Synopses & Reviews
Left with an empty house after the death of his wife, Aldous Jones is tempted to spend the whole day sitting in his chair in the kitchen. But with admirable determination he resumes old pastimes until, one day, wandering London, he is surprised to find a painting that holds him completely in its spell. Rembrandt's portrait of his housekeeper-turned-mistress, Hendrijcke Stoffels, awakens Jones's desire for a new life, a new woman, sex, and companionship. It leads him to Belgium to stay with his bohemian son, to evening language classes, and through a series of slightly misguided relationships until eventually he meets his Hendrijcke. As The Guardianwrites, this work is "brave, funny, and beautifully written, as perceptive about Rembrandt and Shakespeare as it is about evening classes, potato tubers sprouting in neglected cupboards and the accumulated detritus of family life."
Review
"Rich in humor and pathos, this comedy of modern urban life with its richly defined main character will have wide appeal among readers of literary fiction." Library Journal
Review
"If there is any trip sublimely worth the taking in contemporary fiction, it is Gerard Woodward's three novel sequence August, I'll Go to Bed at Noon, A Curious Earth concerning the catastrophes, the outrages, the angelic goofiness and visionary transfigurations of Aldous and Colette Jones and family....Having just completed my first reading of A Curious Earth, I can, with the deepest conviction, avow what Blake avowed in his letter to Thomas Butts, 22nd November 1802: 'My enthusiasm is still what it was, only enlarged and confirmed.'" Donald Revell, Rain Taxi (read the entire Rain Taxi review)
Synopsis
In this successor to his Man Booker Prize finalist, Gerard Woodward slyly pits defiant Aldous Jones against the hazards of aging.
Left with an empty house after the death of his wife, Aldous Jones is tempted to spend the whole day sitting in his chair in the kitchen. But with admirable determination he resumes old pastimes until, one day, wandering London, he is surprised to find a painting that holds him completely in its spell. Rembrandt's portrait of his housekeeper-turned-mistress, Hendrijcke Stoffels, awakens Jones's desire for a new life, a new woman, sex, and companionship. It leads him to Belgium to stay with his bohemian son, to evening language classes, and through a series of slightly misguided relationships until eventually he meets his Hendrijcke. As The Guardian writes, this work is "brave, funny, and beautifully written, as perceptive about Rembrandt and Shakespeare as it is about evening classes, potato tubers sprouting in neglected cupboards and the accumulated detritus of family life."
Synopsis
Left with an empty house after the death of his wife, Aldous Jones is tempted to spend the whole day sitting in his chair in the kitchen. But with admirable determination he resumes old pastimes until, one day, wandering London, he is surprised to find a painting that holds him completely in its spell. Rembrandt's portrait of his housekeeper-turned-mistress, Hendrijcke Stoffels, awakens Jones's desire for a new life, a new woman, sex, and companionship. It leads him to Belgium to stay with his bohemian son, to evening language classes, and through a series of slightly misguided relationships until eventually he meets his Hendrijcke. As The Guardian writes, this work is brave, funny, and beautifully written, as perceptive about Rembrandt and Shakespeare as it is about evening classes, potato tubers sprouting in neglected cupboards and the accumulated detritus of family life.
Synopsis
In this successor to his Man Booker Prize finalist, Gerard Woodward slyly pits defiant Aldous Jones against the hazards of aging.
About the Author
Gerard Woodward is the author of the Booker Prize finalist I'll Go to Bed at Noon and A Curious Earth. He was born in London in 1961, and published several prize-winning collections of poetry before turning to fiction.