Letter from Casablanca

Fiction & Literature, Literary
Cover of the book Letter from Casablanca by Antonio Tabucchi, New Directions
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Antonio Tabucchi ISBN: 9780811223485
Publisher: New Directions Publication: June 17, 1986
Imprint: New Directions Language: English
Author: Antonio Tabucchi
ISBN: 9780811223485
Publisher: New Directions
Publication: June 17, 1986
Imprint: New Directions
Language: English

The eight stories contained in Antonio Tabucchi's Letters from Casablanca introduce to an American audience a rising Italian writer (born 1943) whose intriguing narrative strategies make the reader an active participant in his work. Each story can be seen from at least two perspectives, and each protagonist can be seen as experiencing an objective "reality" or having his own imagined and quite possibly distorted view of events.**

Almost like a detective, the reader must try to puzzle out what has happened, what relationship X "really" has to Y. In "Dolores Ibarruri Sheds Bitter Tears," is the mother's report of her son's happy childhood just a remembered mirage? Is life inside a Fitzgerald novel a game invented by the narrator of "The Little Gatsby," or has the game indeed replaced any other reality? From the title story "Letter from Casablanca," with its double and triple inversions of our expectations, to the final thoughts of "The Backwards Game," where the author plays with the idea of reversing life and literature, the haunting theme of this remarkable and rewarding debut is: "Reality is unpleasant and you prefer dreams"––but modified in teasing counterpoint by the observation that "sometimes reality surpasses the imagination." The author implies that many of the stories are "true," but it is the reflecting and refining power of art and language which focuses seemingly random events into patterns of inevitability.

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

The eight stories contained in Antonio Tabucchi's Letters from Casablanca introduce to an American audience a rising Italian writer (born 1943) whose intriguing narrative strategies make the reader an active participant in his work. Each story can be seen from at least two perspectives, and each protagonist can be seen as experiencing an objective "reality" or having his own imagined and quite possibly distorted view of events.**

Almost like a detective, the reader must try to puzzle out what has happened, what relationship X "really" has to Y. In "Dolores Ibarruri Sheds Bitter Tears," is the mother's report of her son's happy childhood just a remembered mirage? Is life inside a Fitzgerald novel a game invented by the narrator of "The Little Gatsby," or has the game indeed replaced any other reality? From the title story "Letter from Casablanca," with its double and triple inversions of our expectations, to the final thoughts of "The Backwards Game," where the author plays with the idea of reversing life and literature, the haunting theme of this remarkable and rewarding debut is: "Reality is unpleasant and you prefer dreams"––but modified in teasing counterpoint by the observation that "sometimes reality surpasses the imagination." The author implies that many of the stories are "true," but it is the reflecting and refining power of art and language which focuses seemingly random events into patterns of inevitability.

More books from New Directions

Cover of the book Black Mesa Poems by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book A Devil in Paradise (New Directions Bibelot) by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book Flowers of Evil: A Selection by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book A Brief History of Portable Literature by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book Trilogy by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book The Setting Sun by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book The Wisdom of the Zen Masters by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book Illuminations: Prose poems by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book Gogol's Wife: & Other Stories by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book The Dry Heart by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book Nazi Literature in the Americas by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book The Flight of Icarus: Novel by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book Written Lives by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book The Literary Conference (New Directions Pearls) by Antonio Tabucchi
Cover of the book Songs of Love, Moon, & Wind: Poems from the Chinese by Antonio Tabucchi
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