They Whisper: A Novel

by Robert Olen Butler | Romance |
ISBN: 0805019855 Global Overview for this book
Registered by nokturnalmuse of Tampa, Florida USA on 1/22/2005
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by nokturnalmuse from Tampa, Florida USA on Saturday, January 22, 2005
Collected dust on my bookshelf for years and I never got around to reading it.

Hardcover - 1st Edition

From Publishers Weekly
Known for the psychological acuity of his six previous novels and for the short story collection, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain , for which he won the Pulitzer last year, Butler here moves into new territory. This is a literary novel about the physical chemistry of sensual love, told in lyrical prose via a sensitive narrator who venerates the memories of the many women with whom he has coupled, and who "hears" the whispers of their voices, which are interwoven into the text. At 35, Ira Holloway is a man who lives intensely through his senses; the slightest visual or olfactory stimulation releases sensual memories, which he recollects in a highly charged stream of consciousness. Holloway's sexual experiences go back to his youth in Wabash, Ill., his service in Vietnam, his affairs in Zurich and in New York, where he currently works in public relations. But Holloway is not a conventional, and thereby contemptible, womanizer; he is a man whose eroticism is coupled with a true appreciation of female sexuality and respect for women as individuals. More than a mere litany of sexual unions, the novel is, au fond , the record of Holloway's tormented marriage to a woman in the grip of a religious obsession that accelerates from eccentric to insane, and the anguished decisions he makes for the sake of their son. While the descriptions of erotic love are integral to the plot, the highly charged sensuality, the details of the rising stages of lust and the relentless stream-of-consciousness monologue sometimes grow wearisome. Some may empathize with Holloway when he confesses: "I can become a little overwhelmed by the vast chorus that sings all around me, all the women, their throats throbbing in an Ode to Joy." 75,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Journal Entry 2 by Pyan from Menasha, Wisconsin USA on Monday, July 18, 2005
Removed from Nokturnalmuse's Fiction Book Box #1.

Journal Entry 3 by Pyan from Menasha, Wisconsin USA on Wednesday, August 3, 2005
Written as the first person narrative of Ira Holloway, an erogenous and sensitive man who loves women, who finds rapturous beauty in the crinkle of an instep as easily as in "her henna nipples" or the "soft sargasso struck with this same sunlight there between her legs." Ira is so sensitive and responsive that he hears the ethereal whispers of a woman's thoughts.

This isn't an easy book to get into. Full of undertones, it requires a lot of strengh to go through all the pain of its pages.

What I admire about the novel is the lyrical intensity of its attempt to recreate erotic obsession. What I don't admire is a redundancy of detail and motif that often veers toward monotony. Though plot is not a dominant element here, being subsidiary to image and tone, it's sometimes a bit formulaic, especially the end. It's worthwhile if you're a patient reader.



Journal Entry 4 by Pyan at on Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Released 17 yrs ago (4/25/2006 UTC) at

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Sending to Zmrzlina -- our May BookMate.

Journal Entry 5 by PostMuse from Wellfleet, Massachusetts USA on Sunday, July 16, 2006
Thank you very much Pyan! I am finally getting caught up with books and have a ton of acknowledgments to make, as well as books to send out. At least I've used my downtime wisely...I've gotten caught up on a ton of reading. More later...

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