The Bat Tattoo

by Russell Hoban | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 074756163x Global Overview for this book
Registered by wyldetwo of Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on 9/26/2013
Buy from one of these Booksellers:
Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Bol.com
4 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wyldetwo from Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on Thursday, September 26, 2013
Recently widowed and increasingly lonely, Roswell Clark's life had arrived at the point when he felt he needed a tattoo. His ideal image was that of a bat featured on an eighteenth-century bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum, but strangely, on a visit to the museum, he encountered a woman called Sarah Varley, who was clearly compelled by the same bat. What did it mean? Sarah dealt in antiques and Roswell soon ran into her stalls in Chelsea and Covent Garden. His calling, which grew out of an obsession with crash-test dummies, was a bit harder to explain. It led from the invention of a popular children's toy to lucrative commissions from a Parisian sybarite for wooden working models with very adult moving parts. Both Roswell and Sarah had lost their spouses and were still grieving in their different ways. And then Christ started putting a hand in - literally - when a fragment of an ancient crucifix fetched up in one of Sarah's antique lots. Between some compulsion conveyed by this hand and Sarah's natural urge to make improvements in people, Roswell's work took a surprising new turn... Russell Hoban's delicious new novel combines much about art - traditional and conceptual - with new angles on Christ, crash-test dummies, antiques, pornography and a charming tale of romance.

Journal Entry 2 by wyldetwo at Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands United Kingdom on Friday, September 27, 2013
For my NSS partner at the BCUK Uncon 2013, Leeds. Hope you enjoy the book!

Journal Entry 3 by Apechild at Leeds, West Yorkshire United Kingdom on Saturday, September 28, 2013
I was utterly spoiled in my NSS parcel, and got this quirky little book in the collection =) Thank you Wyldetwo for putting together such a brilliant parcel. I hope there was something nice for you waiting at the table.

Journal Entry 4 by Apechild at York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Thursday, October 3, 2013
There was something kind of autumnual and melancholy about this book. Not that the characters are even that old... I think they're somewhere in their forties... but there was something about this and the way they were always looking back. Both Sarah Varley, and Roswell Clark, lost their partners in recent years, and ponder on that whilst muddling through the present. They first meet at the Victoria and Albert museum, where Roswell is looking at a bat in an old Chinese bowl. He wants to use this bat as a tattoo on his shoulder. As coincidence would have it, Sarah already has this tattoo.

So they gradually form a friendship over the months through chance meetings. She sees him as a bit incomplete and wants to improve him... what is this saying about women?! And he is living off his fortunes from a sucessful crash test dummy toy, and making bespoke kinky automia for some super rich French guy. This money and so forth lead him into art and creating for the sake of creating, to make a massive dummy on a cross. There is a lot about religion in here, and about Zion, crucifixes, and general ponderings, which were all a little dry for me.

So it's a nice little tale and it kind of finishes nicely without you wanting any more.

Journal Entry 5 by Apechild at The Graduate in York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Sunday, October 20, 2013

Released 10 yrs ago (10/20/2013 UTC) at The Graduate in York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Taking this to the Halloween bookcrossing meet up this coming Tuesday. There's a bat in it, so there's a slight connection.

Journal Entry 6 by sherdnerdess at York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Sunday, November 24, 2013
Picked this up at the October meetup because it looked interesting. That's it!

Released 6 yrs ago (10/24/2017 UTC) at Brigantes Bar & Brasserie OBCZ / Meetup Venue in York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Bringing to the supernatural themed meetup - I am due shortly after 8.30 and in time for the quiz. Two lonely people by chance feel an affinity to the same object. Bizarre but enjoyable.

Journal Entry 8 by Shelagh65 at York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, June 26, 2018
This was recommended to me, and the descriptions sound very intriguing!

Are you sure you want to delete this item? It cannot be undone.