Mating: A Novel (National Book Award Winner) by Norman Rush (English) Paperback

Description: Mating by Norman Rush While in Africa to work on her thesis project, an American anthropologist falls for Nelson Denoon, the charismatic intellectual who is rumored to have founded a highly secretive unorthodox utopian society. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • Is love between equals possible? This modern classic is a delightful intellectual love story that explores the deepest canyons of romantic love even as it asks large questions about society, geopolitics, and the mystery of what men and women really want."Luminous . . . Few books evoke the state of love at its apogee." —The New York Times Book Review "The best rendering of erotic politics . . . since D.H. Lawrence. . . . The voice of Rushs narrator is immediate, instructive and endearing."—The New York Review of BooksOne of The Atlantics Great American Novels of the Past 100 YearsThe narrator of this splendidly expansive novel of high intellect and grand passion is an American anthropologist at loose ends in the South African republic of Botswana. She has a noble and exacting mind, a compelling waist, and a busted thesis project. She also has a yen for Nelson Denoon, a charismatic intellectual who is rumored to have founded a secretive and unorthodox utopian society in a remote corner of the Kalahari—one in which he is virtually the only man.What ensues is an exhilarating quest and an exuberant comedy of manners: "A dryly comic love story about grown-up people who take the life of the mind seriously." —Newsweek Author Biography Norman Rush is the author of four works of fiction: Whites, a collection of stories, and three novels, Subtle Bodies, Mating, and Mortals. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Best American Short Stories. Mating was the recipient of the National Book Award. Rush and his wife live in Rockland County, New York. Review "Exhilarating…vigorous and luminous…Few books evoke the state of love at its apogee." –The New York Times Book Review "The best rendering of erotic politics…since D.H. Lawrence…a marvelous novel, one in which a resolutely independent voice claims new imaginative territory…The voice of Rushs narrator is immediate, instructive and endearing." –The New York Review of Books "Witty, raunchy…prodigiously aspiring…a remarkable book…His protagonist is a memorable female character: a continually shifting prism that revolves from dashing to needy, from witty to morose…wonderfully varied and pungent." –Los Angeles Times Book Review "A dryly comic love story about grown-up people who take the life of the mind seriously and know they sometimes sound silly…Mating is state-of-the-art artifice." –Newsweek"It draws the reader steadily in. Not toward the heart of darkness but toward brilliant illumination." -The New York Times "Bold and ambitious…delightful, provocative." –San Francisco Chronicle "Brilliantly written…utterly sui generis!...Rush has alerted us to the transfiguring power of passion…He deploys the narrative voice with…brio…wit and persuasiveness." –Mirabella "An audaciously clever novel with substance as well as flash." –Detroit Free Press Prizes Winner of United States National Book Awards: Fiction 1991 Description for Reading Group Guide NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER "Exhilarating . . . vigorous and luminous. . . . Few books evoke so eloquently the state of love at its apogee." -- The New York Times Book Review The introduction, discussion questions, author biography, and suggested reading list that follow are designed to enhance your groups discussion of Norman Rushs National Book Award-winning novel Mating . Discussion Question for Reading Group Guide 1. Mating is narrated in the voice of a woman, a graduate student in nutritional anthropology. Why might Norman Rush have made this particular narrative choice? How convincing is his depiction of a womans consciousness and point of view? Why is it important that the story be told by a woman? By an anthropologist? 2. The narrator describes herself as suffering from "scriptomania," [p. 407] the need to get everything in her life into writing. "The point is to exclude nothing" [p. 26]. Why does she feel such a compelling urge to write everything down? What is the value of "telling everything"? 3. Why does the narrator describe her affairs with men just prior to meeting Denoon? How do they set up or illuminate what follows? In what respects is Denoon different from, and superior to, the men who precede him? 4. What are the main characteristics of life at Tsau? In what sense is it an attempt at utopia? How is it different from both Western and African societies? Does it offer a successful alternative to these societies? 5. The narrator observes, "One difference between women and men is that women really want paradise. Men say they do, but what they mean by it is absolute security, which they can obtain only through utter domination of the near and dear and the environment as far as the eye can see" [p. 44]. Is this an accurate assessment? In what ways does Tsau seek to alter this version of paradise as male domination? What other hard truths does the novel deliver about relations between men and women? 6. Why is organized religion kept out of Tsau? What does Denoon believe to be the taproot of religion? 7. What picture emerges of the African residents of Tsau? What role do such characters as Dineo, Dorcas, and Raboupi play in the novel? How do they regard the only whites in Tsau, the narrator and Denoon? 8. After a bitterly contentious parlamente meeting, in which Denoon is verbally attacked, the narrator remarks "Yesterday was a catastrophe trying to tell us something like that Tsau is an organism trying to deal with us as foreign bodies. Yesterday was only the latest trope" [p. 380]. Why do the villagers grow hostile to Denoon? Why do they mistrust him? In what senses are Denoon and the narrator "foreign bodies"? 9. The narrator tries to avoid thinking of marriage as "a form of slowed-down wrestling where the two parties keep trying different holds on each other until one of them gets tired and goes limp, at which point you have the canonical happy marriage, voil Details ISBN067973709X Author Norman Rush Short Title MATING Language English ISBN-10 067973709X ISBN-13 9780679737094 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY FIC Illustrations Yes Year 1992 Edition 1st Imprint Vintage Books Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States Pages 496 DOI 10.1604/9780679737094 AU Release Date 1992-09-01 NZ Release Date 1992-09-01 US Release Date 1992-09-01 UK Release Date 1992-09-01 Publisher Random House USA Inc Series Vintage International Publication Date 1992-09-01 Audience General Subtitle A Novel (National Book Award Winner) We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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