| Title | : | Wildlife |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0679734473 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780679734475 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 177 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1990 |
Wildlife Reviews
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ENTRARE A FAR PARTE DEL MONDO
Nel film omonimo i due genitori sono interpretati da Carey Mulligan e Jake Gyllenhaal.
Per una volta il titolo adottato dall’edizione italiana, pur discostandosi dall’originale, è più centrato, si adatta meglio alla storia: da Wildlife, che è la natura, la vita selvaggia di piante e animali, si passa a Incendi.
Che come dicevo è giusto: perché c’è un grande maestoso incendio sulle montagne del Montana che dalla foresta sta circondando la città di Great Falls, e richiede tutte le forze in campo per domarlo.
Nel film l’io narrante Joe è più giovane che nel romanzo, due anni in meno.
L’incendio nella natura riverbera e rispecchia quello tra Jerry, il padre del narratore, il sedicenne Joe, e sua moglie Jeanette: coppia in crisi, famiglia sull’orlo di una crisi di nervi.
E l’incendio intorno alla cittadina non è l’unico della storia: a un certo appunto ne divampa un altro, più piccolo, questa volta doloso, ma più simbolico che devastante.
Joe ha sedici anni quando i fatti accadono: è un adulto invece quando racconta, quando ricapitola i ricordi. Ma racconta con la partecipazione e il cuore all’altezza dei suoi sedici anni, senza appesantire la sua memoria con l’esperienza degli anni a venire:
Avevo la sensazione che forse la parte migliore della mia vita era ormai passata e un’altra fase stava per cominciare. Avevo quasi diciassette anni.
Nonostante la tenera età, lo si percepisce più responsabile e maturo dei suoi genitori, anche se la sua capacità di giudizio non riesce a riparare ciò che si è rotto tra i due coniugi.
Quando inizia a raccontarci regala l’impressione che la routine domestica è destinata a durare per sempre. Ma, introduce presto una nota sospesa che comunica inquietudine: no, le cose non dureranno, qualcosa cambierà. E sarà qualcosa di grosso, importante: e dopo sarà impossibile tornare indietro.
Si tratta del debutto alla regia dell’attore Paul Dano. Il film ha vinto Il Torino Film festival del 2018.
1960. La famigliola, tipica della middle class, si sta ambientando dopo l’ennesima trasferimento in Montana alla ricerca di una fortuna che non trova.
Jerry, il capofamiglia, insegna golf. Ma perde il lavoro per ingiusta causa e si aggrega alla squadra di pompieri impegnata a domare le fiamme.
Jeanette ricomincia a insegnare nuoto, e rimasta sola in casa col figlio, col marito via per lavoro, s’innamora: incontra un uomo e perde la testa. Ma non è difficile capire che per Jerry aveva smesso di perderla già da tempo, il matrimonio correva sul filo della rottura.
Sussulti nella difficile ricerca dell’equilibrio quotidiano, ricerca di una felicità che sembra molto lontana per i personaggi di Wildlife - Incendi, sospesi in una condizione precaria, persi in un’America senza confini e senza certezze dove un posto vale l’altro e le cose possono essere lasciate alle spalle in ogni momento.
È un classico romanzo di formazione, un passaggio d’età, un’iniziazione alla vita.
Ford è sobrio e scrive con apparente assenza di sforzo tenendo sotto controllo (sotto la cenere?) l’alta gradazione della situazione che racconta.
Mi verrebbe da dire che è ancora in quella fase della sua produzione letteraria dove la trama, i fatti, hanno ancora importanza.
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A very short novel yet a whooper.
Richard Ford is more known for his Pulitzer-award winning Independence Day but this book, his fourth, Wildlife is his only book included in the 501 Must Read Books so I picked this up first. Good intro to his works. I will definitely pick up the others soon.
Ford has been compared to William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. I agree to both. Wildlife has the brevity and consciseness of Hemingway's works. This novel also reflects the ordinary American lives in the haunting, strong and extremely satisying prose that is comparable to the works of Faulkner. Now if you combine the taut prose of Hemingway and the satisfaction that you get from Faulkner, that's Ford for you.
