BISSOONDATH, NEIL

A Casual Brutality

Toronto, Macmillan of Canada. 1988, 1st edition. (Cloth) Near fine in near fine dust jacket. 377pp.

Spafford BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 200179

Catalogue: Literature And Fiction

Keywords: Literature-Canadian

Bissoondath, Neil.

A Casual Brutality

Near fine condition. Bloomsbury, 1988. First UK edition-first printing. Blue hardback(gilt lettering on the front cover including the authors initials N B and to the spine, small nicks on the edges of the cover) with Dj(small creases and nicks on the edges of the Dj cover), both in near fine condition. Nice and clean pages with a small ink mark, nick and light shelf wear on the outer edges, two small marks and creases on the edges of the pages. Nice and clean book with light shelf wear. Price un-clipped. 378pp. A collectable first edition. Review: Moving between two worlds, Canada and the Caribbean, as he did in his acclaimed story collection (Digging up the Mountains, 1986), Bissoondath uses his first novel to probe the dilemma of the Third World professional, caught between an adopted country that works and a homeland rotted by violence and corruption. Raj Ramsingh is a citizen of Canada but a native of Casaquemada (a thinly disguised version of the author's Trinidad). Raised by his East Indian grandparents, but with no desire to inherit their successful store or their Hindu culture, Raj leaves for Toronto at age 18 to study medicine; in due course, he becomes a doctor, marries a white Canadian (Jan), and has a son (Rohan). Meanwhile, Casaquemada has become oil-rich; though he likes Canada, Raj eventually (he's now 32) returns to Casaquemada with wife and child, in part lured by the prospect of easy money, in part needing the safety net of family. He finds a country grown violent and corrupt: I was seeking protection from people who needed protection. His cousin Surein is importing guns; his uncle Grappler, a decent but bone-weary senior civil servant, is talking about payol solutions (Like Argentina. Like Chile); a former classmate, Madera, has evolved into a sinister hybrid of soldier and policeman, executing criminals on back roads. In the end, a state of emergency is declared; while Raj is away tending his dying grandfather, soldiers come to his house and kill Jan (Rohan, too) when she resists arrest. The men in green arrive in a Grenada-style operation, as Raj takes the last flight out, back to Toronto. Bissoondath has combined a leisurely Bildungsroman with a political thriller; the result, predictably, is a disaster: a sluggish, exasperatingly pretentious work that prates about the destiny of Casaquemada while leaving Raj's professional and marital circumstances shadowy and unrealized; Raj's Toronto practice gets a couple of lines, while wife Jan (as Raj himself says) never really came into focus for me. A major disappointment. (Kirkus Reviews) n nProduct Description nA novel about the quest of one man to comprehend how a national tragedy so cruelly and illogically turned into personal tragedy, while capturing at the same time the laughter and colour of island life as the action moves from Toronto to the Caribbean. By the same author, Digging Up the Mountains. Near Fine/Near Fine. ISBN: 9780747502524

Alpha 2 Omega BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 17

Catalogue: Literature & Fiction

Keywords: & 9780747502524

BISSOONDATH, Neil

A Casual Brutality

New York, Clarkson N. Potter, 1988. Hardcover. Small 4to. Blue cloth spine and tan paper over boards, pictorial dust jacket. 376pp. Near fine/fine. Nice "From the Library of" bookplate (with signature line unsigned) on front flyleaf. Tight, handsome first edition of this first novel by the Canadian short story writer, nephew of V.S. Naipaul. Signed boldly by him in blue fineline opposite the half-title page. .

Main Street Fine Books & ManuscriptsProfessional seller

Book number: 33076

Catalogue: Books

Bissoondath, Neil

A Casual Brutality

Toronto: ON, Macmillan of Canada, 1988. First Edition. Hardcover. 0771596464. Fine in Near Fine jacket 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. pp.378. set in Casaquemada, a fragile West Indian republic divided by racial antagoniosm a native returns. clean tight copy slight sunning to jacket. Fine/Very Good.

