Observatory Mansions (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780375709234)

Once the Orme family's magnificent ancestral estate, Observatory Mansions is now a crumbling apartment complex, home to an eccentric group of misfits. One of them is Francis Orme, who earns his livelihood as a living statue. When not practicing "inner and outer stillness," Francis steals the cherished possessions of others to add to his private museum. The other tenants are equally as odd: his mother and father, who haven't interacted in years; a man who continually sweats and cries; a recluse who prefers television to reality; and a woman who behaves like a dog. When Anna Tapp arrives among them she stirs their souls, bringing long forgotten memories to the surface-and arousing fears that this new resident intends to provoke a metamorphosis.
Reminiscent of Beckett, Ionesco, and Millhauser but startlingly original, Observatory Mansions is also unexpectedly beguiling. Upon its publication in England, it was a literary sensation, and John Fowles called it "easily the most brilliant fiction I've seen this year."

Author: Edward Carey
ISBN-10: 0375709231
ISBN-13: 9780375709234
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 02/05/2002
Pages: 370
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 8.04h x 5.24w x 0.74d

Review Citation(s):
Entertainment Weekly 03/08/2002 pg. 67
Booksense '76 Mar/Apr 2002 03/01/2002 pg. 1