There are only 4 major characters: the the 16-y/o narrator Joe Brinson, his father, his mother and his mother's lover. Brinson is the moon to Holden Caulfield's sun. Brinson seldom talks, obedient, respects his parents, goes to school even with empty stomach and more often than not, just goes with the flow and mostly keeps his thoughts to his chest. Caulfield on the other hand, resists growing old, rebels against the system, calls everyone "phony", leaves the school and seems to be always angry. Salinger created Caulfield in the 50's while Ford created Brinson with 60's as the setting. Caulfield lived in Pennsylvania and New York while Brinson lived in Idaho and Montana. I think the settings have something to do with their differences but I always think that most stories have two sides so I think these two young men both represent the young not only of yesteryears but also our generation. Not only of American's but the world's as well. So not all teenagers must have the angsts that Caulfield is known for. Some are also as obedient and loving son as Brinson.
The best excerpt that can show you his character is this part when he and his mother were "abandoned" (or so his mother thought) by his father. His mother asks him if he has a plan for her. He, at 16, thought of running away from all the problems. He narrated:
"And then I began to walk home. I had wanted to leave that day, but I saw that I couldn't, because my parents were there still and I was too young. And even though I couldn't help still and I was too young. And even though I could help them by staying, we belonged together in some way I couldn't change. I remembered as I walked through the cold evening toward the rising lights of Great Falls, a town that was not my home and never would be, that my mother had asked me in the middle of the night before if I had a plan for her. And I didn't have a plan, though if I'd had one it would be that both of them could live longer than I would and be happier than I was. Death was less terrible at that moment than being alone, even though I was not alone and hoped I wouldn't be, and even though it was a childish thought, I realized at that moment that I was crying and didn't know I was, wouldn't have guessed it. I was only walking home, I thought, trying to think about things, all the things in my life, just as they were."
Poignant and heartbreaking story of a small powerless American family in the 60's. However, it is almost devoid of mushy melodrama. Not your usual dysfunctional family story. No drug-dependent or alcoholic parent. Rather, the family is just a victim of poverty but not at all hopeless (both parents are college graduates) yet they seem not to be making the right choices in life. Ford's prose is taut, exact, right-on-the-dot clear. Will leave you breathless and craving for more. -
nasıl dümdüz bir anlatım. nasıl küçük bir hikaye. nasıl büyük bir roman. ve nasıl nefis bir başlangıç diyerek amerikan edebiyatına özellikle amerikan taşrasının anlatıldığı edebiyata yine şapka çıkarıyorum.
“1960 sonbaharında, ben on altı yaşında ve babam da bir süredir işsizken, annem warren miller adında bir adamla tanıştı ve ona âşık oldu.”
alın size roman başlangıcı. anlatıcıyı anladık. 16 yaşındaki joe brinson üç günlük süre zarfında geçen bir hikaye anlatıyor. kendi gözünden. pek çok şeyi anlamayarak. anlamaya da çalışmayarak. çünkü isyankar bir ergen değil dünyanın en düzgün ve hatta sinirleri alınmış çocuğu var karşımızda.
joe, annesi, babası ve annesinin ilişkiye girdiği adam dışında karakter de yok zaten. ki romanı bu kadar sade, bu kadar duru yapan şeylerden biri de bu. küçük olay, az insan, son derece tutumlu kullanılmış sözcükler, sıfır benzetme ve ajitasyon.
üç erkeğin iletişimsizlik başarısı ki biri 16, biri 39, biri 50’lerinde müthiş bir biçimde verilmiş. o konuşamama ve kendini ifade edememe hali, omza pat pat yapınca her şeyi anlattığını sanma yanılgısı (snjsns cunhurreisimiz geldi aklıma), her şey yolunda derken hiçbir şeyin yolunda olmaması. ordan oraya taşınmalar, hiçbir işte tutunamamalar, bitmeyen hayaller, durmadan arkadaşlarından ayrılan çocuğun düşünülmemesi, evde mutsuzluktan ölen kadını tam bir mallıkla hiçbir şekilde görmemeleri o kadar erkek ki.
ha şu var. meseleyi de kendi aralarında halletmeye çalışıyorlar. ortadoğu toplumlarındaki gibi kadını öldürmüyorlar en azından.
joe’nun olayların gidişatı ne olursa olsun eve gitmek istemesi, ev imgesi çok can acıtıcı. ki annesiyle kalacağını düşünürken, onu tercih ediyorken annesinin çekip gitmesi de öyle. ama o kadar olgunlukla karşılıyor ki her şeyi bu da bize garip geliyor. alışkın değiliz ne de olsa.
