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Image from Syndetics

The promise of elsewhere : a novel / by Brad Leithauser.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2019Edition: First editionDescription: 330 pages ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780525655039
  • 0525655034
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: "In this comic novel, our hero, Midwesterner Louie Hake, tries to prop up the failing prospects of happiness in his career and marriage by setting out abroad on what he calls his Journey of a Lifetime. Louie is 43, teaches architecture at a third-rate college in Michigan, and faced with a collapsing second marriage and a potentially disastrous medical diagnosis, he decides to undertake a high-minded tour of the world's most spectacular architecture sites: Italy, Turkey, India, Japan. But Louie gets waylaid--ludicrously, spectacularly so. After a stab at a new romance with a jilted bride alone on her honeymoon in London, he somehow winds up in the high Arctic, where the architectural tradition seems sad and laughable. (Turf houses? Corrugated aluminum sheds?) But it turns out there's another sort of architecture at play here--ice bergs the size of cathedrals--bobbing beside a strange and wondrous landscape. As it slowly grows clear, Louie's Grand Journey is a trip through his much-bungled romantic past. Whether pursuing by email his estranged present wife (co-habiting with a sexy playwright in the Virgin Islands), or his first wife (newly engaged to someone else), or an older woman he kissed once a quarter-century ago, Louie is both ridiculous and touching. A novel that is both funny and moving, a serious look into the Midwestern soul in crisis"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Fiction Leithaus Brad Available 33111009138468
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A comic novel about a Midwestern professor who tries to prop up his failing prospects for happiness by setting out on the Journey of a Lifetime.

Louie Hake is forty-three and teaches architectural history at a third-rate college in Michigan. His second marriage is collapsing, and he's facing a potentially disastrous medical diagnosis. In an attempt to fend off what has become a soul-crushing existential crisis, he decides to treat himself to a tour of the world's most breathtaking architectural sites. Perhaps not surprisingly, Louie gets waylaid on his very first stop in Rome--ludicrously, spectacularly so--and fails to reach most of his other destinations. He embarks on a doomed romance with a jilted bride celebrating her ruined marriage plans alone in London. And in the Arctic he finds that turf houses and aluminum sheds don't amount to much of an architectural tradition. But it turns out that there's another sort of architecture there: icebergs the size of cathedrals, bobbing beside a strange and wondrous landscape. It soon becomes clear that Louie's grand journey is less about where his wanderings have taken him and more about where his past encounters with romance have not. Whether pursuing his first wife, or his estranged current wife, or the older woman he kissed just once a quarter-century ago, Louie reveals himself to be endearing, deeply touching, wonderfully ridiculous . . . and destined to find love in all the wrong places.

"In this comic novel, our hero, Midwesterner Louie Hake, tries to prop up the failing prospects of happiness in his career and marriage by setting out abroad on what he calls his Journey of a Lifetime. Louie is 43, teaches architecture at a third-rate college in Michigan, and faced with a collapsing second marriage and a potentially disastrous medical diagnosis, he decides to undertake a high-minded tour of the world's most spectacular architecture sites: Italy, Turkey, India, Japan. But Louie gets waylaid--ludicrously, spectacularly so. After a stab at a new romance with a jilted bride alone on her honeymoon in London, he somehow winds up in the high Arctic, where the architectural tradition seems sad and laughable. (Turf houses? Corrugated aluminum sheds?) But it turns out there's another sort of architecture at play here--ice bergs the size of cathedrals--bobbing beside a strange and wondrous landscape. As it slowly grows clear, Louie's Grand Journey is a trip through his much-bungled romantic past. Whether pursuing by email his estranged present wife (co-habiting with a sexy playwright in the Virgin Islands), or his first wife (newly engaged to someone else), or an older woman he kissed once a quarter-century ago, Louie is both ridiculous and touching. A novel that is both funny and moving, a serious look into the Midwestern soul in crisis"-- Provided by publisher.

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