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Disturbance of the Inner Ear: A Novel
by Joyce Hackett
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Carroll & Graf (2003-10-21)
ISBN: 078671218X
EAN: 9780786712182
Dewy Decimal #: 813
Paperback: 288 pages
SKU: BX046-070509005
Condition: Used: Very Good Firs
Comments: Clean and shiny. Very minor wear. Spine uncreased, pgs crisp, clean, tight, unmarked. No remainder mark.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Dark, intense, and often very funny, this critically lauded debut novel tells a story of inherited trauma healed by erotic love in the lives of two unlikely soul mates: Isabel, a former cello prodigy and daughter of a Holocaust survivor, and Giulio, an Italian gigolo. With its hypnotic internal logic, Disturbance of the Inner Ear conjures a ravaged landscape in which anything is possible. Hackett's musical language comes alive in a pitch-perfect first-person narrative that is evasive yet intimate, and utterly unforgettable. Stylistically daring and psychologically acute, this dazzling debut marks the arrival of an exciting new novelist.
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Customer Reviews
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Pretentious
Rating  (2)
Date: 2007-07-09
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I tried to read this but found it very boring and arch-literary. The writer should go out there and get a real job, mingle with the real people, and see what life is all about. Like the author's last name, I can't "hack it"!
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Pales in comparison to "An Equal Music"
Rating  (1)
Date: 2006-03-11
5 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
Looking back at all my Amazon reviews, I see that I have rarely, if ever, written a negative review. Well, here we go:
Being a musician, I am always dubious when it comes to books about musicians. Nevertheless, I still seek out and read such books because it is a subject I care about a great deal, and every now and then books, such as "An Equal Music" and "Ground Beneath Her Feet", are published that utilize musical themes in a novel and interesting way. Even lesser books than the two mentioned, such as "The Rosendorf Quartet" or "The Student Conductor", at least depict the minutiae of musicians' lives in a realistic way.
"Disturbance of the Inner Ear" does none of that, and is saddled with the fact that its main character, the narrator of the story, is not only incredibly annoying but also borderline insane. The plot points are improbable, the setting unrealistic, and the incessant, though admittedly informed, musical babble that serves as an interlude between each plot "twist" (and yes, I use the term euphemistically) leaves me cold.
Even the formatting is annoying, where instead of using quotes for dialogue, the author chooses to use dashes. According to another reviewer, this is an Italian way of formatting. Whatever it is, it serves as yet another gimmick, in a book that chooses to use music as a gimmick as well. Read any of the four books I mentioned in the review. Avoid this one.
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Tedious
Rating (1)
Date: 2005-08-14
3 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is novel that succeeds only in being pretentious and tiresome. Other reviewers have said it better -- the author would do better to rethink her style and purpose.
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The end could have been made into a good short story
Rating (1)
Date: 2004-03-08
7 out of 14 customers found this reveiw helpful
I forced myself to finish this book because I had already put so much time into it, and I'm glad I did because the ending is quite moving. With a bit of a lead-in, the author could have made a fine short story out of the last scene, Isabel's return to Theresienstadt, without tormenting us with the rest of this pretentious, improbable tale. What exactly did Joyce Hackett study when she was at the University of Milan? It clearly was not Italian. Her grammatical mistakes in Italian are appalling, especially when she makes such a big point of them: "Lasciami star...we never stopped using the formal", she points out at the beginning of the fourth chapter. Actually, "lasciami star" is precisely NOT the formal. Unfortunately, there are many errors of that type. Then there is the Italian custom of avoiding quotation marks and using dashes instead. That would have been wonderfully effective had Ms. Hackett only used it correctly. But, alas, she did not, and, as a result, she just makes us reread her sentences to be sure we've understood them. Not one character in the book aroused my sympathy with the possible exception of a couple of the goldfish. I am at a loss to understand all the five-star reviews.
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Astonishing book about music
Rating  (5)
Date: 2003-10-05
5 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
It's not often that you read a book about music that's actually musical, but Disturbance is not an ordinary book. The novel deals with the way in which music imprints itself on the narrator's brain--as subject and as form and as way of dealing with the world. It really is like she is swimming in it as she sets out trying to survive without many resources in Italy. So much of the book is about various forms of performance, as she becomes involved with an Italian doctor who moonlights as a male gigolo. It looks at the ways we instruct and command ourselves due to the training and rules we learn. REALLY interestingly written.
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