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Vanishing Points by Thea Astley VANISHING POINTS Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Vanishing Points by Thea Astley VANISHING POINTS. Throughout this Australian writer's harsh-to-playfully satiric novels (Hunting the Wild Pineapple, 1991, etc.), the massive idiocy of institutionalized greed--an individual's or a country's--is dismembered sinew-by-socket. Here, in two novellas, two solitary ones observe Evil on the march, and both have moments of smashing revenge. Both ex-academic Mac Hope, divorced and over the middle-age hill (in ""The Genteel Poverty Bus Company""), and Julie Truscott (in ""Investing the Weather""), married to the awful Clifford, find their evil encapsulated in one nasty, crude, and cruel personage, the scourge of civilized values and of the purity of the natural world--the Developer. In this case, Clifford. It is Clifford who is ""turning into a plastic Disneyworld"" pristine islands like the one opposite Mac's hermitage where Mac courts solitude and peace. When Mac blasts music (Wagner or Bartok are good choices) across the water at three in the morning--sometimes to slap hack at the Club Med-type of disco beat--the battle is on. Mac will lose his own island, of course, while he still muses on the nature of solitude and his earlier search with lonely others in his bus-tour days--and in spite of help from another lonely isolate, a kind of young scholar gypsy who leaves before Mac heads for ""the void."" Meanwhile, Clifford's wife, Julie, hands philandering Clifford a blow when she simply leaves the house and three kids to him and takes on a journalist's job. But rankling cruelties and loss of the kids bring her to despair--and eventually to a small mission run by three saintly nuns in a pure and quiet semiwilderness. Then comes Clifford, resort plans in his pocket. Clifford's end is quite horrible--and satisfying. A bit like the wickedly fun and satiric Fay Weldon. Sometimes cerebrally overengaged in style, but always fresh and inventive. Vanishing Points. In The Genteel Poverty Bus Company, a lone man foils the capitalistic efforts of a developer-magnate, and the same developer's wife leaves her fat-cat husband for a mission at Bukki Bay in Inventing the Weather. From Kirkus Reviews: Throughout this Australian writer's harsh-to-playfully satiric novels (Hunting the Wild Pineapple, 1991, etc.), the massive idiocy of institutionalized greed--an individual's or a country's--is dismembered sinew-by-socket. Here, in two novellas, two solitary ones observe Evil on the march, and both have moments of smashing revenge. Both ex-academic Mac Hope, divorced and over the middle-age hill (in ``The Genteel Poverty Bus Company''), and Julie Truscott (in ``Investing the Weather''), married to the awful Clifford, find their evil encapsulated in one nasty, crude, and cruel personage, the scourge of civilized values and of the purity of the natural world--the Developer. In this case, Clifford. It is Clifford who is ``turning into a plastic Disneyworld'' pristine islands like the one opposite Mac's hermitage where Mac courts solitude and peace. When Mac blasts music (Wagner or Bartok are good choices) across the water at three in the morning--sometimes to slap back at the Club Med-type of disco beat--the battle is on. Mac will lose his own island, of course, while he still muses on the nature of solitude and his earlier search with lonely others in his bus-tour days--and in spite of help from another lonely isolate, a kind of young scholar gypsy who leaves before Mac heads for ``the void.'' Meanwhile, Clifford's wife, Julie, hands philandering Clifford a blow when she simply leaves the house and three kids to him and takes on a journalist's job. But rankling cruelties and loss of the kids bring her to despair--and eventually to a small mission run by three saintly nuns in a pure and quiet semiwilderness. Then comes Clifford, resort plans in his pocket. Clifford's end is quite horrible--and satisfying. A bit like the wickedly fun and satiric Fay Weldon. Sometimes cerebrally overengaged in style, but always fresh and inventive. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. "About this title" may belong to another edition of this title. All books shipped within 24 hours. This is a sole proprietorship, Daniel C. Pope, P.O. Box 370310, West Hartford Conn. 06137, USA. Email: [email protected]. Phone: (860) 232-9930. Media rate shipping is $3.95. Priority rate shipping is $8.95. International priority rate in a box for a two-pound book is approximately $23. Some heavy books might be more to ship overseas. Will overnight express anywhere within USA if you ask first. Vanishing Points. Set in Australia, this story follows the lives of Macintosh Hope, a disenchanted academic, and Julie Truscott, a seemingly ordinary housewife, each fleeing from lives they cannot control. It is a love story about two fellow-travellers who never meet, but whose paths run curiously parallel. Read More. Set in Australia, this story follows the lives of Macintosh Hope, a disenchanted academic, and Julie Truscott, a seemingly ordinary housewife, each fleeing from lives they cannot control. It is a love story about two fellow-travellers who never meet, but whose paths run curiously parallel. Read Less. All Copies ( 21 ) Softcover ( 10 ) Hardcover ( 10 ) Choose Edition ( 4 ) Book Details Seller Sort. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. San Diego, CA, USA. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Very Good Details: ISBN: 039913770X ISBN-13: 9780399137709 Pages: 234 Edition: First American Edition Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 1992 Language: English Alibris ID: 8373833775 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very Good+ in Very Good+ jacket. First Printing. Sml 8vo. Publisher rem. mark letter "P" stamped on bot. end pages, and edges of boards faded, else unmarked VG+/VG+ in clear dust jacket cvr. Australian author, winner of the Patrick White Award for lifetime achievement in literature and multiple winner of Australia's prestigious Miles Franklin Award. ► Contact This Seller. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Fine/Like New Details: ISBN: 039913770X ISBN-13: 9780399137709 Pages: 234 Edition: First Edition, First Printing Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 1992 Language: English Alibris ID: 10336447237 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fine/Fine. 8vo-over 7�"-9�" tall 039913770x Used A Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Negligible wear. ► Contact This Seller. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Very Good Details: ISBN: 039913770X ISBN-13: 9780399137709 Pages: 234 Edition: American edition Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 1992 Language: English Alibris ID: 16651232883 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Brownstown, MI, USA. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Very Good Details: ISBN: 039913770X ISBN-13: 9780399137709 Pages: 234 Edition: American edition Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 1992 Language: English Alibris ID: 16599088163 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Wheatfield, NY, USA. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Fine/Like New Details: ISBN: 039913770X ISBN-13: 9780399137709 Pages: 234 Edition: First U.S Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 1992 Language: English Alibris ID: 11359971482 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fine in Very Good dust jacket. 039913770x. A Good Read ships from Toronto and Niagara Falls, NY-customers outside of North America please allow two to three weeks for delivery.; A few crinkles on edges of d/j, minor surface rubbing.; 8vo-over 7�"-9�" Tall. ► Contact This Seller. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Hardcover, Good Details: ISBN: 039913770X ISBN-13: 9780399137709 Pages: 234 Edition: First American Edition, 1st Printing Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 1992 Language: English Alibris ID: 16468488230 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good in Good + jacket. Mylared A nice reading copy. Pages are clean and bright. Binding is tight. Book and jacket show some shelfwear. Jacket has been mylared for protection. ► Contact This Seller. 1992, Putnam Publishing Group. Edition: 1992, Putnam Publishing Group Paperback, Very Good Details: ISBN: 1863301860 ISBN-13: 9781863301862 Pages: 234 Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Published: 01/1993 Alibris ID: 16327756816 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very good. Shows some signs of wear from usage. Is no longer bright/shinny. Edge wear from storage and shelving. ► Contact
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