Ellen Ullman is the author of a novel, The Bug, a New York Times Notable Book and runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the cult classic memoir Close to the Machine, based on her years as a rare female computer programmer in the early years of the personal computer era. She lives in San Francisco.
Smart, slippery . . . Ullman arranges her players efficiently. But
what astounds is how she binds them to one another . . . It's a
narrative striptease. And Ullman has such fun with it. Parul
Sehgal, The New York Times Book Review A thrilling page-turner of a
book . . . Book clubs of America, take note. By Blood is what you
should be reading. Ullman is someone we all should be reading. Ed
Siegel, Newsday What is most distinctive about Ullman's voice . . .
is the way it sounds fully formed, mature both intellectually and
emotionally. Jenny Davidson, Slate Like analysis, [By Blood] has
urgency--as if, by talking and talking, a solution will be found.
Like history, it extends in all directions . . . Like the best
novels, it's irresistible--twisty-turny, insightful,
revelatory--funny when it's tragic, and complicated when it's
funny. Minna Proctor, NPR.org A literary inquiry into identity and
legacy . . . A gripping mystery . . . The storytelling is
compelling and propulsive . . . Ullman is also a careful stylist.
Carolyn Kellogg, The Los Angeles Times Rewarding . . . Deepy,
lengthy and rewarding therapy is as close as most people get to
reading their lives as a novel. Here is a novel that offers itself
as a deepy, lengthy and rewarding version of a therapy. The memory
of reading it remains quite intense. Alan Cheuse, The San Francisco
Chronicle Marvelously creepy . . . A tricky thing to pull off but
Ullman does it beautifully . . . [By Blood] speaks volumes about
the way we think about the Jewish past. Adam Kirsch, Tablet A dark,
brooding, and marvelous novel that doesn't really resemble anything
else, though disparate elements of it remind me of so many stories
I love. The book combines a disturbing confessional intensity, as
in Coetzee's Disgrace, Lasdun's Horned Man, and Tartt's The Secret
History, with a paranoid claustrophobia akin to that of The
Conversation, Coppola's surveillance masterpiece. Surprises from
strange and terrible historical alleyways bring to mind Schlink's
The Reader and Juan Gabriel Vasquez's, The Informers. And the
philosophical underpinnings recall, in their unobtrusiveness and
urgency, the best of Iris Murdoch. Maud Newton The writing is as
sharp as the intellect it reveals, with a tension bordering on the
manic. Evan Karp, SFArts.org A noir gem . . . Creepy-exciting and
skillfully ironic at almost every turn . . . We jump into Ullman's
prose so we can be carried downstream, over the falls, into the
past, rolled and jostled here, then there . . . [An] amazing novel.
Merry Gangemi, Lambda Literary Ullman first earned praise for her
memoir Close to the Machine (2001), about her experiences as a
female programmer in the formative years of Silicon Valley, and
followed that with an ambitious, Kafkaesque debut novel, The Bug
(2003), which also drew from her experiences in computer-human
interface. Nine years later, her second novel thematically
interweaves fate, identity, obsession and genetics into a
propulsive page-turner that shows a profound understanding of
character. It's a multilayered mystery (in the same way that
Dostoyevsky was a mystery writer) and an inquiry into the
subjective nature of narrative . . . A first-rate literary thriller
of compelling psychological and philosophical depth. Kirkus
(starred review) An irresistible Hitchcockian page-turner.
Publishers Weekly"
Smart, slippery . . . Ullman arranges her players efficiently. But
what astounds is how she binds them to one another . . . It's a
narrative striptease. And Ullman has such fun with it. "Parul
Sehgal, The New York Times Book Review" A thrilling page-turner of
a book . . . Book clubs of America, take note. "By Blood" is what
you should be reading. Ullman is someone we all should be reading.
"Ed Siegel, Newsday" What is most distinctive about Ullman's voice
. . . is the way it sounds fully formed, mature both intellectually
and emotionally. "Jenny Davidson, Slate" Like analysis, ["By
Blood"] has urgency--as if, by talking and talking, a solution will
be found. Like history, it extends in all directions . . . Like the
best novels, it's irresistible--twisty-turny, insightful,
revelatory--funny when it's tragic, and complicated when it's
funny. "Minna Proctor, NPR.org" A literary inquiry into identity
and legacy . . . A gripping mystery . . . The storytelling is
compelling and propulsive . . . Ullman is also a careful stylist.