anne jean karakterini tam anlayamıyoruz, ne istediğini, derdini biraz anlatsa da romanın bilmece gibi konuşan hatta tek konuşan karakteri o. ama en azından böyle yaşayamayacağını ilan edecek kadar gerçekçi.
romanda suya atıldığını sonradan öğrendiğimiz sustalı çakıya dikkat edin. iyi yazarlığın ipucu orada. her şeyi anlattığını sandığımız anlatıcının geri dönüp bu ayrıntıyı vermesine bayıldım.
ve sondaki bir cümle: “ve ondan sonra da uzun yıllar sürüp gitti. beraber ve yalnız yaşadılar.” ki bence bir evlilik anca böyle sürer :)
jaguar yayınları ve çevirmen ipek şoran’a alkış. -
Short, simple and strong describe both the story and how it is told. Any unnecessary word, sentence or sidestep has been removed.
This is a book about four people--a husband and wife with marital problems, their sixteen-year-old son and the wife's to-be lover. We are given a family of three, none of whom readily communicates with the others. The setting is Montana at the end of the 1950s. What happens happens over three days.
The book has the reader questioning what lies behind the marital discord. The book is short. Only by turning it into a longer novel could these questions be given definitive answers, but that would be a completely different book! We are supposed to muse, look for hints and draw our own conclusions.
This book wonderfully captures how men relate to and communicate with each other. The little that is said is pitch-perfect. What is said should be listened to and paid attention to. What is said and what is done has lasting consequences. The author draws male characters that feel very real to me, both in what they say and in what they do. One is young, one is thirty-nine and one is in his fifties; all three are well drawn.
The wife, she is no talker either, but the book is less about her than about the men. There is not enough in this short novel to understand the wife, although it is not hard to draw conclusions as to what might be irking her.
I like how the book concludes, i.e. what happens within and to the family with the passage of time. I appreciate the lack of melodrama. I am less pleased with the fate of the lover.
The title I dislike. It misleads prospective readers. The book is not about wildlife!
The audiobook is extremely well read by Noah Michael Levine. There is absolutely nothing that could be improved. The way the story is read fits the text perfectly. -
"Oraya gittiğimizde yangına çok yaklaştığımız o anı hatırlıyor musun? Hatta sen arabadan inip yanına gitmiştin; bunu deneyimlemeni istemiştim sanırım. Ama döndüğünde, sana bütün o yangının aslında ufak tefek ayrı yangınlar olduğunu söylemiştim hani? Ve ara sıra bu yangınların beraber alevlenip her şeyi mahvettiğini?"
Anne, baba ve 16 yaşındaki oğullarından oluşan küçük bir Amerikan ailesinin 1960 sonbaharındaki 3 gününü anlatıyor Vahşi Hayat. Anlatıcımız oğul Joe, bütün hikayeyi de onun gözünden izliyoruz haliyle. Bir golf kulübünde çalışan baba hırsızlık yaptığı sebebiyle kovuluyor, sonra karısının itirazlarına rağmen bütün Montana'yı saran yangınla savaşan ekibe katılıyor, o yokken de karısı bir başka adamla beraber oluyor. Daha ilk cümlede zaten bu olayları bize açıklıyor Joe, baba daha evden ayrılırken hikayenin bizi nereye götüreceğini biliyoruz aslında.
Vahşi Hayat'ın en sevdiğim tarafı Richard Ford'un betimlemelerden uzak, Joe'nun gördüklerini ve düşündüklerini lafı dolandırmadan aktardığı sade, akıcı dili oldu. Joe alışık olduğumuz bir ergen değil, kendisine sorulan sorulara kısa cevaplar veren, sinirlenmeyen, olaylar karşısında çoğunlukla tepkisiz kalan bir çocuk. Aslında benim en sevmediğim birinci tekil şahıs anlatıcısıdır bu, sadece etrafını gözlemler ve olaylara dahil olmak yerine onları anlatmayı tercih eder. 60'lar Amerika'sının gençliğini bilemediğim için günümüzün her şeyi bilen, kendini ifade etmekten çekinmeyen ergenleriyle kıyaslayamıyorum tabi ama Vahşi Hayat özelinde anlatıcının kendini bu kadar geriye çekmesi rahatsız etmedi beni. Ailesi tarafından hep ikinci plana atılmış, bir şehirden diğerine sürüklendiği için ne sosyalleşme imkanı ne de bir yuvaya aidiyet hissi bulamamış bir çocuk için olağan geldi bu karakter bana.
