man's treatment for cancer inspires profound changes in his family.

Paul Bannerman, an ecologist in South Africa, believes he understands the trajectory of his life, with the usual markers of vocation and marriage. But when he's diagnosed with thyroid cancer and, after surgery, prescribed treatment that will leave him radioactive, for a period a danger to others, he begins to question, as Auden wrote, "what Authority gives / existence its surprise."

In the garden of his childhood home, where his businessman father, Adrian, and prominent civil rights lawyer mother, Lyndsay, take him in to protect his wife and child from radiation, he enters an unthinkable existence and another kind of illumination: the contradiction between the values of his work and those of his wife, Benni, an ad agency executive. His mother is transformed by the strange state of her son's existence to face her own past. Meanwhile, projects to build a nuclear reactor and drain vital wetlands preoccupy Paul as if he were at work. By the time he is cured, both families have been changed. On his return to his home and career, his parents go to Mexico to fulfill the archaeological vocation Adrian sacrificed to support his family. The consequence of this trip is the final surprise in this extraordinary exploration of passionate individual existences.

"This novel begins superbly and ends wonderfully, and in between there are passages of high intelligence, not without Gordimer's signature asperity.” -- Ward Just, The Washington Post Book World

More books from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Cover of the book What the Twilight Says by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book The Crow-Girl by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book Table Manners by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book The Bird Artist by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book Fractions = Trouble! by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book Don't Kiss Me by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book City Cat by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book The Assassins' Gate by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book Landfalls by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book Is It Night or Day? by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book The Fish That Ate the Whale by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book The Time of the Hero by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book Can Democracy Work? by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book Giacometti by Nadine Gordimer
Cover of the book Madlenka's Dog by Nadine Gordimer
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy