The New City: Amazon.de: Stephen Amidon: Englische Bücher

Weitere Ausgaben

Amazon-Preis

Neu ab

Gebraucht ab

Gebundene Ausgabe

EUR 18,99

Taschenbuch

EUR 13,99

Taschenbuch, 5. M�rz 2001

Produktinformation

Produktbeschreibungen

Amazon.co.uk

Stephen Amidon's fourth novel The New City is a powerfully plotted American tragedy, mirroring the nation's own optimistic birth and the inevitable betrayal of its idealism. The "new city" of the title is Newton, Maryland; a city built from scratch, planned and developed to provide a perfectly engineered social and physical environment which might foster the dreams of the Republic, a place where races will live harmoniously. Its architect Barnaby Vine believes that "the city's design would provide a remedy for the social chaos gripping the nation...Put [people] in communities and they'll act like human beings". Entrusted with carrying out his vision are two men, one white, one black: Austin Swope, acting city manager and the lawyer responsible for land acquisition, and Earl Wooten, the master builder who has overseen the construction of Newton and who dreams of a city free of racial prejudice. Unexplained problems are developing in the city's social and structural fabric, however, and as Newton starts to fall apart, Swope and Wooten are set against each other by a moment of mistrust. Amidon's plot is inexorable and compelling, the end a brutal descent into chaos and treachery.

Amidon's book lies partly within an established American tradition which explores the possibilities of creating utopian communities in the New World, but also picks up on the recent fascination for revisiting the dysfunctions of the 1970s (for example Rick Moody's The Ice Storm) and the turbulent personal and political currents of those times. It also brings to mind the inexorable fall-from-grace plot of Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities--but without that book's ebullient satire and heavy irony: Amidon--though he never quite avoids the element of stereotype that seems such a staple of the thriller-genre he has adopted--is too interested in the detail of character and the individual's response to events to want to turn his book into an exemplary fiction. For what happens is tragedy enough, and sufficiently emblematic to suggest the deep fault lines that still traverse American society. --Burhan Tufail -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

Amazon.com

The American journalist Stephen Amidon spent 15 years living in London, and during that time he wrote a trio of fiction books whose very brevity seemed to reflect the English penchant for understatement. Now, however, he has returned to the United States. And it's hard not to see The New City--a long, dense, detail-encrusted narrative of the kind that a cutting-edge Theodore Dreiser might have produced--as a token of his homecoming. Even the subject of the novel, a meticulously planned utopian community in the Maryland suburbs, is as American as apple pie. And so, alas, is the ingrained racism that ultimately destroys this Watergate-era city on a hill.

The dream community of Newton is largely the work of two men. One, a white lawyer and developer named Austin Swope, has specialized in pitching his vision to the masses, not to mention the deep-pocketed investors:

Look, he said, passing a conjurer's hand through the air above the model. No overhead power lines or billboards or factories to blot out the sky. With the exception of a single central building, nothing would rise above the trees. And Newton's citizens would work where they lived, in landscaped business parks that housed new industries like telecommunications and computers. They would shop in nearby village centers and worship under the discreetly steepled roofs of interfaith centers.

Too good to be true? That's exactly what Swope and his master builder, a black construction ace named Earl Wooten, discover in the course of the novel. As the Vietnam War winds down and the Watergate hearings ramp up, the ugly discords of American life seep directly into Newton. Racism and paranoia--the stock-in-trade of American political life, circa 1973--soon separate not only Swope and Wooten but their two sons. Like most paradises, this one is lost in painful increments, and Amidon has structured a suspenseful narrative around Newton's rise and fall. At times the sheer pile-up of detail can stop the story in its tracks. Still, the author has managed to erect an impressive fictional edifice, and unlike the misbegotten community, it appears to be built to last. --Nicole Nolan -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

Alle Produktbeschreibungen

Kundenrezensionen

Die hilfreichsten Kundenrezensionen

Compelling & Readable 2. Mai 2000

Von Phil Callan Jr.

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

The New City is a compelling and readable novel, dealing with the lives of real individuals, caught in a situation beyond their control, but often times forced by events of their own creation. The story is set in 1973, and the author frequently reminds us of this by reference to topical events and songs. As it develops, one begins to sense impending disaster, but we are unable to forecast exactly what will occur until the final pages.

Kommentar |

War diese Rezension f�r Sie hilfreich?

Nein

Dramatic failure of a plan for an ideal community 27. April 2000

Von Ein Kunde

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

The New City examines the tenet that people's behaviour and attitudes can be radically altered by the environment in which they live. Newton has been designed to foster harmony between races and discourage crime but this environment cannot overcome the deep-rooted prejudices and suspicion, which once aroused, set the main characters and on a roller-coaster to disaster, and lead the city to the brink of anarchy. The strength of the novel lies in the steady and inevitable build up to the disintegration of the lives of the main characters, brought about by a combination of events and their own distorted perceptions.

The New City is a bleak forecast that the worst of what is primitive in human nature can overcome a civilizing environment. Some of the characters do have better impulses but are not strong enough to overcome them. The book seems to suggest that they never would be but a more optimistic judgement would be that maybe human nature is not yet ready for the New City.

I recommend this book as a thoughtful and, as the story progresses, a compelling read.

Kommentar |

War diese Rezension f�r Sie hilfreich?

Nein

Interesting Novel about seemingly nonfiction events 6. April 2000

Von John L. Thompson

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

Amidon depicts the city of Newton as a man made utopia of modern society. Which seems rather far fetched, however most of the story is based loosly around the real attitudes and events of real life pseudo utopia of Columbia, MD. The interest level of the book becomes exceedingly high when you know every street that is refered to in the novel and the racial struggles that are still present to this day. The detail of the book does often tangent a little off the main plot line, but is usually brought back in due course. The relationship between as the characters at times seems incestuous, but so are the relationship in the world of Columbia, MD. If you live in suburban Maryland this is a must read, even if you are not the story is intriguing enough to make this hard to put down.

Kommentar |

War diese Rezension f�r Sie hilfreich?

Nein

Kunden diskutieren