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The Fermata
by: Nicholson Baker

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780679759331
ISBN: 0679759336
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: January 24, 1995
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: January 24, 1995
Sales Rank: 97820
Studio: Vintage

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Having turned phone sex into the subject of an astonishing national bestseller in Vox, Baker now outdoes himself with an outrageously arousing, acrobatically stylish 'X-rated sci-fi fantasy that leaves Vox seeming more like mere fiber-optic foreplay' (Seattle Times). 'Sparkling.'--San Francisco Chronicle.

Amazon.com Review:
The Fermata is the most risky of Nicholson Baker's emotional histories. His narrator, Arno Strine, is a 35-year-old office temp who is writing his autobiography. 'It's harder than I thought!' he admits. His 'Fold-powers' are easier; he can stop the world and use it as his own pleasure ground. Arno uses this gift not for evil or material gain (he would feel guilty about stealing), though he does undress a good number of women and momentarily place them in compromising positions--always, in his view, with respect and love. Anyone who can stop time and refer in self-delight to his 'chronanisms' can't be all bad! Like Baker's other books, The Fermata gains little from synopsis. The pleasure is literally in the text. What's memorable is less the sex and the sex toys (including the 'Monasticon,' in the shape of a monk holding a vibrating manuscript) than Arno's wistful recollections of intimacy: the noise, for instance, of his ex-girlfriend's nail clipper, 'which I listened to in bed as some listen to real birdsong.'

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Adolescent it its sexuality, mature in its view
This book is interesting just from the responses people have toward it. Just read the other reviews and you get a flavor. I have given this book to guys and they mostly enjoy it. However, the women who I have given it to have largely disliked it and even been offended. However, I did pass this book onto a woman who worked in a patient care profession in a hospital. She passed it along to her coworkers, all women, who read it and just loved it. I got my very worn copy back several months later.

Rating:

- This book makes the female form boring
This book must have literary merit that is beyond me, but I don't understand the reviews it has been getting.

The book is about what this guy does when he stops time. While most of his activities he does are sexual in nature, they come across as very bland.

I left this book thinking, here is a guy who has the power to stop time, and yet, I can not imagine a life that is more boring then his.

Rating:

- unimpressive
The short summary of this book is that it's about a guy who can stop time. He uses his talent mainly to undress women without them knowing. He's a nice guy about it so nothing overly disagreeable happens to them, he pretty much just looks, no harm done (arguably).

Having read the reviews for this book, I was expecting a book that approached sexuality in a thoughtful way. I knew the book would involve a lot of sex, but was expecting it to be done in an insightful way. Indeed, the first quarter of the book was really well done, just what I was hoping for. The writing was beautifully done and there were thoughts every few pages that would make me stop and think for a minute. And the titillating plot kept things moving at a nice pace.

Unfortunately, after the first quarter or so the book turns into pornographic garbage. Eventually the main character decides to write erotica in order to leave ... Read More

Rating:

- Almost Shocking
You can read a hundred reviews where people mention "sexual" and I still don't think they'll ever prepare you for how blatantly graphic this novel is. And it's not graphic in an erotic way, it's just detailed to the point of being absurd and somewhat hilarious. If you watch movies or HBO in this day and age, it's hard to consider things shocking, but this novel becomes pretty close. You keep thinking that the author can't possibly top himself, then 20 pages later you find the narrator doing or thinking something even more outlandish or absurd.

The plot is pretty simple: Arno is a guy with a special power. He can stop time. But, like Faustus, he doesn't use his power to achieve greatness. He doesn't do magnificent good or evil. He simply uses the power to freeze time and undress women. Sometimes he leaves them a gift or some self-penned erotica.

I don't know that I really liked this ... Read More

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