Nicholson Baker

Vox is the story of two voices, his and hers: two strangers who, having met on a telephone chat-line, switch to a private, one-on-one connection - and find it impossible to hang up. Literate, humorous, erotic, Vox is a classic of bedtime reading.

Shandee simpatiza con un brazo que halla en una cantera de granito; Ned se cae dentro de uno de los hoyos de un campo de golf; Luna es absorbida por una cabina en un centro de bronceado, Tras "Vox" y "La Fermata", Baker vuelve al terreno erotico con una novela extravagante que trascurre en la Casa de los Agujeros, un territorio del placer en donde no rigen las normas de la vida cotidiana. Los visitantes entran alli aspirados por una multitud de agujeros, como por ejemplo, las pajitas de las bebidas o el ojo de buey de las secadoras de lavanderia. Se trata de un lugar propicio para explorar las propias fantasias, desde hacer el amor con arboles, hasta visitar las salas de gemidos. La encargada de las operaciones diarias es Lila, una ex administradora de hospital cuya leche materna tiene propiedades regeneradoras poco comunes. Con un lenguaje jugueton y una estetica estrafalaria, Baker colma las expectativas con una original vuelta de tuerca a la representacion de las experiencias eroticas.

Bestselling author of Vox and The Fermata returns to the terrain that made him famous with a gleefully provocative, off-the-charts sex novel Shandee finds a friendly arm at a granite quarry. Ned drops down a hole in a golf course. Luna meets a man made of light bulbs at a tanning parlor. So begins Nicholson Baker's fuse-blowing, sex-positive escapade, House of Holes. Baker, the bestselling author of The Mezzanine, Vox, and The Fermata, who 'writes like no one else in America' (Newsweek), returns to erotic territory with a gleefully over-the-top novel set in a pleasure resort, where normal rules don't apply. Visitors, pulled in via their drinking straws or the dryers in laundromats, can undergo crotchal transfers ...make love to trees ...visit the Groanrooms and the twelve-screen Porndecahedron ...or pussy-surf the White Lake. It's very expensive, of course, but there are work-study programs. In charge of day-to-day operations is Lila, a former hospital administrator whose breast milk has unusual regenerative properties. Brimful of good-nature, wit, and surreal sexual vocabulary, House of Holes is a modern-day Hieronymous Boschian bacchanal that is sure to surprise, amuse, and arouse.

"La studentessa Shandee trova un braccio ancora vivo e in grado di scrivere e di svolgere tutte le attivita, ma proprio tutte, con grande abilita. La relazione sentimental-erotica con il suddetto braccio e il desiderio di ricongiungerlo al suo legittimo proprietario la conduce - insieme a dozzine di altri personaggi maschili e femminili - nella Casa dei Buchi, mondo parallelo dove le fantasie erotiche diventano realta, ma a un prezzo... Una scappatella sbalorditiva e sex positive, che ci conduce in un mondo surreale ma familiare, dove sono allegramente messe in scena tutte le oscenita carnali che potete immaginare, e forse anche alcune bizzarrie a cui probabilmente nemmeno pensate. Il libro e assolutamente esplicito, e la risposta di un romanziere alla nostra cultura satura di pornografia, un moderno baccanale alla Hieronymus Bosch che vi eccitera, vi divertira e vi sorprendera. "

Los orígenes de la II Guerra Mundial contados a través de fragmentos de diarios, artículos de periódicos y folletos propagandísticos. Este libro cubre un amplio período, desde fnales del siglo XIX hasta diciembre de 1941, para contar de una manera totalmente distinta y original los origenes de la II Guerra Mundial. Un libro inolvidable que tendra un profundo efecto sobre nuestra vision de los acontecimientos historicos, y que contiene un sentido lamento por la irreparable perdida que la Humanidad se ha causado a si misma. Una historia de la II Guerra Mundial totalmente distinta e innovadora, cuyas tesis polemicas sobre el belicismo de los aliados, la justicia de la guerra y el papel de los pacifstas seguro daran mucho de que hablar. En septiembre se cumplen setenta años del estallido de la guerra. Baker incomoda a aquellos que creen que todos los alemanes fueron malos y puede enojar a los que consideran a Churchill un heroe. Colm Toibin, The New York Times

