$23.99

New Hardcover

Ships in 1 to 3 days

Qty	Store	Section
2	Burnside	Literature- A to Z
2	Burnside	Featured Titles- Culture
1	Hawthorne	Literature- A to Z
25	Local Warehouse	Anthologies- Essays
25	Remote Warehouse	Biography- General

Receive an email when this ISBN is available used.

This title in other editions

• Preorder, Trade Paper, $14.99

An Extraordinary Theory of Objects: A Memoir of an Outsider in Paris

by Stephanie Lacava

Comment on this title and you could win free books! Synopses & Reviews Comment on this title and you could win free books! ISBN13: 9780061963896 ISBN10: 0061963895 All Product Details

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

A haunting and moving collection of original narratives that reveals an expatriate's coming-of-age in Paris and the magic she finds in ordinary objects

An awkward, curious girl growing up in a foreign country, Stephanie LaCava finds solace and security in strange yet beautiful objects.

When her father's mysterious job transports her and her family to the quaint Parisian suburb of Le Vésinet, everything changes for the young American. Stephanie sets out to explore her new surroundings and to make friends at her unconventional international school, but her curiosity soon gives way to feelings of anxiety and a deep depression.

In her darkest moments, Stephanie learns to filter the world through her peculiar lens, discovering the uncommon, uncelebrated beauty in what she finds. Encouraged by her father through trips to museums and scavenger hunts at antique shows, she traces an interconnected web of narratives of long-ago outsiders, and of objects historical and natural, that ultimately help her survive.

A series of illustrated essays that unfolds in cinematic fashion, An Extraordinary Theory of Objects offers a universal lesson—to harness the power of creativity to cope with loneliness, sadness, and disappointment to find wonder in the uncertainty of the future.

Review:

"Fashion writer Lavaca's childhood and teenage years were strange and confounding. The author's family moved from New York to a Parisian suburb in 1993 when she was 12; the next year she suffered a breakdown. Always considered a bit strange as a child, she found solace and a sense of order in collecting objects. She had a passion for ancient mythologies: 'I was obsessed with cabinets of curiosities, historical efforts to catalog and control nature's oddities,' Lacava writes. As an adult Lacava began looking back over her life 'through a narrative illuminated with objects and their respective stories.' As the author began researching her objects, she discovered unlikely links between them and 'certain people who reappeared throughout the stories' of such objects as a skeleton key found in the backyard of her new home in France; a fiery antique opal necklace found on the sidewalk following a jaunt to a neighborhood sweet shop; a CD containing Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'; and the camera she always carried on her journeys around France. 'For me, it is my story of conquering another world, a place where in order to survive I needed to seek out wonder,' Lacava explains. In the end, this is an unusual journey through one girl's material and sometimes painful interior world." Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Synopsis:

It's Girl Interrupted meets Miranda July—with a touch of Joan Didion—in this captivating collection of original essays revolving around a young American girl's coming of age in Paris. As an adolescent in a foreign country, Stephanie LaCava found an unconventional way to deal with her social awkwardness and feelings of uncertainty about the future by taking solace from the strange and beautiful objects she came across in her daily life. Filled with beautiful illustrations and providing a retrospective of nineties fashion and culture, An Extraordinary Theory of Objects: A Memoir of an Outsider in Paris is sure to be a collector's item for Francophiles or anyone who has ever found security in the strangest of places.

back to top

About the Author

Stephanie LaCava is a writer working in New York and Paris. Raised in France, she attended Colgate University. Her work has appeared in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Vogue, and other print and online publications, including the Paris Review and Tin House. She posts striking photographs and words daily on her Web site, which she refers to as a phantom cabinet of curiosities.

back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Be the first to add a comment for a chance to win!

back to top

Product Details

ISBN:

9780061963896

Author:

Lacava, Stephanie

Publisher:

Harper

Author:

LaCava, Stephanie

Subject:

Essays

Subject:

Anthologies-Essays

Edition Description:

Hardcover

Publication Date:

20121231

Binding:

HARDCOVER

Language:

English

Pages:

224

Dimensions:

8.25 x 5.5 x 0.81 in 22.8 oz

back to top

Other books you might like

1. 
   Second Summer of the Sisterhood Ann Brashares

   

   Used Trade Paper $0.95
   
2. 
   The Serpent's Shadow (Kane... Rick Riordan

   

   Used Hardcover $9.95
   
3. 
   All-American Girl Meg Cabot

   

   Used Mass Market $2.95
   
4. 
   The Body of Christopher Creed Carol Plum Ucci Used Trade Paper $1.95
   
5. 
   The Mark of Athena (Heroes of... Rick Riordan

   

   Used Hardcover $13.95
   
6. 
   The Art of the Restaurateur Nicholas Lander New Hardcover $39.95
   

Related Subjects

Biography » General
Featured Titles » Culture
Fiction and Poetry » Anthologies » Essays
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
History and Social Science » Politics » United States » Politics

An Extraordinary Theory of Objects: A Memoir of an Outsider in Paris New Hardcover Stephanie Lacava

0 stars - 0 reviews

$23.99 In Stock

Product details 224 pages Harper - 2012-12-00 English 9780061963896 Reviews:

"Publishers Weekly Review" by Publishers Weekly, "Fashion writer Lavaca's childhood and teenage years were strange and confounding. The author's family moved from New York to a Parisian suburb in 1993 when she was 12; the next year she suffered a breakdown. Always considered a bit strange as a child, she found solace and a sense of order in collecting objects. She had a passion for ancient mythologies: 'I was obsessed with cabinets of curiosities, historical efforts to catalog and control nature's oddities,' Lacava writes. As an adult Lacava began looking back over her life 'through a narrative illuminated with objects and their respective stories.' As the author began researching her objects, she discovered unlikely links between them and 'certain people who reappeared throughout the stories' of such objects as a skeleton key found in the backyard of her new home in France; a fiery antique opal necklace found on the sidewalk following a jaunt to a neighborhood sweet shop; a CD containing Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'; and the camera she always carried on her journeys around France. 'For me, it is my story of conquering another world, a place where in order to survive I needed to seek out wonder,' Lacava explains. In the end, this is an unusual journey through one girl's material and sometimes painful interior world." Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

"Synopsis" by Harper Collins, It's Girl Interrupted meets Miranda July—with a touch of Joan Didion—in this captivating collection of original essays revolving around a young American girl's coming of age in Paris. As an adolescent in a foreign country, Stephanie LaCava found an unconventional way to deal with her social awkwardness and feelings of uncertainty about the future by taking solace from the strange and beautiful objects she came across in her daily life. Filled with beautiful illustrations and providing a retrospective of nineties fashion and culture, An Extraordinary Theory of Objects: A Memoir of an Outsider in Paris is sure to be a collector's item for Francophiles or anyone who has ever found security in the strangest of places.