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Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
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Every year, the booksellers at Powell’s submit their Top Fives: their five favorite books that were released in 2023. It’s a list that, when put together, shows just how varied and interesting the book tastes of Powell’s booksellers are. I highly recommend digging into the recommendations — we would never lead you astray — but today...
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Brontez Purnell:
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Zazen
by
Vanessa Veselka
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Synopses & Reviews
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ISBN13:
9781935869054
ISBN10:
1935869051
Condition:
Standard
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$10.95
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Awards
2012 Pen/Robert Bingham Prize for a Debut Work of Fiction
5
13
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating 5 (13 comments)
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Jeff Everden
, January 31, 2013
great great book!!
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Charles Ahlquist
, January 01, 2013
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In chaos, there is beauty and joy to be found. Zazen is a gem of a story that imagines a dystopian, Portlandesque future full of sadness, confusion, and militant veganism. The sheer beauty of Veselka's tale is in the honest complexity of her characters and the glowing brilliance of her prose. Rarely do I find a book where the cadence of the author's voice is so enchanting that I reread entire pages to basque in their ambiance. I adore this book, and so can you.
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Jess S
, January 01, 2013
(view all comments by Jess S)
i felt like this book was written exactly for me. this is exactly the book i wanted to read, with exactly the characters and plot i didn't even know i wanted to read. i'm sure it's not for everyone, and a "good book" is subjective, but to me, this book is perfect. i have thought about it every day since i started it. but i can't tell you why. i don't want to summarize the plot or talk about the style because this book feels like more than the sum of its parts. i don't want to write down my favorite parts because it feels like cheating. honestly, writing this feels like wearing my heart on the outside of my body. i am seriously emotional about this book. if you read this book, i kind of don't want to know because it will be like you know too much about me.
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Mosca
, January 01, 2013
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What an extraordinary new voice! Vanessa Veselka is unlike any other author that I know. Her biting observations of our times are couched as a protagonist's wit navigating her own very-soon-to-come times. And she pulls no punches in a world that spares no one. Almost anything I say will insufficiently describe this book. But I will try. Vanessa Veselka is one of those priceless writers who speak their own language with skill, wit, compassion, and vision. I have read no other writers who write like she does. As far as I can tell, she imitates no one. But she may, indeed, inspire imitators. Vaselka's prose is a treat. She repeatedly teases us with humor, hopes, snide judgements, poetic absurdities, fears, panics, despairs, and then circles us around again the way we came. She keeps us disoriented, but like her numerous perverted characters we keep coming back, unashamed, for more. As this book progresses, the ambiance and the tone shifts many times surprising the reader, and charting its course in an unexpected new direction. In retrospect, it is clear to me at least, that she is creating emotional and intuitive platforms onto which she is continually adding--a stage of sorts for the story to play out upon. The reader is lead through and onto these platforms blindfolded, it feels. An unspoiled reader will find him/herself continually turning unexpected corners; and arriving repeatedly into new understandings. These "surprises" serve to keep the reader off-guard and ready for unimagined perspectives. It is these unimagined perspectives that are at the heart of Zazen Veselka swims us through many, many of the terrors and repugnant experiences of our times. She waves under our collective noses the odious pretensions we live through; and has us laughing so hard that we begin to think this book is a comedy. She sets us up against the eternal despair that our daily experiences incline us to fall into--and for good reason. But Vaselka is not so foolish as to let us draw escapist or cynical conclusions from her alarming observations. She wants more. And she wants us to want more. I will not belabor this writing with psychological analyses of the endearing protagonist, Della. Nor will I examine the numerous political questions debated by a host of other characters. I will not debate whether this book is science fiction, dystopian, gender politics, moral fable, or revolutionary screed. As I have said, I feel that Vanessa Veselka wants more. And she has trained me to want more. Bless you, Vanessa. --Mosca
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kateinpdx
, January 24, 2012
a deliriously chewy novel. read it. be amazed. present puddly.
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Matthew Tipton
, January 20, 2012
Easily the best book I read all year! Wonderful!
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jennycatlin
, January 02, 2012
I loved this book and read it just in time to be my favorite of 2011. Zazen is a must read for anyone under forty and a should read for everyone, especially for those who have never known weather to run into or away from the fire.
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Jessica Miele
, January 02, 2012
It's a book that's just good company because of the voice that brings to light all those disturbing questions you find yourself dealing with on an everyday basis while at the same time gifts you with images that are absorbing and beautiful. It's also a very funny book, too.
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M.K. Hunter
, January 01, 2012
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This book is hilarious, unsettling and prescient all at once; when I started reading it, it felt like the story was taking place a few years from now. By the time I had finished, it felt more like the future it described was mere months away. Vanessa Veselka is a disturbingly talented seer as well as a writer of astonishing gifts.
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Elizabeth Grimsrud
, January 01, 2012
(view all comments by Elizabeth Grimsrud)
At first I found the edgy writing style disjointed and annoying, but every time I would put the book down, the characters would follow me around the house, nibbling at the fringes of my consciousness until I'd pick up the book and read some more. So many parts of the story reminded me of people or locations I know. Beneath the pop structure is a deep, building current which swept me ever more eagerly towards the finale.
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Liberty
, January 01, 2012
Hair-pullingly awesome.
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GameGhanger
, September 01, 2011
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Be prepared for changes inside yourself after reading this book. EXCELLENT writingw with nice literary surprises
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ryan stuart
, June 21, 2011
(view all comments by ryan stuart)
if you have to get on a plane and fly to Portland and sit outside Powell's until they get a new shipment of this book, do it. you can read the summary of the book above. the summary does not do it justice, not at all. and let me say upfront that the whole alternate-world thing isn't really relevant to the guts of this story. doesn't hurt it either, but it's not at all what makes this story work so gorgeously. it's the voice, the voice of the narrator. it is so stunningly unique, diamond-hard and silk at the same time. this book's rhythms slide between pounding hot iron at a forge and sleepy, half-remembered dreams in a perfect, seamless weld. the book asks what any sentient human in these times must: what do you do with all this pain? how can we live day to day with all these wars, and our blue planet's unraveling, and all the endless sound and fury we collectively endure while achieving, seemingly, so little progress toward any sort of nirvana? and the real thrill of it is, this book pulls it off and often makes you laugh yourself senseless. on a weird whim, i bought an autographed copy. it's going on my shelves next to my autographed vonnegut and my autographed studs terkel, two writers who also looked clear-eyed at our times and our species and found, despite it all, cause for hope. and bittersweet, but undeniably sweet, laughter.
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Product Details
ISBN:
9781935869054
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
05/22/2011
Publisher:
IPS TWO RIVERS PGW CONSORTIUM
Pages:
274
Height:
.70IN
Width:
5.40IN
Thickness:
.75
Copyright Year:
2011
Author:
Vanessa Veselka
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
$10.95
List Price:
$15.95
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
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2
Burnside
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Cedar Hills
1
Hawthorne
More copies of this ISBN
New, Trade Paperback, $15.95
This title in other editions
New, Trade Paperback, $16.95
Used, Trade Paperback, Starting from $8.95
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