Kitapta çok sevdiğim bir diğer şey de Richard Ford'un iyi bir yönetmenin dikkatli izleyiciler için kadrajın sağına soluna serpiştirdiği küçük ipuçları gibi hikaye akarken bize gösterdiği ama üzerinde durmadığı ufak belirtilerdi. Bir çekmeceden çıkan çakılar, üstüne isimler karalanmış bir liste, ne konuşulduğu anlaşılmayan telefon görüşmeleri, anlamsız görünen sorular... Bunların hepsi olayları yorumlarken yeni ihtimaller açıyor bize, okurken fark etmesi daha zor olan bazı şeyler kitabın sonlarına geldiğimizde belirginleşiyor. Zaten kitap boyunca, özellikle de annenin sözleriyle güçlenen, bir yangın metaforu var ki okurken çok keyif aldım.
Başlarken bu kadar seveceğimi düşünmemiştim bu kısa romanı, güzel bir sürpriz oldu bana. Richard Ford'un diğer kitapları da dilimize kazandırılırsa (Canada Jaguar Kitap'ın yayın programındaymış, Independence Day'i de Can yayınlamış ama artık baskısı yok) mutlaka okuyacağım. Çevirmen İpek Şoran da harika bir iş çıkarmış, onun da ellerine sağlık.
"Sonra ben de eve doğru yürümeye koyuldum. O gün evi terk etmek istemiştim ama yapamayacağımı anladım, çünkü annemle babam hâlâ orada yaşıyordu ve ben de çok gençtim. Yanlarında kalarak onlara yardımcı olamasam da, değiştiremeyeceğim bir şekilde birbirimize bağlıydık. Soğuk akşamda, benim evim olmayan ve asla olmayacak bir şehrin, Great Falls'un belirginleşen ışıklarına doğru yürürken, önceki gecenin bir yarısında annemin bana kendisi için bir planım olup olmadığını sorduğunu anımsadım. Bir planım yoktu, ama olsaydı annemle babamın benden daha uzun yaşamasını ve benden daha mutlu olmalarını dilerdim. Bu çocukça bir düşünceydi ve ben yalnız değildim, yalnız kalacağımı da sanmıyordum, ama o an için yalnızlık ölümden daha beterdi." -
İpek Şoran çevirisiyle 2022 yılında okurlarımızla buluşacak.
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Ovo je solidno napisan prikaz krize u braku kroz prizmu šesnaestogodišnjaka. Pripovedanje je precizno i jasno. Iako će mnogi prepoznati odblesak Holdena Kolfilda, Fordovom pripovedanju nedostaje Selindžerova harizma.
Uprkos tome što je knjiga u celini dobro spakovana, može se razmisliti o verodostojnosti i uverljivosti svedočenja lika-rezonera, kao i o usputnim alegorizacijama, koje bi trebalo da, valjda, budu suptilne. Na primer, otac koji se bori sa požarima kroz svoj posao, bori se ujedno sa ličnim požarima: sve gori iznutra, a deluje da je, zapravo, u redu. Nije zgoreg malo i rizikovati, pa i omašiti. To više cenim nego igranje na sigurno.
Video sam da je Pol Dejno režirao film po knjizi. Nisam ga pogledao. -
‘Ve sarf etmek istemeyeceğiniz bazı sözcükler vardır, mühim sözcükler, parçalanmış hayatların sorumlusu tutulabilecek sözcükler, mahvolmaması gereken ve mahvolmasını kimsenin istemediği ama mahvolmuş bir şeyi onarmaya çalışan ve yine de onaramayan sözcükler.’
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Amerikan edebiyatının bilinen isimlerinden Richard Ford ile tanışma eserim oldu Vahşi Hayat. Benim için kısa ancak sayfaları merakla çevrilen, Çehov’un patlayacak silaha dair öngörüsünü anımsatan bir eserdi bu. Aile olmak-birbirine tahammül edebilmek gibi konularda da sorular sordum kendime Vahşi Hayat’ı okurken..
