Leonardo's Horse - Softcover

Berry, Ralph M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1573660310 ISBN 13: 9781573660310

Publisher: Fiction Collective 2, 1997

Synopsis

On May 2, 1519 at the Clos Luc in Amboise, Leonardo is dying. He no longer cares about art or science. He wants only to answer a simple question about his life: why did he abandon his colossal equestrian statue in Milan? Meanwhile, R-, a 20th century historian writing a novel about Leonardo, meditates upon the same question in the midst of an apocalyptic traffic jam, as military helicopters fill the air with tear gas, AIDS demonstrators run amok, and a hospital evacuates its patients onto a nearby sidewalk. Berry's stupendous novel is a fitting response to the close of a century obsessed with the "end of history." This book is a big masterpiece of a kind rarely dared in the contemporary novel.

About this title

About the Author

R. M. Berry teaches at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Reviews

"Berry's prose is as active as Leonardo's imagination."

Readers who deify Leonardo da Vinci, view the Renaissance as a time of unparalleled enlightenment, or believe that those tumultuous times offer no glimpses into our own will be challenged by this novel, which is as complex as its protagonist. Leonardo, as viewed by historian-turned-novelist R___, is history's garage, his work a collection of fascinating but uncompletable projects. Berry presents Leonardo's story from his deathbed and R___'s from his position stranded on the freeway inside his 1955 Buick while authorities attack AIDS protestors with chemical weapons. Just as Leonardo had finagled various rival aristocrats to bankroll his projects, R___ and his monkey-wrencher "not wife" have created a fraudulent second life on paper to survive in a world seemingly bent on social and environmental destruction. This may sound overly abstruse, but earthiness, vivid characterizations, and dark, ironic humor (like the "Windfall Taxes Chainsaw Massacre") make this a delightful experience for sophisticated readers. Highly recommended for medium to large public and academic libraries.?Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. Lib., Chico
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fiction Collective 2
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1573660310
• ISBN 13: 9781573660310
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 317