"Carolyn Kellogg, The Los Angeles Times" Rewarding . . . Deepy,
lengthy and rewarding therapy is as close as most people get to
reading their lives as a novel. Here is a novel that offers itself
as a deepy, lengthy and rewarding version of a therapy. The memory
of reading it remains quite intense. "Alan Cheuse, The San
Francisco Chronicle" Marvelously creepy . . . A tricky thing to
pull off but Ullman does it beautifully . . . ["By Blood"] speaks
volumes about the way we think about the Jewish past. "Adam Kirsch,
Tablet" A dark, brooding, and marvelous novel that doesn't really
resemble anything else, though disparate elements of it remind me
of so many stories I love. The book combines a disturbing
confessional intensity, as in Coetzee's "Disgrace," Lasdun's
"Horned Man," and Tartt's "The Secret History," with a paranoid
claustrophobia akin to that of "The Conversation," Coppola's
surveillance masterpiece. Surprises from strange and terrible
historical alleyways bring to mind Schlink's "The Reader" and Juan
Gabriel Vasquez's, "The Informers." And the philosophical
underpinnings recall, in their unobtrusiveness and urgency, the
best of Iris Murdoch. "Maud Newton" The writing is as sharp as the
intellect it reveals, with a tension bordering on the manic. "Evan
Karp, SFArts.org" A noir gem . . . Creepy-exciting and skillfully
ironic at almost every turn . . . We jump into Ullman's prose so we
can be carried downstream, over the falls, into the past, rolled
and jostled here, then there . . . [An] amazing novel. "Merry
Gangemi, Lambda Literary" Ullman first earned praise for her memoir
"Close to the Machine "(2001), about her experiences as a female
programmer in the formative years of Silicon Valley, and followed
that with an ambitious, Kafkaesque debut novel, "The Bug "(2003),
which also drew from her experiences in computer-human interface.
Nine years later, her second novel thematically interweaves fate,
identity, obsession and genetics into a propulsive page-turner that
shows a profound understanding of character. It's a multilayered
mystery (in the same way that Dostoyevsky was a mystery writer) and
an inquiry into the subjective nature of narrative . . . A
first-rate literary thriller of compelling psychological and
philosophical depth. "Kirkus (starred review)" An irresistible
Hitchcockian page-turner. "Publishers Weekly""
"Smart, slippery . . . Ullman arranges her players efficiently. But
what astounds is how she binds them to one another . . . It's a
narrative striptease. And Ullman has such fun with it." --Parul
Sehgal, "The New York Times Book Review""
""A thrilling page-turner of a book . . . Book clubs of America,
take note. "By Blood" is what you should be reading. Ullman is
someone we all should be reading." --Ed Siegel, "Newsday""
""What is most distinctive about Ullman's voice . . . is the way it
sounds fully formed, mature both intellectually and emotionally."
--Jenny Davidson, "Slate
""Like analysis, ["By Blood"] has urgency--as if, by talking and
talking, a solution will be found. Like history, it extends in all
directions . . . Like the best novels, it's
irresistible--twisty-turny, insightful, revelatory--funny when it's
tragic, and complicated when it's funny." --Minna Proctor,
NPR.org
"A literary inquiry into identity and legacy . . . A gripping
mystery . . . The storytelling is compelling and propulsive . . .
Ullman is also a careful stylist." --Carolyn Kellogg, "The Los
Angeles Times""
""Rewarding . . . Deepy, lengthy and rewarding therapy is as close
as most people get to reading their lives as a novel. Here is a
novel that offers itself as a deepy, lengthy and rewarding version
of a therapy. The memory of reading it remains quite intense."