Judith Patton BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 004434

Keywords: FICTION LITERATURE 0771596464

Bissoondath, Neil.

A Casual Brutality

VGC. Bloomsbury Publishing, 1988. First UK edition-first printing. Blue hardback(gilt lettering on the front cover and spine, small nick on the edge of the cover) with Dj(small tear and a couple of creases on the edges of the Dj cover), both in VGC. Nice and clean pages but with some foxing marks and a nick on the outer edges, small creases and nicks on the edges of the pages, small pencil mark impression on the edge of the first page of the book. The book is in VGC with some small foxing marks inside the edges of the Dj cover. Price un-clipped. 378pp. Review: Moving between two worlds, Canada and the Caribbean, as he did in his acclaimed story collection (Digging up the Mountains, 1986), Bissoondath uses his first novel to probe the dilemma of the Third World professional, caught between an adopted country that works and a homeland rotted by violence and corruption. Raj Ramsingh is a citizen of Canada but a native of Casaquemada (a thinly disguised version of the author's Trinidad). Raised by his East Indian grandparents, but with no desire to inherit their successful store or their Hindu culture, Raj leaves for Toronto at age 18 to study medicine; in due course, he becomes a doctor, marries a white Canadian (Jan), and has a son (Rohan). Meanwhile, Casaquemada has become oil-rich; though he likes Canada, Raj eventually (he's now 32) returns to Casaquemada with wife and child, in part lured by the prospect of easy money, in part needing the safety net of family. He finds a country grown violent and corrupt: I was seeking protection from people who needed protection. His cousin Surein is importing guns; his uncle Grappler, a decent but bone-weary senior civil servant, is talking about payol solutions (Like Argentina. Like Chile); a former classmate, Madera, has evolved into a sinister hybrid of soldier and policeman, executing criminals on back roads. In the end, a state of emergency is declared; while Raj is away tending his dying grandfather, soldiers come to his house and kill Jan (Rohan, too) when she resists arrest. The men in green arrive in a Grenada-style operation, as Raj takes the last flight out, back to Toronto. Bissoondath has combined a leisurely Bildungsroman with a political thriller; the result, predictably, is a disaster: a sluggish, exasperatingly pretentious work that prates about the destiny of Casaquemada while leaving Raj's professional and marital circumstances shadowy and unrealized; Raj's Toronto practice gets a couple of lines, while wife Jan (as Raj himself says) never really came into focus for me. A major disappointment. (Kirkus Reviews) n nProduct Description nA novel about the quest of one man to comprehend how a national tragedy so cruelly and illogically turned into personal tragedy, while capturing at the same time the laughter and colour of island life as the action moves from Toronto to the Caribbean. By the same author, Digging Up the Mountains. Very Good/Very Good. ISBN: 9780747502524

Alpha 2 Omega BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 18

Catalogue: Literature & Fiction

Keywords: bissoondathneil & 9780747502524

BISSOONDATH, NEIL

A Casual Brutality

London, Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd. 1988, First Edition. (ISBN: 9780747502524). Hardcover. First edition hardcover in very good condition, with unclipped dust jacket in good condition. Jacket is scuffed and sunned. Edges are creased and nicked, including a few small tears. Board corners and spine ends are bumped, and page block is lightly blemished. Boards are clean, binding is sound and pages are clear. LW. Very Good/Good.

PsychoBabel BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 547314

Catalogue: Literature

Keywords: 9780747502524

BISSOONDATH, NEIL

Digging Up the Mountains: Selected Stories

Toronto, Macmillan of Canada. 1985. (Cloth) Near fine in near fine dust jacket. 247pp. First Book.

