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About Schmidt

About Schmidt

by Louis Begley (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2003

    $3.28
Synopsis

Albert Schmidt is a retired lawyer who misses his recently deceased wife, has an unhealthy diet, is a mild anti-Semite and owns a nice home in the Hamptons he feels compelled to offer to his daughter as a wedding present. Said daughter, Charlotte, is a yuppie in all the worst ways. She handles public relations for tobacco companies, doesn't want the house in the Hamptons, and is about to marry a buttoned-up Jewish lawyer. Schmidt, who had built a very lucrative career on his ability to be 'always demonstrably and impeccably right', begins to feel the first stirrings of self-doubt and, to his own astonishment, finds himself beginning an affair with a frank, exuberant waitress, a woman younger than his daughter. The conflict takes off from there in this finely told tale of retirement, inheritance, sex and death.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 288
 Edition: Main
 Publisher: Serpent's Tail
Published: 13 Feb 2003
ISBN 10: 1852428430
ISBN 13: 9781852428433

Media Reviews
?A fine new novel?The great pleasure of reading Louis Begley (is) his exceptional literary intelligence is always in control, making me wonder if more novelists shouldn?t develop the virtues of lawyers as writers: accuracy, economy, abjuring the language of emotion? The New York Times Book Review ?Begley is a high-class gambler: smooth and dissembling. His game of chance here is to present a disagreeable protagonist--Schmidt, the self-described last of the WASPs ?then, slowly and adeptly, win us over, offering scintillating perspectives on prejudice, sexuality, and wealth along the way.? Booklist ?An elegant, precise, droll novel about a lawyer?s startling transformation?But it is one of the pleasures of Begley?s increasingly dark narrative that he both reveals Schmidt?s self-satisfied shortcomings and makes him nonetheless a fascinating character. A sly, sharp portrait of an amoral but appealing figure, and of the declining world of privilege that has shaped him? Kirkus Review ?In the end, Begley has created a terribly funny, touching, infuriating and complex character in Schmidt, whose funny self-deceptions and imprisonment by his own world- view stand not only as a devastating portrait of a disappearing world but also sound a strangely evocative cautionary tale. Stunning? Los Angeles Times Book Review ?Begley again demonstrates that he can reveal the complexities of society and personality with a clear eye and graceful style? Time ?What emerges?is a poignant study of ageing centred on a man whose flaws become both sinister and sympathetic. In an era of encroaching coarseness, where civility dissolves?Schmidt summons in us remembrance of elegance past?Is he cultured patrician, a supercilious snob or both? Whichever he is, Begley succeeds in making us care? San Francisco Chronicle ?Consistently subtle and intelligent, this novel ends by getting under your skin despite the unlikeability of its protagonist. You are left with the feeling of having found out the complex truth behind the impeccable fa?ade of someone you might never notice if you met him at a party? The New York Times Book Review
Author Bio
Begley is a senior partner at Debevoise & Plimpton,a prestigious US law firm. Wartime Lies was the winner of the PEN Hemingway Award, The 1991 Irish Times Aer Lingus International Prize, and the Prix Medicis Etranger, France's most coveted prize for fiction in translation. It was a National Book Award, Los Angeles Times Book Award, and National Book Critics' Circle Award finalist. About Schmidt was likewise a National Book Critics' Circle Award and Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist. Begley has received the American Academy of Letters prize for literature.