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A Book of Reasons
by Vernon, John
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- VG-/VG-
- ISBN 10
- 0395944775
- ISBN 13
- 9780395944776
- Seller
-
Urbana, Illinois, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. 272pp. Soiling edges, wear boards, DJ: wear extremities, rubbing.. 1st. Hb. VG-/VG-.
Synopsis
In this "heartwarming tale of brotherly love" (WALL STREET JOURNAL), John Vernon "lifts us high, confronting basic questions about the nature of existence itself and the peculiar objects that sustain this transient life" (Jay Parini). When his reclusive brother Paul died, Vernon came face to face with a life he had never suspected. He found his brother's house in a state of squalid disrepair: piled high with a lifetime of trash, littered with animal corpses and excrement, unheated and decrepit. An assembly worker in the electronics industry and an amateur inventor, Paul had managed to keep his private world hidden from his family and acquaintances. The love between brothers is an unconditional love -- unearned, and realized almost always from a distance. Who really was this man that writer and teacher John Vernon loved? How could a childhood so full of promise turn wrong? Why do we collect things; what use do they have? How do we make and understand our world? In search of answers, this "superb writer" (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE) leaps from one odd, individual life to all our lives and the things that clutter them, with excursions through the history of science, anatomy, and mythology. The result is revelatory, a brilliant account of the extraordinary source of everyday things. "An artful lamentation of two remarkable worlds" (VILLAGE VOICE), A BOOK OF REASONS is John Vernon's devastatingly tender memoir about coming to terms with the fact that the people we love most are often the people we know the least about. It is also a daring exploration of loss and self-discovery.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Priceless Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 211552
- Title
- A Book of Reasons
- Author
- Vernon, John
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - VG-
- Jacket Condition
- VG-
- Edition
- 1st
- ISBN 10
- 0395944775
- ISBN 13
- 9780395944776
- Publisher
- Houghton Mifflin
- Place of Publication
- Boston
- Date Published
- 1999
- Keywords
- History
Terms of Sale
Priceless Books
Subject to prior sale, returns accepted if not as described. Will hold books for two weeks.
About the Seller
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- VG-/VG-
- A book in slightly less than Very Good Condition with a dust jacket that is in slightly less than Very Good Condition. Very Good...
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