Çabucak bitmesi haricinde sevdiğim bir kitap olduğunu da belirteyim.
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İpek Şoran çevirisi, Natalia Suvorova’nın sadeliğiyle göz dolduran kapak tasarımıyla ~ -
"You have an inquiring intelligence. Everything will always surprise you. You'll have a wonderful life."
Something in me broke while reading this. With less than 200 pages it's short in length, but certainly not on the feelings it evokes. Set in Montana in the 1960s, six-teen year old Joe Brinson has to watch the marriage of his parents fall apart over the course of three days.
There is little said, but a lot felt. Ford has a very particular way of writing: there are no lengthy descriptions, no unnecessary dialogue, no indulging backstories. I'm usually a sucker for some nice wordings, but in this case the simplicity is extremely effective, as it re-creates the growing distance, the sense of sudden unfamiliarity and unsettledness that the characters feel. Watching love die is a big deal, something that we all have witnessed, if not in our own lives than certainly in someone else's and it's a painful matter that is often hard to comprehend. And if you can't make love last, then what is your life worth?
"I wondered if there was some pattern or an order to things in your life - not one you knew but that worked on you and made events when they happened seem correct, or made you confident about them or willing to accept them even if they seemed like wrong things."
I'm surprised some have labeled this as a coming-of-age story. I am not sure if Joe really reaches an important stage of development as the definition would require him to. In a way, it's more an acceptance of the strangeness of life, of how unfathomable it is and will always be - regardless of our age. -
"Takmıyordum da, çünkü işlerin yoluna gireceğini düşünüyordum. Her ne kadar yanılmış olsam da, yine de insanın tam yüzleşeceği ana dek o bilinmeyen şeyi kafasına takması o kadar da kötü bir şey değil."
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I ask myself how I get off course on my reading list and it’s because of books like this. I see a movie trailer and it looks interesting. I think this looks like it could be a good book. I look up said title and yup it’s a book. I am so glad I deviated from my reading “plan.” This is a dismal book but I devoured it. Life is complicated and you never know what sets certain events into motion.
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I found this a well nuanced story of a boy coming to terms with the challenges faced in his parent’s marriage and the complex ways adults deal with their uncertainties in their purpose and commitment. The tale develops some of the themes Ford distilled in his later novel, “Canada”. Joe is 16 and living in Great Falls, Montana, where his parents had moved from Idaho because of job prospects created by the shale oil boom. His dad finds work as a golf instructor and his mother as a bookkeeper. Forest fires in the mountain foothills around the town are a big threat to the community, and Joe’s dad surprisingly joins a volunteer group to fight them. Joe understands on some level that his mother is falling in love with a man at the country club where his dad teaches golf. The reader experiences Joe’s confusion and worry about his father’s choice. Is it a means to prove his manliness and win his mother back, an act of self-destructiveness, or a legitimate path for his father to find self-worth among other brave men to live rough in the wild and conquer the dangers of nature?
In many ways it’s up to the reader to figure out. We come to feel some sympathy for his mother trying to fill something empty in her life and heartbreak for Joe as he explores the possibilities for sabotaging her budding relationship. I remember in my youth feeling that adults had some secret mastery and knowledge of the world, and I worried about when or if I would be able to acquire that mysterious capability I did not have and deferred thinking about it as long as I could. Only much later did it dawn on me how most adults are human in their fallibilities and how provisional their special knowledge is that they use to justify their power in running the world. I welcomed seeing related sentiments expressed so clearly in Joe’s mind:
When you are sixteen, you do not know what your parents know, or much of what they understand, and less of what’s in their hearts. This can save you from becoming an adult too early, save your life from becoming only theirs lived over again—which is a loss. But to shield yourself—as I didn’t do—seems to be an even greater error, since what’s lost is the truth for your parents’ life and what you should think about it, and beyond that, how you should estimate the world you are about to live in. -
Richard Ford es un autor que gusta de destripar el argumento de sus novelas en la primera página. Una maniobra, supongo, que pretende desviar la atención del lector hacia elementos de mayor peso. Así pues, poco importa saber de antemano que la madre del protagonista mantiene una aventura con otro hombre mientras su marido combate un colosal incendio forestal que amenaza con cernirse sobre la localidad de Great Falls, Montana, pues no se trata de una novela sobre los hechos, sino acerca de cómo respondemos ante ellos. El narrador es un adolescente de 16 años muy alejado del prototipo airado, rebelde y contestatario que carga contra todo lo que se le ponga por delante, sino que es un joven apocado, sereno y de una irritante pasividad que trata de comprender sin éxito la gran cantidad de cambios que están teniendo lugar a su alrededor a toda velocidad. Richard Ford elabora con muy pocos instrumentos una historia profunda y cargada de significado, una breve y atípica reflexión sobre los lazos familiares cuando la economía aprieta y el futuro no se discierne claro en el horizonte. Un lectura estática e ingrávida, aparentemente insustancial, pero que deja un gran poso.
