基本信息出版社：Little, Brown Book Group
页码：480 页
出版日期：2004年08月
ISBN：1844081273
条形码：9781844081271
版本：2004-08-05
装帧：平装
开本：32开 Pages Per Sheet
外文书名：巨型奶酪
内容简介 Book Description
When Manda Frank gives birth to an astonishing eleven babies, the world descends on her home town of Three Chimneys, Virginia. Beneath the intense media spotlight the town begins to give up its long-held secrets: from the unrequited love of August Vaughn, the town's avid Thomas Jefferson impersonator, to the more dangerous and subversive passions of Mr March, the local history teacher. Meanwhile, cheesemaker Margaret Prickett decides to highlight the plight of the rural community by creating 'The Mammoth Cheese' - a 1,235-pound wheel of Cheshire which she plans to parade all the way to Washington - while failing to notice the plight of her own teenage daughter Polly, who is caught up in the dangerous romance of rebellion, and veering precariously towards tragedy...'This panoramic social novel with a needle-sharp point of view sends up both small-town America and politics. There's mordant social commentary, discussion of Jeffersonian civic ideals and bittersweet romance, plus more than you needed to know about cow midwifery' PEOPLE
Amazon.com
Sheri Holman's The Mammoth Cheese is the Mississippi River of novels. It winds along through most of the great themes of American fiction (tradition vs. innovation, the weight of the past, the dehumanizing effects of industrialization, the rifts between parents and children, men and women), picking up bits of history along the way, and carrying you wherever Holman wishes. The opening pages introduce at least 15 characters (not including the 11 premature babies born to dog trainer Manda Frank), a rough outline of the history of Three Chimneys, Virginia, and more information on small-farm cheesemaking than you might ever have thought you'd would want to learn, let alone absorb with fascination. Along with its moving themes, the pleasures of this novel are in Holman's grasp of human (and not only human) nature, and her gift for expressing this through unexpected details of daily life--that the cows in the local dairy give more milk when Sinatra's playing; that the dirty secret under an eighth-grade girl's mattress is Bride Magazine. Her inconspicuous flashes of verbal brilliance may go unnoticed by all but the most observant readers, but they lend sparkle to a complex and ambitious novel.
--Regina Marler
From Booklist
This big but nimble novel, by the author of the well-received Dress Lodger (2000), is absolutely compelling in its swift satire, yet readers will also respond to its deep sympathies for "well-foibled" individuals. The setting is the little Virginia town of Three Chimneys, which has just experienced a record-setting event: the multiple births of 11 infants to a young, unsophisticated couple artificially helped in their pursuit of fertility. National focus on the little burg is enhanced with the visit of presidential candidate Adams Brooke. One avid supporter of Brooke is local cheese maker Margaret Prickett, whose dairy farm is in financial distress; what Margaret appreciates in Brooke's candidacy is his avid support of the small farmer. But as the weeks go on, and as the babies begin to die, the townspeople, to make themselves look good again, endeavor to take a giant cheese, created by Margaret, to Washington, D.C., to duplicate an act that apparently happened during Thomas Jefferson's presidency. Human nature exposed at its rawest--and most entertaining.
Brad Hooper
Book Dimension
length: (cm)19.4 width:(cm)12.8
媒体推荐 US reviews for The Mammoth Cheese by Sheri Holman 'An engaging, multidimensional tale ... [Sheri Holman is] a gifted writer' Anita Shreve, Atlantic Monthly 'Lovely and disarming ...the storyline is droll but the book is also tough, sad and surprisingly sweet' New York Times Book Review 'Like the 1,200-pound cheese of the title, Sheri Holman's novel is a big, ambitious enterprise. Unlike many such enterprises - though again like the cheese - it possesses, page by page, or bite by bite if you prefer, an intense, refined and lingering flavour ... comic and absolutely gripping' New York Times 'Profoundly moving ... Holman has fashioned a tale that is poignant and powerful and, like an award-winning cheese, surprisingly complex' Washington Post 'Holman's novel is brilliant, the characters deeply rendered, the philosophic underpinning astute, the touch sure ...Holman is one of those novelists whose world you trust completely. She's as adept as Barbara Kingsolver at tracing the political and intellectual life of small rural communities. In fact, some of Holman's social satire has Kingsolver's humour' Seattle Times 'Flawlessly plotted ... so satisfying' Atlanta Journal 'Holman is a skilfully detailed writer whose prose blends the factual with the personal in a manner as straightforward as it is compelling ... Holman's characters are deftly drawn, flawed and earnest, corruptible and alight with brave dreams' The Globe and Mail 'Inventive, offbeat ... an exuberantly eccentric tale of small-town life ... a delicately nuanced, vivid creation making this work one that dazzles with its combination of history, religion, political satire and tragedy' Publishers Weekly 'This big but nimble novel is absolutely compelling in its swift satire, yet readers will also respond to its deep sympathies for "well-foibled" individuals ... Human nature exposed at its rawest - and most entertaining' Booklist 'Fantastic ... this is a Great American Novel par excellence ... stunning' Newsday 'This panoramic social novel with a needle-sharp point of view sends up both small-town America and politics. There's mordant social commentary, discussion of Jeffersonian civic ideals and bittersweet romance, plus more than you needed to know about cow midwifery' People 'The denouement of Holman's sharp American satire could easily be a scene out of a Robert Altman movie ... Holman's intricately crafted look at family, religion and class in the rural South seamlessly blends the quotidian and the surreal' Time Out New York 'Holman virtuosically entangles two arresting plotlines: the ripple effect of the birth of (count 'em) eleven babies to an exhausted Virginia woman and the creation and transportation to Washington of the eponymous protein source ... enthralling ... part John Hassler, part Robert Altman film - and all-round terrific' Kirkus 'Believability is one of the things that makes this such a wonderful book. Sheri Holman performs a nearly faultless balancing act between reality and satire' Chicago Sun-Times 'Wonderful ... Holman made her debut with the grisly, remarkable The Dress Lodger. She is even more remarkable here. Her story is deep and compelling, populated by characters who are moving and thought-provoking, and her images are precise and surprising' Philadelphia Inquirer 'After reading only a few pages I was hooked ...an engaging work of fiction that explores big ideas with an off-kilter freshness and a genuine knowledge of human experience ... a marvellous, entertaining novel' BookPage