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Check for Availabilityout of stock. Click on the button below to search for this title in other formats.  eBook editionsThe Speed of Lightby Javier Cercas
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Javier Cercas third and most ambitious novel has already been heralded in Spain as “daring,” “magnificent, complex, and intense,” and “a master class in invention and truth.”As a young writer, the novels protagonist—perhaps an apocryphal version of Cercas himself—accepts a post at a Midwestern university and soon he is in the United States, living a simple life, working and writing. It will be years before he understands that his burgeoning friendship with the Vietnam vet Rodney Falk, a strange and solitary man, will reshape his life, or that he will become obsessed with Rodneys mysterious past.
Why does Rodney shun the world? Why does he accept and befriend the narrator? And what really happened at the mysterious ‘My Khe incident? Many years pass with these questions unanswered; the two friends drift apart. But as the narrators literary career takes off, his personal life collapses. Suddenly, impossibly, the novelist finds that Rodneys fate and his own are linked, and the story spirals towards its fascinating, surreal conclusion. Twisting together his own regrets with those of America, Cercas weaves the profound and personal story of a ghostly past. Javier Cercas is the author of Soldiers of Salamis (Spain, 2001, Bloomsbury, 2003), The Tenant & The Motive (Spain 2000, 2003, Bloomsbury UK, 2005) El Vientre de la ballena (The Belly of the Whale, 1997) and Relatos Reales (True Tales, 2000). He has taught at the University of Illinois and since 1989 has been a lecturer in Spanish literature at the University of Gerona. Javier Cercas' third and most ambitious novel has already been heralded in Spain as "a master class in invention and truth." As a young writer, the novel's protagonist—perhaps an apocryphal version of Cercas himself—accepts a post at a Midwestern university and soon he is in the United States, living a simple life, working and writing. It will be years before he understands that his burgeoning friendship with the Vietnam vet Rodney Falk, a strange and solitary man, will reshape his life, or that he will become obsessed with Rodneys mysterious past.
Why does Rodney shun the world? Why does he accept and befriend the narrator? And what really happened at the mysterious ‘My Khe incident? Many years pass with these questions unanswered; the two friends drift apart. But as the narrators literary career takes off, his personal life collapses. Suddenly, impossibly, the novelist finds that Rodneys fate and his own are linked, and the story spirals towards its fascinating, surreal conclusion. Twisting together his own regrets with those of America, Cercas weaves the profound and personal story of a ghostly past. "An unnamed narrator's life comes full circle as he confronts buried secrets and tragedy in this powerful novel by Spanish author Cercas. The unnamed narrator, a young writer whose hustle to survive in Barcelona doesn't leave him time to write, takes a scholarship as an assistant Spanish professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana, in the late 1980s. Once there he makes an unlikely friend in office mate Rodney Falk, a Vietnam vet who everyone else in the department thinks is insane. After Rodney disappears during winter break, the narrator visits Rodney's father, who fills him in on Rodney's troubled past. Back in Spain a year later, the narrator becomes a successful novelist, but remains haunted by Rodney (and his skeletons) which the narrator wants to write into a novel. From the electric passages chronicling the narrator's descent into writerly paralysis to his discovery of Rodney's miserable end and then his own creative resurrection, Cercas writes with verve and brings the novel to a close in a mad sardonic swoop. Cercas has delivered a wry and touching examination of the ruinous effects of war and fame."—Publishers Weekly "A novelist strongly resembling Cercas (they've written the same books and lived in the same places) recounts this cautionary tale of mishandled success foretold by Rodney Falk, a fellow teaching assistant at the University of Illinois. When the young writer achieves literary acclaim back in his native Spain, his monstrous ego soon destroys everything of importance to him. Grasping for purchase in the world, he attempts to track down his old classroom comrade and perhaps tell his story. He even tries the Vietnam vet's life on for size but finds it doesn't fit the way he imagined it might. They've both committed unspeakable atrocities, and Cercas explores what it is to rebuild amid the psychic rubble. He playfully suggests writing may hold the seeds of salvation as well as destruction. As Rodney puts it, 'If you don't yet know what you want to say but you're crazy enough or desperate enough or brave enough to keep writing, you might end up saying something that only you can come to know, and that might be of interest.' Indeed."