Dark Diversions: A Traveler's Tale
In Dark Diversions, acclaimed author John Ralston Saul stages a black comedy of international proportions that takes the reader from New York to Paris to Morocco to Haiti in the 1980s and 1990s. When he’s not encountering dictators in Third World hot spots, Saul’s narrator moves in privileged circles on both sides of the Atlantic, insinuating himself into the lives of well-to-do aristocrats. Through his exploits we experience a fascinating world of secret lovers, exiled princesses, death by veganism, and religious heresies. The emotional fireworks of these inhabitants of the First World are sharply juxtaposed with the political infighting of the dictators and the corruption, double-dealing, and fawning that attend them. But as the narrator becomes further enmeshed in these worlds, his outsider status grows more ambiguous: Is he a documentarian of privileged foibles and fundamental inequity, or an embodiment of the very “dark diversions” he chronicles?
1121257509
Dark Diversions: A Traveler's Tale
In Dark Diversions, acclaimed author John Ralston Saul stages a black comedy of international proportions that takes the reader from New York to Paris to Morocco to Haiti in the 1980s and 1990s. When he’s not encountering dictators in Third World hot spots, Saul’s narrator moves in privileged circles on both sides of the Atlantic, insinuating himself into the lives of well-to-do aristocrats. Through his exploits we experience a fascinating world of secret lovers, exiled princesses, death by veganism, and religious heresies. The emotional fireworks of these inhabitants of the First World are sharply juxtaposed with the political infighting of the dictators and the corruption, double-dealing, and fawning that attend them. But as the narrator becomes further enmeshed in these worlds, his outsider status grows more ambiguous: Is he a documentarian of privileged foibles and fundamental inequity, or an embodiment of the very “dark diversions” he chronicles?
16.0 In Stock
Dark Diversions: A Traveler's Tale

Dark Diversions: A Traveler's Tale

by John Ralston Saul
Dark Diversions: A Traveler's Tale

Dark Diversions: A Traveler's Tale

by John Ralston Saul

Overview

In Dark Diversions, acclaimed author John Ralston Saul stages a black comedy of international proportions that takes the reader from New York to Paris to Morocco to Haiti in the 1980s and 1990s. When he’s not encountering dictators in Third World hot spots, Saul’s narrator moves in privileged circles on both sides of the Atlantic, insinuating himself into the lives of well-to-do aristocrats. Through his exploits we experience a fascinating world of secret lovers, exiled princesses, death by veganism, and religious heresies. The emotional fireworks of these inhabitants of the First World are sharply juxtaposed with the political infighting of the dictators and the corruption, double-dealing, and fawning that attend them. But as the narrator becomes further enmeshed in these worlds, his outsider status grows more ambiguous: Is he a documentarian of privileged foibles and fundamental inequity, or an embodiment of the very “dark diversions” he chronicles?

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780143183457
Publisher: Penguin Canada
Publication date: 08/13/2013
Pages: 336
Product dimensions: 5.20(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

JOHN RALSTON SAUL is Canada's leading public intellectual. Declared a "prophet" by Time magazine, Saul has received many awards and prizes, including Chile's Pablo Neruda Medal. He is president of PEN International, an organization dedicated to freedom of expression. His many works have been translated into twenty-five languages in thirty-six countries.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Saul has the eye, the aloofness, the killer turn-of-phrase of a Truman Capote.”
– Le Figaro Littéraire

“A delightful novel, invigoratingly wicked.”
– Le Monde

“crisp dialogue and evocative descriptions...An ingenious read, Dark Diversions will be a solid end-of-summer choice for a wide and varied audience.”
—The Winnipeg Free Press

"clean and unadorned prose"
—The Toronto Star

Praise for John Ralston Saul:
"With his sophisticated international perspective and blunt freedom from cant, he offers a promising persona for the future: the intellectual as man of the world."
—The Washington Post

"[Saul has] the most wide-ranging mind and [is] one of the greatest organizing and focusing teachers we have."
—Sydney Morning Herald

"Saul has a keen eye for hypocrisy and pungently dry wit."
—The Independent (UK)

From the B&N Reads Blog
Page 1 of

Related Subjects

Fiction
Literature
Literary Fiction
Fiction
Literature
Literary Fiction

Customer Reviews