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"Cautam mereu absolutul si nu-l gasim. Prinzi gustul pentru ce e autentic, dar tu nu esti."
O poveste trista despre cautare. Si despre distrugere. Si despre un anume fel de regasire. -
Το "Άγρια ζωή" είναι το πρώτο βιβλίο του Ρίτσαρντ Φορντ που διαβάζω, απ'όσο βλέπω το μικρότερο σε μέγεθος και όχι τόσο πολυδιαβασμένο όσο άλλα βιβλία του. Όμως μου φάνηκε σαν μια πρώτης τάξεως ευκαιρία να γνωρίσω τον μεγάλο αυτό Αμερικανό συγγραφέα και να δω αν ο τρόπος γραφής και σκέψης του ταιριάζει με τα χνώτα μου. Και, ναι, μπορώ να πω ότι ο Φορντ μου έκανε πολύ καλή εντύπωση και με άφησε ως επί το πλείστον ικανοποιημένο.
Η όλη ιστορία διαδραματίζεται στην πετρελαιαγωγό πόλη Μεγάλοι Καταρράκτες της Μοντάνα, όπου ο αφηγητής της ιστορίας, ονόματι Τζο, μετακόμισε με τον πατέρα και τη μητέρα του το 1960, όταν ήταν δεκαέξι χρονών. Ο πατέρας του Τζο κάποια στιγμή χάνει τη δουλειά του και φεύγει από το σπίτι, για τα δασωμένα βουνά όπου έχουν ξεσπάσει μεγάλες πυρκαγιές, προσπαθώντας να κάνει κάτι γι'αυτό, με τη μητέρα του Τζο να γνωρίζει στο μεταξύ έναν άλλο άντρα, μεγαλύτερο σε ηλικία, τον οποίο φαίνεται να ερωτεύεται. Ο έφηβος Τζο παρακολουθεί τη διάλυση του γάμου των γονιών του και τη μεγάλη αλλαγή που συντελείται σ'αυτό το κομμάτι της ζωής του. Παράλληλα, παίρνει μάτι από τον κόσμο των ενηλίκων και προσπαθεί να βγάλει ένα νόημα από αυτά που σκέφτονται και πράττουν...
Πρόκειται για ένα μυθιστόρημα που κινείται με αργούς και σταθερούς ρυθμούς, χωρίς ιδιαίτερες εξάρσεις και εκπλήξεις στην εξέλιξη της πλοκής, και με ελάχιστες στιγμές έντασης. Όμως, η γραφή του Φορντ έχει μια υπνωτιστική δύναμη, χάρη στην οποία κατάφερε να με καθηλώσει καθ'όλη τη σύντομη διάρκεια της ανάγνωσης του βιβλίου. Η γραφή μου φάνηκε αρκετά οξυδερκής, ήπια αλλά συνάμα κοφτερή, οπωσδήποτε ευκολοδιάβαστη και εθιστική. Σίγουρα το μυθιστόρημα αυτό δεν είναι για όλα τα γούστα, όμως προσωπικά με ξετρέλανε. Έφτασα πολύ κοντά στο να του βάλω πέντε αστεράκια, αλλά είπα να συγκρατηθώ.
Υ.Γ. Εννοείται πως θα δω την ομότιτλη ταινία (Wildlife), που αποτελεί και το σκηνοθετικό ντεμπούτο του Paul Dano. -
The dialog of the book was very flat and seemed very strange and unnatural to me. The main character in the story, a teenage boy tells his story which is a view into a few days in his life. There are major events that take place, such as his father losing his job, his mother having an affair, before his very eyes, and his father leaving home to fight a wildfire threatening the area, but these events don't seem to impact him in a major way-he just accepts them as the next thing that happens in his life.
