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More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:The Preservationistby David Maine
Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)"There's a slight Mel Brooks quality here, and sometimes you can almost hear the laugh track....Maine can be serious, too. He describes the horror and remorse that Noe's clan feels for the legions of sinners, destined to drown in the flood, with tact and sensitivity. He also imagines their familial relationships with a wry, contemporary depth. At heart, The Preservationist is a story about family, albeit one that has to start over for all humanity." Anna Godberson, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review) "Maine includes it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly, along with the snakes, the goats, and the elephants. There are any number of witty, sometimes beautiful touches here, extrapolated from the strange details of this ancient myth....I can't say I was ever on the edge of my seat — Will the Ark float? Will humanity be saved? — but the real pleasure of this novel flows from its sensitive portrayal of how different members of a family respond to the patriarch's blaring faith." Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor (read the entire Christian Science Monitor review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Praise for David Maine and The Preservationist: "The Preservationist is funny, tender, intelligent, energetic, irreverent, and worshipful. It is an enormous juggling act of families, animals and faith, and it kept me engaged through every page. I imagine Noah would be enormously pleased with David Maine's novel, I know I was." - Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto "I loved The Preservationist. It's a funny, convincing amplification of the Biblical story." - Tracy Chevalier, author of The Virgin Blue "Once they were strangers to us. Distant as specks. No more! Thanks to David Maine it is in the daily, the ordinary "Noah family" the "what's for breakfast?" the aching feet, the little insults or winks, the slap on the back, the gathering of insects in cupped hands that we know them now as we know ourselves, the family next door preparing to face the unknown, the "I am certain," the magnificent, the awful, the wonderful, the weird, the big. The Preservationist was great. Very moving and enjoyable and clever." - Carolyn Chute, author of The Beans of Egypt, Maine "Maine simply, wisely, asks himself what it was like to be there, "when the rain began to fall." ¿For me, the strength of this book lies not so much in its entertaining characters as in the wonderful details of this old brand-new world.¿In just these details, small and large, Maine convinces us that the world Noah worked so hard to save is indeed worth preserving." - Jincy Willett, author of Winner of the National Book Award "If, like me, you've always wondered how Noah actually built his ark, and managed to fit all those animals on it, and survived forty days and forty nights of rain and flood, The Preservationistn0 is the book for you. A funny, cheeky, irreverent, wonderfully original first novel, informed both by Biblical history and Dave Maine's joyous imagination." - Jim Fergus, author of One Thousand White Women "The Preservationist is delightfully wry and witty, throwing light on man's-and woman's-eternal folly in the name of God and of love. More, this retelling of an ancient tale is a great deal of fun to read, its characters etched with an acid affection that makes them unforgettable." - India Edghill, author of Queenmaker Review:"Visitations from God are a mixed blessing for Noah and his family in Maine's spirited, imaginative debut. Noah (aka 'Noe') may have pissed himself upon hearing God's instructions to build an arc, but he sets to the task without delay. He crosses the desert to buy lumber from giants; his eldest, Sem, fetches Cham, the son with shipbuilding skills; Sem's wife, Bera, and Cham's wife, Ilya, gather the animals; and Japheth, Noe's youngest, helps, too, in between goofing off and 'rutting' with wife Mirn. And, of course, there's 'the wife,' 600-year-old Noe's once-teenage bride, who takes everything 'Himself' (that's Noe, not God) dishes out with time-tested practicality. Wildly different in temperament, age and provenance, these characters, each telling part of the story, help create a brilliant kaleidoscopic analysis of the situation: the neighbors who ridicule Noe and clan; the inner doubts and shifting alliances; the varying feelings toward God, whose presence is always felt and sometimes resented. The flood comes as a relief from the wondering ('who is crazier: the crazy man or the people who put their faith in him?'), but hardship soon follows. Though the ending is already written, Maine enlivens every step toward it with small surprises. A story of faith and survival (think Life of Pi thousands of years earlier with a much larger cast of characters), this debut is a winner. Agent, Scott Hoffman. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"The Preservationist is funny, tender, intelligent, energetic, irreverent, and worshipful. It is an enormous juggling act of families, animals and faith, and it kept me engaged through every page. I imagine Noah would be enormously pleased with David Maine's novel, I know I was." Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto Review:"I loved The Preservationist. It's a funny, convincing amplification of the Biblical story." Tracy Chevalier, author of The Virgin Blue Review:"Once they were strangers to us. Distant as specks. No more! Thanks to David Maine it is in the daily, the ordinary 'Noah family' the 'what's for breakfast?' the aching feet, the little insults or winks, the slap on the back, the gathering of insects in cupped hands that we know them now as we know ourselves, the family next door preparing to face the unknown, the 'I am certain,' the magnificent, the awful, the wonderful, the weird, the big. The Preservationist was great. Very moving and enjoyable and clever." Carolyn Chute, author of The Beans of Egypt, Maine Review:"The Preservationist is poised somewhere in the gap between holy visions and practical details....It is an elegant, inventive book and in no way a cynical one, despite the author's keen appreciation of the incongruous." The New York Times Review:"Neither satire nor hagiography, but an idiomatic modern rendering of the biblical tale in accord both with contemporary sensibilities and historical accounts." Kirkus Reviews Synopsis:Praise for David Maine and The Preservationist: "The Preservationist is funny, tender, intelligent, energetic, irreverent, and worshipful. It is an enormous juggling act of families, animals and faith, and it kept me engaged through every page. I imagine Noah would be enormously pleased with David Maine's novel, I know I was." - Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto "I loved The Preservationist. It's a funny, convincing amplification of the Biblical story." - Tracy Chevalier, author of The Virgin Blue "Once they were strangers to us. Distant as specks. No more! Thanks to David Maine it is in the daily, the ordinary "Noah family" the "what's for breakfast?" the aching feet, the little insults or winks, the slap on the back, the gathering of insects in cupped hands that we know them now as we know ourselves, the family next door preparing to face the unknown, the "I am certain," the magnificent, the awful, the wonderful, the weird, the big. The Preservationist was great. Very moving and enjoyable and clever." - Carolyn Chute, author of The Beans of Egypt, Maine "Maine simply, wisely, asks himself what it was like to be there, "when the rain began to fall." ¿For me, the strength of this book lies not so much in its entertaining characters as in the wonderful details of this old brand-new world.¿In just these details, small and large, Maine convinces us that the world Noah worked so hard to save is indeed worth preserving." - Jincy Willett, author of Winner of the National Book Award "If, like me, you've always wondered how Noah actually built his ark, and managed to fit all those animals on it, and survived forty days and forty nights of rain and flood, The Preservationistn0 is the book for you. A funny, cheeky, irreverent, wonderfully original first novel, informed both by Biblical history and Dave Maine's joyous imagination." - Jim Fergus, author of One Thousand White Women "The Preservationist is delightfully wry and witty, throwing light on man's-and woman's-eternal folly in the name of God and of love. More, this retelling of an ancient tale is a great deal of fun to read, its characters etched with an acid affection that makes them unforgettable." - India Edghill, author of Queenmaker Synopsis:An original, compelling and fresh novel--the story of Noah and the flood told with wisdom, wry humor and a modern sensibility. About the AuthorDavid Maine was born in 1963 and grew up in Farmington, Connecticut. He attended Oberlin College and the University of Arizona, and has worked in the mental health systems of Massachusetts and Arizona. He has taught English in Morocco and Pakistan, and since 1998 has lived in Lahore, Pakistan with his wife, novelist Uzma Aslam Khan. 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