--Alan Cheuse, "The San Francisco Chronicle
""Marvelously creepy . . . A tricky thing to pull off but Ullman
does it beautifully . . . ["By Blood"] speaks volumes about the way
we think about the Jewish past." --Adam Kirsch, "Tablet
""A dark, brooding, and marvelous novel that doesn't really
resemble anything else, though disparate elements of it remind me
of so many stories I love. The book combines a disturbing
confessional intensity, as in Coetzee's "Disgrace," Lasdun's
"Horned Man," and Tartt's "The Secret History," with a paranoid
claustrophobia akin to that of "The Conversation," Coppola's
surveillance masterpiece. Surprises from strange and terrible
historical alleyways bring to mind Schlink's "The Reader" and Juan
Gabriel Vasquez's, "The Informers." And the philosophical
underpinnings recall, in their unobtrusiveness and urgency, the
best of Iris Murdoch." --Maud Newton
"The writing is as sharp as the intellect it reveals, with a
tension bordering on the manic." --Evan Karp, SFArts.org
"A noir gem . . . Creepy-exciting and skillfully ironic at almost
every turn . . . We jump into Ullman's prose so we can be carried
downstream, over the falls, into the past, rolled and jostled here,
then there . . . [An] amazing novel." --Merry Gangemi, "Lambda
Literary""
""Ullman first earned praise for her memoir "Close to the Machine
"(2001), about her experiences as a female programmer in the
formative years of Silicon Valley, and followed that with an
ambitious, Kafkaesque debut novel, "The Bug "(2003), which also
drew from her experiences in computer-human interface. Nine years
later, her second novel thematically interweaves fate, identity,
obsession and genetics into a propulsive page-turner that shows a
profound understanding of character. It's a multilayered mystery
(in the same way that Dostoyevsky was a mystery writer) and an
inquiry into the subjective nature of narrative . . . A first-rate
literary thriller of compelling psychological and philosophical
depth." --"Kirkus" (starred review)
"An irresistible Hitchcockian page-turner." --"Publishers
Weekly"
"Ullman first earned praise for her memoir "Close to the Machine
"(2001), about her experiences as a female programmer in the
formative years of Silicon Valley, and followed that with an
ambitious, Kafkaesque debut novel, "The Bug "(2003), which also
drew from her experiences in computer-human interface. Nine years
later, her second novel thematically interweaves fate, identity,
obsession and genetics into a propulsive page-turner that shows a
profound understanding of character. It's a multilayered mystery
(in the same way that Dostoyevsky was a mystery writer) and an
inquiry into the subjective nature of narrative . . . A first-rate
literary thriller of compelling psychological and philosophical
depth." --"Kirkus" (starred review)"An irresistible Hitchcockian
thriller." --"Publishers Weekly"
Praise for "The Bug ""Thrilling and intellectually
fearless."""--"The New York Times Book Review""Ullman resembles
Kafka in the way she writes so vividly and clearly about states of
paranoid anxiety . . . This is magnetic fiction."""--"San Francisco
Chronicle"
From the opening line, "I did not cause her any harm. This was a great victory for me," Malcolm Hillgartner uses quiet, deliberate narration to insinuate himself into the reader's imagination. His thoughtful delivery makes even an innocuous sentence-"I followed the manager into the elevator and rode with him up to the eighth floor"-sound menacing, which is the perfect approach for Ullman's psychological thriller set in 1970s San Francisco. The plot centers on an academic whose fall from grace leads him to an office in a seedy part of town. Although the professor plans to prepare a series of lectures, he soon finds himself obsessively eavesdropping on a psychotherapist and his patient in an adjacent office. This audio edition is anchored by Hillgartner's steady narration, which carefully utilizes a limited range of inflections to maintain listener interest throughout. A Farrar, Straus and Giroux hardcover. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Circa 1970, a mentally shaky professor rents a workroom in San Francisco only to discover it adjoins a psychoanalyst's office. He becomes obsessed with eavesdropping on one patient-an adoptee seeking the Jewish mother who surrendered her after World War II. The therapy sessions unspool serially, rendering a complicated tableau of blood relationships, cultural identity, 1970s gay subculture, prewar Germany, and Nazi concentration camps. Ullman's previous novel, The Bug, was a New York Times Notable Book and runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Prize-winning narrator Malcolm Hillgartner slips seamlessly between male/female and American/German voices and projects the protagonist's mania with conviction. VERDICT Highly recommended for listeners who relish unpredictable, complex literature cast from a singular mold. ["The novel becomes a vehicle for heart-rending stories of the plight of Jews after the war," read the review of the New York Times best-selling Farrar hc, LJ 12/11.-Ed.]-Judith -Robinson, Univ. at Buffalo (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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