Regular marked price: $22.95Discount Price: $13.98
Cost Savings: $8.97 (39%)Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9781933149233
ISBN number: 193314923X
Label: Manic D Press, Ltd.
Manufacturer: Manic D Press, Ltd.
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 224
Printing Date: April 23, 2008
Publishing house: Manic D Press, Ltd.
Sale Popularity Level: 72147
Studio: Manic D Press, Ltd.
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
'[Francesca Lia] Block writes about the real Los Angeles better than anyone since Raymond Chandler.'-The New York Times Book Review
'[Block] uses language like a jeweled sword glittering as it cuts to the heart.'-Kirkus Reviews
After enduring from afar a seemingly endless series of outside worldwide disasters-including 9/11 and the Asian tsunami-while living in earthquake-prone Los Angeles, a bereft Katrina experiences deep inner longings for some sense of permanence, meaning, and intimacy. A preschool teacher contemplating the unsettling challenges of her mid-life, she finds solace in the company of her dear friend Grace, and conflict in the arms of a narcissistic yoga instructor, Jasper.
In this intertwining series of emotionally charged stories, wistful characters weave together a dance of joy and sorrow, gain and loss, harmony and dissonance. Beautifully written, Quakeland speaks in a deeply stirring female voice to an unspoken sense of universal longing that seems quietly prevalent in these times. It is a brave, poetic work that acknowledges the pain and loss we live with every day, and offers hope-through art and through connection-of something more.
Francesca Lia Block is renowned for her groundbreaking novels and stories, including the best-selling Weetzie Bat-postmodern, magic-realist tales for all ages. Her work transports readers through the harsh landscapes of contemporary life to magic realms of the senses where love is always a saving grace. She lives in Los Angeles.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
Quakeland by Francesca Lia Block is another example of how Block has grown creatively and how her characters have matured along with her story's themes. Here she returns to the interwoven stories that she did so beautifully in Echo. But this is not a young adult novel and this is as close as it gets to being a disappointment.
Block's young adult novels, with their beautiful imagery, lyrical language, and above all how she touches on the most painful experiences with a delicacy that makes even the most nightmarish realities something that can not only be survived but can be survived with grace. There is a promise at the end of her young adult novels that is not present in Quakeland. Perhaps this is more honest. Perhaps with maturity comes the need to just accept that pain is inevitable.
And yet, there is a sense of the human potential to evolve beyond the present reality (a promise hinted at by the perfect and marvelous illustration on the cover). This book is infused with the horrors of terrorist attacks, floods, tsunamis, and the threat of earthquakes. In the pages there is healing, a sort of homeopathic catharsis of words. I wanted to cry most of the time as I was reading. The pain was too familiar.
Needless to say, I will return to this book and reread it. I will hold it close as I read the words and sigh. Maybe I will not want to cry. Maybe I will want to cry so much more that I will not be able to stop myself. And no maybe about it, I look forward to Block's subsequent book.
Rated by buyers 
-
This novel contains everything I've loved about Block's work (dreamy, color-saturated prose; insider portraits of L.A.) and some qualities I didn't expect: Not only does it take a more adult approach to relationships, but it takes a turn for the meta/experimental a little over halfway through. The narrator seems to try on different voices and different ways of retelling the story of a difficult relationship. Unlike many experimental works, though, the story remains personal and emotional. It's clear that Block and/or the narrator is telling the story not to mess around with language, but to heal. The result is a beautiful and beautifully strange work, a quick read that nevertheless encompasses the reader.
Rated by buyers -
As a long-time Francesca Lia Block fan I'm pleased by how Quakeland contains the themes I've come to love so well, but is also a bit darker and has more realistic tones than her other works. Parts of it seem almost autobiographical (though I have no idea if any of it is based in reality) and that made it even more fascinating. I couldn't put it down!
Rated by buyers 
-
I adore Francesca Lia Block. Her language is lyrical and she manages to infuse magic and possibilities into her stories regardless of their settings. Quakeland is different. The language is still gorgeous but the story is very bitter and there isn't much hope at the end. It made me wonder if FLB has had a bad experience with a man in her personal life recently. This is about the only book of hers that I don't look forward to re-reading. If this is the very first book of hers that you have read, please read one of her older novels to get a better sense of her writing.
Rated by buyers -
There are many likable things about this book--its prose style; its protagonist, who may be a psychic battered by the world or who may just be mentally ill; an antagonist whose narcissism belies his search for enlightenment; and the loving and painful and sometimes shallow and fearful nature of friendships. But this reader experienced great frustration at the sudden, confusing and unexplained changes of voice in the last section of the novel. Just at the moment when our protagonist should be processing the magnitude of her loss and the depths of her self destructive relationships, she's dumped from the story and fragmented into other viewpoints. The novel collapses into an annoying, confusing and deeply unsatisfying self indulgence on the part of the author.
Find other books like this one:
