All He Ever Wanted
4 journalers for this copy...
I have to admit that I was rather bored with this story for a while, but then...oh my, it turned into such a subtle, stunning account of obsession.
Nicholas narrates his own tale. He is a fastidious, humorless man, who sets out to possess his Bliss. He thinks this is the end once he marries her, not realizing that she had her own life before him and continues her own secret life in her mind while married to him. Nicholas is spiteful, petty, and small; he is willing to backstab to achieve his goals, and he is perfectly content to believe that all is well once things seem to work out for him. Unfortunately, his actions destroy nearly everyone around him, but he still doesn't understand this quite fully even when he is a much older man looking back on the events in this story.
Thumbs up from me.
Trade paperback, 310 pages
Synopsis:
Etna Bliss has just moved to the New England town where her uncle teaches college when her life is transformed in a single stroke. She is dining in a hotel downtown when a fire forces her to escape to the snowy streets outside. Amid the smoke and chaos of that night she is glimpsed, standing under a streetlight, by a man who was dining in the same room—a man who is so overwhelmed by the sight of her that he rebuilds his life around a single goal: to marry Etna Bliss.
That man is Nicholas Van Tassel, and All He Ever Wanted is his account of how two lives changed from that tumultuous night forward. A proud and orderly man, Van Tassel is ill equipped to deal with the ferocity of love. But he is determined to have Etna, no matter what the cost. Riding a train south many years later, he unwinds his memories of the drama that followed and struggles to understand the mystery his life became on that night.
This is no ordinary tale of obsession. All He Ever Wanted is a story about different kinds of love, different ideas of what love is, and how lives can be strained to breaking over those differences. It is a powerful exploration of the music and silences of family life, the unhinging forces of desire, the wrenching power of secrets unrevealed, and the bewildering territories of betrayal and loss.
Nicholas narrates his own tale. He is a fastidious, humorless man, who sets out to possess his Bliss. He thinks this is the end once he marries her, not realizing that she had her own life before him and continues her own secret life in her mind while married to him. Nicholas is spiteful, petty, and small; he is willing to backstab to achieve his goals, and he is perfectly content to believe that all is well once things seem to work out for him. Unfortunately, his actions destroy nearly everyone around him, but he still doesn't understand this quite fully even when he is a much older man looking back on the events in this story.
Thumbs up from me.
Trade paperback, 310 pages
Synopsis:
Etna Bliss has just moved to the New England town where her uncle teaches college when her life is transformed in a single stroke. She is dining in a hotel downtown when a fire forces her to escape to the snowy streets outside. Amid the smoke and chaos of that night she is glimpsed, standing under a streetlight, by a man who was dining in the same room—a man who is so overwhelmed by the sight of her that he rebuilds his life around a single goal: to marry Etna Bliss.
That man is Nicholas Van Tassel, and All He Ever Wanted is his account of how two lives changed from that tumultuous night forward. A proud and orderly man, Van Tassel is ill equipped to deal with the ferocity of love. But he is determined to have Etna, no matter what the cost. Riding a train south many years later, he unwinds his memories of the drama that followed and struggles to understand the mystery his life became on that night.
This is no ordinary tale of obsession. All He Ever Wanted is a story about different kinds of love, different ideas of what love is, and how lives can be strained to breaking over those differences. It is a powerful exploration of the music and silences of family life, the unhinging forces of desire, the wrenching power of secrets unrevealed, and the bewildering territories of betrayal and loss.
Found this on a wishlist. Sending it out into the world!
Shipped off to chamonix44 on Aug. 22, 2009—enjoy!
Thank you so much mellion108 for sending me this wishlist book. I am so pleased to have this. I wanted it for a long time.I was amazed when your package arrived because it was so big and so heavy!
Inside there were 3 books, 10 audiobooks,a BC note pad, 3 BC embroidered sew-on badges with year dates of 2006, 2008 and 2009, a BC car sticker, 3 colourful BC labels for inside the books, 15 tiny BC spine labels, 2 round "official bookcrossing book" labels, 2 BC pencils, 1 large BC badge/pin, a bookmark showing beautiful Michigan wild flowers and a postcard of Detroit.
Everything can be seen in the photo here, (if you click on it to enlarge it). It was hard to arrange everything so that it could all be photographed in one go!
mellion108, you are so generous!
Great book. I didn't want to put it down. I felt quite sorry for Nicholas, and also for Phillip Asher, but not for Etna. She was too cold! If you wonder what I'm talking about, then read this book!
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES: I handed this book to KJSkye today when I went to visit her in Hengelo.
Enjoy!
Thank you chamonix44 for this book. I have already started to read it. There is just something about a nice, clean, new-looking book that I just can't resist. So this one missed the TBR shelf and went straight on to the sofa!
I got right into this book. I found it sad how love and longing for Etna turned Nicholas into someone he didn't want to be. I have met women like Etna before, good people, but cold, and hard to get close to.
I was given this book by KJSkye to bring to a BC meeting. She could not release it, because her computer is broken, and I didn't have time to come home and "catch" the book before I went to the meeting. So I just decided to release the book directly from my bookcrossing name!I gave this book to Elefteria at a bookcrossing meet-up in Almelo.
If you are reading here, then I want to tell you that this is a. FREE . book, and there are no catches! It is now yours! Please read on.....
If you are the finder of this book it would be nice if you could leave a message here to say that you have it. Do not worry because I don't want the book back. It is yours to keep if you want it. I just want to know it is now in safe hands.
Hello and congratulations!
You have not only found yourself a good book, but a whole community of booklovers dedicated to sharing books with each other and the world at large. I hope you'll stick around a bit and get to know BookCrossing --maybe even make a journal entry on this book. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join. If you do choose to join, I hope you'll consider using me, chamonix44. (or any of the journallers before me), as your referring member.
Feel free to read and keep this book, or to pass it on to a friend or even set it out "in the wild" for someone else to find like you did. If you do choose to join and journal, then you can watch the book as it travels- You'll be alerted by email each time someone makes another journal entry. It's all confidential (you're known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free. Happy reading!
took it from the meeting and left it later that summer at camping Bakkum, almost on the beach.
