Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook282 pages3 hours
Idyll Banter: Weekly Excursions to a Very Small Town
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
In March 1986, while living in Brooklyn, Chris Bohjalian and his wife were cab-napped on a Saturday night and taken on a forty-five-minute joy ride in which the driver ignored all traffic lights and stop signs. Around midnight he deposited the young couple on a near-deserted street, where police officers were about to storm a crack house. Bohjalian and his wife were told to hit the ground for their own protection. While lying on the pavement, Bohjalian's wife suggested that perhaps it was time to move to New England.
Months later they traded in their co-op in Brooklyn for a century-old Victorian house in Lincoln, Vermont (population 975), and Bohjalian began chronicling life in that town in a wide variety of magazine essays and in his newspaper column, "Idyll Banter."
These pieces, written weekly for twelve years and collected here for the first time, serve as a diary of both this writer's life and how America has been transformed in the last decade. Rich with idiosyncratic universals that come with being a parent, a child, and a spouse, Chris Bohjalian's personal observations are a reflection of our own common experience.
"Chris Bohjalian is a terrific columnist—thoughtful and thought-provoking. Just like me! No, really, this guy is good." —Dave Barry, author of Boogers Are My Beat
“The best book I’ve ever read about life in a contemporary village. There’s no doubt that Chris Bohjalian has established himself as one of America’s finest, most thoughtful, and most humane writers.”
—Howard Frank Mosher
Months later they traded in their co-op in Brooklyn for a century-old Victorian house in Lincoln, Vermont (population 975), and Bohjalian began chronicling life in that town in a wide variety of magazine essays and in his newspaper column, "Idyll Banter."
These pieces, written weekly for twelve years and collected here for the first time, serve as a diary of both this writer's life and how America has been transformed in the last decade. Rich with idiosyncratic universals that come with being a parent, a child, and a spouse, Chris Bohjalian's personal observations are a reflection of our own common experience.
"Chris Bohjalian is a terrific columnist—thoughtful and thought-provoking. Just like me! No, really, this guy is good." —Dave Barry, author of Boogers Are My Beat
“The best book I’ve ever read about life in a contemporary village. There’s no doubt that Chris Bohjalian has established himself as one of America’s finest, most thoughtful, and most humane writers.”
—Howard Frank Mosher
Unavailable
Author
Chris Bohjalian
Chris Bohjalian is the author of twelve novels, including the New York Times bestsellers, Secrets of Eden, The Double Bind, Skeletons at the Feast, and Midwives. His work has been translated into twenty-six languages. He lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter. Visit him at www.chrisbohjalian.com or www.facebook.com .
Related to Idyll Banter
Related ebooks
U.P. Reader -- Volume #5: Bringing Upper Michigan Literature to the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI'll Take New Haven: Tales of Discovery and Rejuvenation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeing Home: An Anthology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Note Yet Unsung (A Belmont Mansion Novel Book #3) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Roots and Blossoms: In Chapter and Verse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDakota: A Spiritual Geography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Men: Eighty Writers on How to Be a Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBest Contemporary Women's Fiction: Six Novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMemories of the Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Like a Complete Unknown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhostbread Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coin Street Chronicles: Memoirs of an Evacuee from London’S Old South Bank Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBob Seger's House and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Daughter of the Middle Border (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5American Spirits: "The Sugar Creek Anthologies of Jesse Freedom Series" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Listening Chamber: Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Heart of Yonkers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Night the New Jesus Fell to Earth: And Other Stories from Cliffside, North Carolina Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Large Animals in Everyday Life: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poor Man's Provence: Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Feathers in the Well Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOff to the Side: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daughter of the Middle Border Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOur Own Little Fictions: Stories from the Road Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Gold Buys Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tales from the Palouse Country Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRemembering Westbrook: The People of the Paper City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThat Self-Forgetful Perfectly Useless Concentration Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sixty-third Anniversary of Hysteria Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Personal Memoirs For You
A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Choice: Embrace the Possible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Solutions and Other Problems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mommie Dearest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Mormon: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Idyll Banter
Rating: 3.709302404651163 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
43 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Eh, this one really didn’t do it for me. I have read and enjoyed a couple of Bohjalian’s novels and have a few more TBR, so when I saw this collection of his columns for a newspaper in Burlington, Vermont, I thought it would be a good choice. Not so much… The first problem was the reading. Bohjalian has a strange, awkward pacing that I found off-putting, especially when he ended every essay as if the last few words were separated by periods. It. Was. Very. Annoying.Also bothersome was the self-congratulatory tone. Why, look at me! I moved from New York City to the wilds of Vermont and what fun I’ve had learning the ways of the natives! Being from a small town, I loathe this kind of patronizing condescension. Bohjalian takes great delight in recording the eccentricities of small town folk who name their cows, shop at the general store, hunt deer, and participate in civic activities. I got the sense that he wanted desperately to fit into this community but by continually drawing attention to its “otherness” (in his eyes), I don’t see how he ever could.And finally, I don’t think Bohjalian is as funny as he would like to think. He continually employed a faux self-deprecating humor that fell flat. And there was always a pause after one of these “humorous” asides, as if he was giving the listener a chance to finish laughing. I don’t think I chuckled once through the whole thing, much less laughed.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is a collection of newspaper columns that Bohjalian wrote about his transition from life in the city to life in a small town in Vermont. It's an entertaining read, but nothing particularly noteworthy. I prefer his fiction myself.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a collection of columns written both for his local small town newspaper in Vermont, and for the Boston Globe by novel writer Chris Bohjalian. I found the book to be an entertaining and easy read. Here you will find stories about the town, his neighbors, family, pets and friends. Small town living will often provide us with good "character" stories. I live in a small town and have told a few of my own. Do not be fooled into thinking this is another of his novels, it is a completely different Bohjalian from the author of Midwives, but just as entertaining.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I really enjoyed this collection of articles/essays/whatever you want to call them. I'm a fan of "author's notes", as I think they give an idea of the author's true voice -- what they're really like. After reading this, I feel like Bohjalian is someone that you could sit down and chat with and completely relate to. Some of it may be that I grew up in a small town like Lincoln, so I can draw some familiar comfort from the stories. I think that reading this will make me read his future books with a different eye.