Spafford BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 200180

Catalogue: Literature And Fiction

Keywords: Literature-Canadian

BISSOONDATH, NEIL

Digging Up the Mountains. Selected Stories

London, Andre Deutsch 1986. 247 p. Bound in the publisher's green cloth with pictorial dustjacket (In good condition.) 9780233978512

Antiquariaat SchotProfessional seller

Book number: 020929

Keywords: 9780233978512

Bissoondath, Neil

Digging Up the Mountains

Macmillan of Canada, 1985. First Edition. Hardcover. 077159836X. pp.247 clean tight unread copy d/j slight tanning to white covers, 1 1/4" tear lower back near spine hinge, Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall Fine/Near Fine.

Judith Patton BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 013621

Catalogue: FICTION/LITERATURE

Keywords: 077159836X

Bissoondath, Neil

Digging Up the Mountains

Rexdale, Ontario, Canada: Macmillan of Canada, 1985. 077159836X. Hard Cover. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. pp.247. d/j discolored. slight nicks and tears around edges of d/j. withdrawn from library stamped in red on frontpiece. Focussing on contemporary themes of dislocation, revolution, and the shifting politics of the Third World, Trindidad-born Canadian writer Bissoondath brings vividly to life the human side of the stories we read every day in the newspapers. Compelling stories of people in the grip of circumstances well beyond their control. Very Good/Good.

Judith Patton BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 000727

Keywords: CANADA FICTION SHORT STORIES SINGLE AUTHOR 077159836X 077159836X

BISSOONDATH, NEIL

Doing the Heart Good

Canada, Cormorant Books. (ISBN: 1-896951-35-X). 2002. (hardcover) Fine in fine dust jacket. 328pp.

Spafford BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 119324

Catalogue: Literature And Fiction

Keywords: Literature-Canadian, Canadian Author, Canadian Literature, Fiction, Literature 189695135X

Bissoondath, Neil

Doing the Heart Good

Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada, Cormorant Books, 2002. Hardcover. 189695135X. pp.328 clean tight copy faint rubbing to covers with a few minuscule dogears on a few pages Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall Near Fine/Near Fine.

Judith Patton BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 011374

Catalogue: FICTION/LITERATURE

Keywords: 189695135X

Neil Bissoondath

Doing the Heart Good

Cormorant Books, 2003. First Trade Paperback Edition. Soft cover. 1896951643. pp.328 clean tight copy with minuscule corner wear Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall Fine.

Judith Patton BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 022039

Catalogue: FICTION/LITERATURE

Keywords: 1896951643

BISSOONDATH, NEIL

Innocence of Age

Knopf Canada, 1992. Hardcover. ISBN: 039422289X. Signed by the author on the title page. A Fine Hardcover, tight, bright, unmarked. Very light spine end bumping. The DJ is unclipped and in Near Fine condition. ; 9.1 X 6.6 X 1.1 inches; Signed by Author. Fine in Fine dust jacket .

Bytown BookeryProfessional seller

Book number: 26176

Catalogue: Fiction, City and Town Life

Keywords: 039422289x Fiction Ontario, Canada Toronto Fiction Canada Culture

BISSOONDATH, NEIL

The Innocence of Age

Canada: Knopf, 1992. First Canadian Edition. Hardcover. ISBN: 039422289x. 308 pages. "Takes us into the heart of a city, into the lives of men and women struggling with the lives of everyday life, with the lure of corruption and high living, and with the meaning of faithfulness, betrayal and love." - from dust jacket. Book virtually as new; clean, bright and unmarked with minimal wear. Dust jacket in excellent condition but for one inch by one-half inch chip from base of back panel. Very nice copy overall.; 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall; Takes us into the heart of a city, into the lives of men and women struggling with the lives of everyday life, with the lure of corruption and high living, and with the meaning of faithfulness, betrayal and Love. Fine in Very Good dust jacket .

RareNonFiction.com - Rare Books and Vintage MagazinesProfessional seller

Book number: 86904016

Keywords: 039422289x Literature