eBooks - Literature - Modern Fiction - Amilie Nothomb - The Character of Rain
The Character of Rain eBooks
by Amilie Nothomb
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Platforms
Windows PC, Palm, Pocket PC, eBookMan, SmartPhones, and more. Features
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Download Now Price: $8.95
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Platforms
All Palm & Pocket PC handheld devices plus all Windows and Macintosh computers. Features
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Availability:
Download Now Price: $19.95
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The Character of Rain Summary
| The child knows she's God. For the first two years of life she lives like an empress, or perhaps a carp, in a world of her own--eating, digesting, excreting--without sound, motion, spark of recognition. Her concerned parents think she might be a vegetable. Only Nishio-san, her Japanese nanny, knows what depths lie beneath the serene demeanor of this peculiar creature. And then, set off by the taste of white chocolate, she launches herself into life. Set in Japan, where Amelie Nothomb spent her early years, The Character of Rain is a portrait of the artist as a young child. Nothomb reaches deep into early childhood, evoking with indelible clarity, uncanny poignancy, and gentle humor the hyperconsciousness of infancy. Not since My Life as a Dog has a novel put us into the mind of childhood in all its glorious and traumatic magnificence. |
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The Japanese believe that until the age of three, children, whether Japanese or not, are gods, each one an okosama, or "lord child." On their third birthday, they fall from grace and join the human race. In Ameélie Nothamb's new novel, The Character of Rain, we learn that divinity is a difficult thing from which to recover, particularly if, like the child in this story, you have spent the first two and a half years of life in a nearly vegetative state. "I remember everything that happened to me after the age of two and one-half," the narrator tells us. She means this literally. Once jolted out of her plant-like, tube-like trance (to the ecstatic relief of her concerned parents), the child bursts into existence, absorbing everything that Japan, where her father works as a diplomat, has to offer. Life is an unfolding pageant of delight and danger, a ceaseless exploration of pleasure and the limits of power. Most wondrous of all is the discovery of water: oceans, seas, pools, puddles, streams, ponds, and, perhaps most of all, rain -- one meaning of the Japanese character for her name. Hers is an amphibious life. The Character of Rain evokes the hilarity, terror, and sanctity of childhood. As she did in the award-winning, international bestseller Fear and Trembling, Nothaomb grounds the novel in the outlines of her experiences in Japan, but the self-portrait that emerges from these pages is hauntingly universal. Ameélie Nothamb's novels are unforgettable immersion experiences, leaving you both holding your breath with admiration, your lungs aching, and longing for more. |
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eBooks - Titles - Authors - Literature - Modern Fiction - Amilie Nothomb - The Character of Rain eBooks