{"product_id":"an-explanation-of-the-birds-9780802134202","title":"An Explanation of the Birds","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"One of Portugal's pre-eminent writers\" has once again proved himself a master of the surreal, creating both a circus-like dream and a mournful eulogy for the lost ideals of post-revolutionary Lisbon. (\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"One of these days I'll beach right here, devoured by fish like a dead whale,\" muses Rui S., portly thirty-three-year-old political historian and hero of the latest dazzling novel by António Lobo Antunes. Little do we or Rui S. realize how prophetic his whiny lamentation proves to be until the close of this beautifully realized masterpiece of remembrance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnable to accept the facts of his life, \"his mother's imminent death by cancer; his estrangement from his bourgeois family, especially his industrialist father; and his blunt rejection by his first wife and two children,\" Rui S. decides to change things.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow married to the nagging, dogmatic Communist Marilia, Rui S. puts together a weak-kneed agenda for change: he decides to skip yet another dull and pompous academic conference, escape to a resort town north of Lisbon, and there dump his homely wife. Marilia, however, beats him to the punch, announcing that she wants out of the marriage before he can summon the courage to speak. Returning again and again to the only memory he has of being loved, \"walking with his father as a young boy and listening to him explain the behavior of birds,\" Rui S. tries in vain to make sense of himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A remarkable combination of angry satire and elegiac tenderness.\"--\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Grove Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/07\/1995\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780802134202\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 261\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.65lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.17h x 5.50w x 0.74d","brand":"Ant\u0026#195;\u0026#179;nio Lobo Antunes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52732234432693,"sku":"9780802134202","price":16.15,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/an-explanation-of-the-birds-9780802134202","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}