I am not, and never have been a teenage boy; Is the author trying to tell us that this is the way things happen when we are young? I don't know..... but it didn't work for me.....I almost gave up on this book, but continued to read, hoping to find some great truth revealed, or some other event that would tie everything together. It didn't happen. -
Non è tanto che non si può dire di no a un altro[...]
È che non si può dire di no a se stessi. È un vuoto da riempire in noi, non in qualcun altro.
Incendi ,con fiamme alte ,indomabili , che distruggono la foresta ,sulle montagne intorno a Great Falls
e piccoli fuochi , che presi singolarmente è facile spegnere ,basta gettarci sopra forti getti di buon senso ,ma che se scoppiano tutti insieme ,bruciano tutto.
E nulla resta.
Niente sarà come prima.
O forse non è così .
3/4 stelle ( in alcune scene è stato strano non vedere scintille ) -
Though I'm a Richard Ford fan (I've read his later works, mostly), I wasn't planning on reading this early novel of his, but then I recognized some similarities in the description of this to that of his latest, "Canada," so I decided to read this first.
While I enjoyed reading it, and there's nothing wrong with it, it's not nearly as complex as his later works, so it suffered in comparison for me. But perhaps only in comparison, as there's a lot to like in this story of an insecure husband and wife, as seen through the eyes of their teenaged son. -
Orta halli çekirdek aile, baba golf eğitmeni, anne yüzme öğretiyor, 16 yaşında bir ergen oğlan. Her şey yolunda gidiyormuş gibi görünürken bir aldatma sızıyor aileye ve o sakin hayat babanın deyimiyle "Vahşi Hayat" oluyor. Tansiyonu yükseltmeden yazmış Richard Ford, en ağır bölümü bile...
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There’s a long tradition in the American imagination that sees the West as the wide-open space of opportunity, the space where you head when you want to leave your troubles and past behind, the space where you can start over anew if not entirely renewed. This is not Richard Ford’s West. Most of his fiction set in the West takes place in Montana, and the scenes and settings are typically grim and gritty, a place where people struggle to make ends meet and to keep their lives and relationships from unraveling. Most of the action occurs indoors rather than in the wide-open spaces; people more often look into windows rather than look out to vistas. It is not insignificant that, as does Wildlife, most of Ford’s fiction set in Montana takes place in Great Falls—that is, as its name suggests, in a place where characters descend rather than rise. But what most concerns Ford is less his characters’ falls than how they subsequently pick themselves up and find ways to endure and move on with their lives.
The central character and narrator of Wildlife is Joe Brinson, a man who reflects upon a family crisis, and a turning point in his life, that occurred when he was sixteen. Joe’s parents, as he presents them, are for the most part locked in lives of unrewarding routine; they make do, but they don’t thrive, their lives as spare and stark as the largely empty Montana landscape. After Joe’s father loses his job as a golf instructor, the family rushes toward danger when his father volunteers to help fight a fire raging in the backcountry. Wildfires can be fierce, dangerous, and unpredictable, and that’s precisely what Joe’s father seeks in his own life. Joe’s mother thinks her husband is being childish—boys will be boys, always looking for excitement—but when he joins the fire crew she turns around and sets off to pursue her own wild life, an affair with a man in town. “I went outwards,” she tells Joe, suggesting she’s well aware that she shares the desires of her husband. Not surprisingly, events soon carom out of control—predictable lives quickly become unpredictable, with the family plunging toward the abyss.
As Joe recalls what happened that year, he tries to piece together the events, along with the emotions he felt, so to bring them into some sort of sense and coherence. And yet he ponders all the while whether attempting to construct a meaningful pattern is even possible; perhaps such effort is merely fruitless, a misguided endeavor to impose order on life’s unruliness. “I wondered,” he says, “if there was some pattern or an order to things in your life—not one you knew but that worked on you and made events when they happened seem correct, or made you confident about them or willing to accept them even if they seemed like wrong things. Or was everything just happening all the time, in a whirl without anything to stop it or cause it—the way we think of ants, or molecules under the microscope, or the way others would think of us, not knowing our difficulties, watching us from another planet?”
Joe never precisely answers this question, except in the broad sense that in telling his story he does bring some order to the events. And in this regard Joe’s act of narration is of utmost importance, as it reflects the challenge that the protagonists in almost all of Ford's fiction face: not to give into cynicism and despair but to locate and preserve the good, even when there’s not much good to be found.
