Items related to Wide Open
Synopsis
A novel about stripping off layers of prejudice and lies, about the possibility of redemption, and laying bare the truth. It is also about coming to terms with the past, and about the fantasies people construct in order to protect their fragile inner selves.
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Review
Reading a Nicola Barker novel is like taking a very odd drug. Her characters are unlike anyone you've ever met--and for that, perhaps, there's reason to be grateful. Take the cast of Wide Open, which includes Ronny, a homeless man we first meet waving at passing cars from a bridge. Only it turns out his name is not Ronny after all, but James, a name he subsequently bestows on the real Ronny, who is thereafter called Jim. Even though James/Ronny is right-handed, he insists on using only his left hand, because it helps him "concentrate." Then there's the real Ronny, a.k.a. Jim, who is utterly hairless. Not to mention Nathan, Ronny/Jim's brother, who works in the Lost Property department of the London Underground; Sara, proprietor of a boar farm in the beach town of Sheppey; and Sara's daughter, Lily, an angry, dirty 17-year-old who worships a boar birth defect she calls the Head. There's also Luke, a fat, handsome pornographer who smells like fish; Constance, an elfish optician in search of her father's past; and above all, the ghost of Big Ronny, Nathan and Ronny/Jim's father, who liked little boys.
Basically, these are all really, really creepy people, who do creepy and frequently nonsensical things. But the story Barker weaves out of their interactions is as compelling as anything in recent fiction, even if it operates by a narrative logic known only to the author. The reason is Barker's prose: vivid, urgent, wholly original. "He felt very strange, all of a sudden," one of her characters muses, "like this was a dream he was living, like this was a tired, old dream, and he didn't like the feel of it. Not one bit." Wide Open may on occasion feel like a bad dream of one sort or another, but the overall effect is more than absorbing: it's positively hallucinatory. --Mary Park
From the Publisher
Award-winning author: Nicola Barker won the 1997 John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize (for a memorable work by a Commonwealth writer under the age of 35) for "Heading Inland". She was the winner of the 1993 David Higham Prize for Fiction (for best first novel or book of short stories) and the joint winner of the Macmillan Silver Pen Award for Fiction for "Love Your Enemies."
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- PublisherPenguin Books India
- Publication date1999
- ISBN 10 0571195660
- ISBN 13 9780571195664
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages352
- Rating
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Wide Open
Published by
Faber & Faber, United Kingdom, London, 1999
ISBN 10: 0571195660
ISBN 13: 9780571195664
Used
Paperback
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Fifty miles to the south and east of London, poking out into the estuary of the river Thames, the Isle of Sheppey is a forgotten, misty back water. There's a prison, some wading birds and a small nudist beach. In front of this salty, blasted backdrop, Nicola Barker conjures up an imaginative landscape of breathtaking scope and audacity. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR000430351
Quantity: 6 available
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Wide Open
Seller: GF Books, Inc., Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. Book is in Used-VeryGood condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear and contain very limited notes and highlighting. 0.53. Seller Inventory # 0571195660-2-3
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Wide Open
Seller: Goldstone Books, Llandybie, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Good. All orders are dispatched within one working day from our UK warehouse. We've been selling books online since 2004! We have over 750,000 books in stock. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied. Seller Inventory # mon0002143681
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Wide Open
Seller: Reuseabook, Gloucester, GLOS, United Kingdom
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Paperback. Condition: Used; Very Good. Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. Though second-hand, the book is still in very good shape. Minimal signs of usage may include very minor creasing on the cover or on the spine. Seller Inventory # CHL1404010
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Wide Open
Seller: Reuseabook, Gloucester, GLOS, United Kingdom
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Paperback. Condition: Used; Good. Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. This book is in good condition but will show signs of previous ownership. Please expect some creasing to the spine and/or minor damage to the cover. Seller Inventory # CHL1095880
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Wide Open
Seller: medimops, Berlin, Germany
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Condition: acceptable. Ausreichend/Acceptable: Exemplar mit vollständigem Text und sämtlichen Abbildungen oder Karten. Schmutztitel oder Vorsatz können fehlen. Einband bzw. Schutzumschlag weisen unter Umständen starke Gebrauchsspuren auf. / Describes a book or dust jacket that has the complete text pages (including those with maps or plates) but may lack endpapers, half-title, etc. (which must be noted). Binding, dust jacket (if any), etc may also be worn. Seller Inventory # M00571195660-B
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Wide Open
Seller: medimops, Berlin, Germany
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Condition: good. Befriedigend/Good: Durchschnittlich erhaltenes Buch bzw. Schutzumschlag mit Gebrauchsspuren, aber vollständigen Seiten. / Describes the average WORN book or dust jacket that has all the pages present. Seller Inventory # M00571195660-G
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Wide Open
Seller: Jake's Place Books, Clarksville, TN, U.S.A.
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Soft cover. Condition: As New. Like new condition. Seller Inventory # ABE-1702161841475
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Wide Open
Seller: Better World Books Ltd, Dunfermline, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Good. Ships from the UK. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 39820231-20
Quantity: 2 available
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Wide Open
Seller: knew_4_you, San Jose, CA, U.S.A.
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Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. Clean, UNMARKED UK PB. Binding SOLID, Spine Uncreased. Slight paper toning. NO remainder mark. | SHIPS AIRMAIL INTERNATIONALLY! [REDUCED Charges for Standard International Delivery]. Seller Inventory # 004550
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