—Frank Sennett, Booklist "In the late 1980s, the narrator of this latest work by Cercas enrolls as a graduate assistant in the doctoral Spanish program at the University of Illinois. His fellow officemate is surly, eccentric Vietnam War veteran Rodney Falk, with whom he strikes up an unexpected friendship. We gain deeper insight into the reasons for Rodney's shell-shocked behavior as his past gradually unfolds, climaxing in the revelation of his involvement in a My Lai-like massacre. Cercas eventually explains their friendship by linking the guilt Falk harbors with the narrator's feeling responsible for the accidental death of his wife and son. Cercas injects numerous autobiographical elements into the story, yet one is equally amazed at this Spaniard's ability to write so vividly and hauntingly about the Vietnam War and the trauma of postbattle fatigue in light of his being only 13 when the fighting ended. Translator McLean (also responsible for Cercas's recent Soldiers of Salamis, another novel about the consequences of war) has produced a work so smooth that it doesn't even read like a translation. Highly recommended."—Lawrence Olszewski, Dublin, Ohio, Library Journal "An almost extravagant display of artistic control in which an intricate web of verbal and thematic cross-reference spins out across the text . . . It is hard to imagine that a better novel will be published in Spain this year."—Times Literary Supplement (UK) Review:"An unnamed narrator's life comes full circle as he confronts buried secrets and tragedy in this powerful novel by Spanish author Cercas (Soldiers of Salamis). The unnamed narrator, a young writer whose hustle to survive in Barcelona doesn't leave him time to write, takes a scholarship as an assistant Spanish professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana, in the late 1980s. Once there he makes an unlikely friend in office mate Rodney Falk, a Vietnam vet who everyone else in the department thinks is insane. After Rodney disappears during winter break, the narrator visits Rodney's father, who fills him in on Rodney's troubled past. Back in Spain a year later, the narrator becomes a successful novelist, but remains haunted by Rodney (and his skeletons) which the narrator wants to write into a novel. From the electric passages chronicling the narrator's descent into writerly paralysis to his discovery of Rodney's miserable end and then his own creative resurrection, Cercas writes with verve and brings the novel to a close in a mad sardonic swoop. Cercas has delivered a wry and touching examination of the ruinous effects of war and fame." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Synopsis:Javier Cercas' third and most ambitious novel has already been heralded in Spain as "daring," "magnificent, complex, and intense," and "a master class in invention and truth."As a young writer, the novel's protagonist--perhaps an apocryphal version of Cercas himself--accepts a post at a Midwestern university and soon he is in the United States, living a simple life, working and writing. It will be years before he understands that his burgeoning friendship with the Vietnam vet Rodney Falk, a strange and solitary man, will reshape his life, or that he will become obsessed with Rodney's mysterious past.
Why does Rodney shun the world? Why does he accept and befriend the narrator? And what really happened at the mysterious 'My Khe' incident? Many years pass with these questions unanswered; the two friends drift apart. But as the narrator's literary career takes off, his personal life collapses. Suddenly, impossibly, the novelist finds that Rodney's fate and his own are linked, and the story spirals towards its fascinating, surreal conclusion. Twisting together his own regrets with those of America, Cercas weaves the profound and personal story of a ghostly past. About the AuthorJavier Cercas is the author of Soldiers of Salamis (Spain, 2001, Bloomsbury, 2003), The Tenant & The Motive (Spain 2000, 2003, Bloomsbury UK, 2005) El Vientre de la ballena (The Belly of the Whale, 1997) and Relatos Reales (True Tales, 2000). He has taught at the University of Illinois and since 1989 has been a lecturer in Spanish literature at the University of Gerona. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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