Wildlife is a beautiful, moving novel. Ford’s quietly reflective and understated prose perfectly captures Joe’s painstaking attempt to craft something positive from the heartbreak and despair that had years before derailed his and his parents’ lives. -
Fantastic. Could be the simplest novel I've ever read. There's all of four characters, plus three extras who play extremely minor, one-scene roles. The emotion was really there on the page, while somehow never approaching melodrama. I really felt for the characters. At times, the mother was a bit of a mystery, or a cipher even, who just spouted cliches, but eventually you realize this is sort of just who she is. This isn't a character-driven novel in the sense that you really, really get to know these people, know their inner secrets, motivations, etc. etc., yet you do know them, they're fully developed, etc. The narrator is sixteen (or was when the events took place) but this is hardly Holden Caulfield type junk. All three main characters keep their emotions very, very close to their chests, which makes complete sense for a sixteen-year-old, but also makes the adults really interesting, seeing how they deal with a bad situation by acting like everything is fine. There's one futile attempt at real action, and Ford handles it wonderfully, blah blah blah blah blah this book was great. Really good.
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Kitabın filmini daha önce izlemiş birisi olarak açıkça söyleyebilirim ki kitabı okurken Hemingway okuyorum gibi hissettim. Aynı sert, yalın ve beklenmedik bir düzyazı. Hayata üçüncü kişilerin gözünden değil de birinci kişilerin gözünden izlemek gibi.
Bize üç ya da dört karakter verip her birinin ne düşündüğünü söylemek yerine, karakterlerini söyledikleri ve yaptıklarıyla yargılamamıza izin veriyor. Tıpkı gerçek hayat gibi. Görünüşe göre Ford'un ana fikri, her insanın hayatını kendi istediği gibi yaşaması gerektiği, diğer insanların, hatta bir oğlun bile onlardan istediği gibi değil.
Sonuçta bu etkileyici bir kitap, hiç büyümediği için babaya veya bencil bir kadın olduğu için anneye kızabilirsiniz.
Gerçek hayat bu değil de nedir? -
Excellent, understated story about the ways we learn to cope with the absurd and incomprehensible.
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Ford is a beautiful writer when he's describing people and scenes, but wow he's terrible at dialogue. None of it seemed realistic in this book. Especially the core conversations between the boy and the mom and the boy and the dad, which was the heart of the book. It's a fine plot though it's pretty dark, but I was really distracted by the stilted and unrealistic conversations.
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I have read quite a bit by Richard Ford. This short novel was published after his success with The Sportswriter and before the rest of his Frank Bascombe series. I have always enjoyed Ford’s clear, direct, simple and very descriptive prose. I feel his characters might be someone I am going to meet on a typical day. They feel very real and recognizable. This is all true of Wildlife as well. However, with Wildlife I didn’t feel much of anything for the characters, and I never felt I got absorbed in the story. The story just felt mundane.
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My first encounter with Richard Ford and I very much liked the straightforward writing. It felt indulgent in that the style is a throwback to great writers of the past (it was published in 1990 but gave me Richard Yates vibes). I just thought the story was a bit thin.
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Me encantado leer este libro después de haber leído Canadá. Son bastante similares, pero me quedo con Incendios por mucho!!
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Ford costruisce bei personaggi che vivono passioni forti, che incidono e feriscono, ma descritte sempre senza toni eccessivi, con misura e sensibilità. Sullo sfondo un paese devastato da incendi dolosi, ma anche le vite dei personaggi passano attraverso le trasformazioni di un fuoco, quello di una crisi, quello di sentimenti che non lasciano niente intatto. “Non è tanto che non si può dire di no a un altro [....] è che non si può dire di no a se stessi.”
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I don't understand why people hate on this book. Though it could be slow at times, I thought it was very realistic and surprisingly insightful coming from a 16-year-old narrator (but not unrealistically insightful). There aren't any monumental events, but I think that's what makes the book stand out from others. It just is.
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realistic tale about a boy's experiences in Montana, as I recall, 1940s. Ford tells all his stories beautifully. I don't mean as in "pretty writing" but more as in "spare" writing, Hemingwayesque, where every word and every paragraph count for something.
