Coasting - Hardcover

Raban, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002721198 ISBN 13: 9780002721196

Publisher: Collins Harvill, 1986

Synopsis

Put Jonathan Raban on a boat and the results will be fascinating, and never more so than when heâ s sailing around the serpentine, 2,000-mile coast of his native England. In this acutely perceived and beautifully written book, the bestselling author of Bad Land turns that voyageâ which coincided with the Falklands war of 1982-into an occasion for meditations on his country, his childhood, and the elusive notion of home.

Whether heâ s chatting with bored tax exiles on the Isle of Man, wrestling down a mainsail during a titanic gale, or crashing a Scottish house party where the kilted guests turn out to be Americans, Raban is alert to the slightest nuance of meaning. One can read Coasting for his precise naturalistic descriptions or his mordant comments on the new England, where the principal industry seems to be the marketing of Englishness. But one always reads it with pleasure.

About this title

From the Publisher

8 1.5-hour cassettes

From the Back Cover

“A lively, intensely personal recounting of a voyage into a gifted writer's country and self.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Coasting is a glorious book, written with energy, wit and a melancholy lyricism . . . There's something wonderful on every page of this book.” —The Seattle Times Post-Intelligencer

“Marvelously written and superbly constructed. . . . The sort of book you put among those favorite books you keep on your desk or table . . . the sort you wish you had written yourself.” — Beryl Bainbridge, The Spectator

“Raban is . . . one of our most gifted observers.” —Newsday

Edition details

• Publisher: Collins Harvill
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0002721198
• ISBN 13: 9780002721196
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304