NICHOLSON BAKER ES EL ESCRITOR MÁS ORIGINAL DE SU GENERACIÓN Y CHOWDER SU PERSONAJE MÁS ENTRAÑABLECada día Paul Chowder, un poeta de discreto éxito y mediana edad acude al establo que le sirve de estudio para escribir la introduccion de una antologia. Repasa en voz alta a sir Walter Scott, Longfellow, Poe... pero se distrae con la belleza sutil de su escoba o con el sonido de los pajaros y no puede terminar el encargo de su editor. Ademas, Smacko, su perro, necesita un baño, y su novia Roz, que lo ha dejado, es la unica que sabe como hacerlo. Incapaz de escribir apenas un verso pareado sobre un cacahuete tostado, Paul parece estar a la espera de un feliz accidente, una imagen, que vuelva a dejar todo en su lugar.Sin embargo, mientras divaga sobre las cosas mas sencillas de la vida, el gris perfecto que se marca en los pliegues de la ropa muy clara, o el lento movimiento de la niebla, Paul descubre la poesia que le permite ser quien es.NADIE COMO ESCRIBE COMO BAKER. DAVID GATES, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Nicholson Baker's new novel, The Anthologist, is narrated by Paul Chowder, a poet of some little reknown who is sitting in his barn most of the time trying to write the introduction to a new anthology of poetry called Only Rhyme. He's having a hard time getting started because his career is falling apart, his girlfriend Roz has recently left him, and he is thinking about the poets throughout history who have suffered far worse and actually deserve to feel sorry for themselves. He has also promised his readers that he will reveal many wonderful secrets and tips and tricks about poetry, and it looks like the introduction will be a little longer than he'd thought. What unfolds is a wholly entertaining and beguiling love story about poetry, among other things; Paul tells us about all of the great poets, from Tennyson, Swinburne, and Yeats to the moderns (Roethke, Bogan, Merwin) to the contemporary scene as well as the editorial staff of The New Yorker's editorial department. And what he reveals about the rhythm and music of poetry itself is astonishing and makes you realize how incredibly important poetry is to our lives. At the same time, Paul manages just barely to realize all of this himself and what results is a tender, wonderfully romantic, often hilarious, and inspired novel. The Anthologist bears all the beloved hallmarks of Baker's novels: it is witty, erudite, breathtakingly articulate and stylish, and full of the whimsical, compulsive elements that have made its author a worldwide success.

Quel est le point commun entre un lacet et un sandwich au thon Tous deux illustrent une mtaphysique du quotidien redfinie sous la plume de Nicholson Baker. L'auteur raconte les (ms-) aventures d'un jeune cadre qui, venant de casser un lacet de chaussure, quitte son bureau pendant l'heure du djeuner pour aller en acheter un nouveau. En chemin, mille objets usuels vont se liguer contre lui : escalier mcanique, chaussettes, horodateur, bouteille de lait, schoir mains... Oeuvre matresse, ce premier roman, trait de savoir-vivre hilarant, a propuls Nicholson Baker au rang d'improbable rejeton de Nabokov, de Perec ou de Queneau.

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(Traducción de Ramón Buenaventura) Un hombre y una mujer que no se conocen y que viven en ciudades distantes conectan, cada uno por su lado, con una línea telefónica donde varias personas charlan libre y descaradamente. El hombre y la mujer se gustan por la voz, por la actitud, y deciden pasarse a una línea privada. Lo que se pone en marcha es un fascinante proceso de mutua seducción. El lector, como escuchando lo que no debería, va de asombro en asombro, mientras él y ella desgarran todos los velos del pudor, situando en la máxima pasión el flujo ansioso de su charla. En el transcurso de una sola conversación, él y ella fantasean sin traba alguna, intercambian pasados éxitos, modifican el nombre de las cosas «privadas», se hacen pasar vergüenza, se hechizan, se despliegan. Es decir: vuelven a inventar el sexo. Divertida, original, tierna, excitante, Vox refleja como ningún otro libro todo el erotismo de nuestro tiempo. Un clásico inminente.

Since the 1950s, some of the world''s greatest libraries have, as a matter of common practice, dismantled their collections of original bound newspapers and books, replacing them with microfilmed copies. The originals, often irreplaceable, are cut up to be sold as birthday gifts, or are pulped. In this passionately argued book, the acclaimed author Nicholson Baker reveals the real motives behind the dismantling of our recorded heritage. The libraries argue that paper is too fragile to be stored in their archives, and point to the so-called brittle paper crisis; Baker shows us that paper can be stored for years without deterioration, and that libraries are under budgetary pressure to save space. The players include the British Library, the Library of Congress, the CIA, NASA, microfilm lobbyists, newspaper dealers and a colourful array of librarians and digital futurists, as well as Baker himself - who eventually discovers that the only way to save one important newspaper archive being disposed of by the British Library is to buy it.

Jay ha quedado con su viejo amigo Ben en una habitación de hotel, no lejos del Capitolio. En el transcurso de la tarde compartirán una deliciosa comida y abrirán una botella de vino del minibar. Charlaran de todo tipo de asuntos, como la nueva camara de Ben, Irak o el desafortunado destino de un pollo en libertad. Y Jay le explicara a Ben exactamente como y por que esta planeando asesinar al presidente de los Estados Unidos de America

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Nicholson Baker has established himself as one of our most brilliant observers of everyday experience. With his keen perception, flawless prose, and endless wit, he has composed both fiction and nonfiction that has become an essential part of our literature. Vintage Baker contains generous selections from the novels Vox," "The Fermata," "The Mezzanine," "and" "A Box of Matches"; "essays from" "The Size of Thoughts"; "and portions of the NBCC award winner Doublefold,"" Vintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of the great modern writers, presented in attractive, affordable paperback editions.

A man gets up earlier and earlier each day, dresses in the dark, makes his coffee and lights the fire with a box of matches. Then he rummages through the thoughts that crowd his head and preoccupy him. Here is mid-life domesticated man, whose thoughts veer brilliantly from love and marriage, to firelighters and suicide, in the twinkling of an eye. This is Baker at his best, humorous and observant, revealing the underlying truths about the ephemerality of life, the joy of small things, the darkness just the other side of everyday life - all human life in a box of matches.