✓ The History of Now || Þ PDF Read by ☆ Daniel Klein

The History of Now Small almost imperceptible changes are rippling through the New England village of Grandville altering it in ways its inhabitants cannot yet imagine Laced through a narrative of one recent year in G

Title: The History of Now

Author: Daniel Klein

ISBN: 9781579621810

Page: 459

Format: Hardcover

Small, almost imperceptible changes are rippling through the New England village of Grandville, altering it in ways its inhabitants cannot yet imagine Laced through a narrative of one recent year in Grandville s history are stories that reach back to a 17th century family in Rotterdam, and 18th century migration by a farmer s lonely son in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, anSmall, almost imperceptible changes are rippling through the New England village of Grandville, altering it in ways its inhabitants cannot yet imagine Laced through a narrative of one recent year in Grandville s history are stories that reach back to a 17th century family in Rotterdam, and 18th century migration by a farmer s lonely son in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and a 19th century underground railway journey by a gifted runaway slave Each episode comes to bear on the lives of Grandville s current residents Does every event, no matter how small or distant in the past influence all events that follow

✓ The History of Now || Þ PDF Read by ☆ Daniel Klein

Daniel Klein 459 Daniel Klein
Title: ✓ The History of Now || Þ PDF Read by ☆ Daniel Klein
Posted by:Daniel Klein
Published :2020-02-09T12:17:31+00:00

About "Daniel Klein"

Daniel Klein is the co author of the international bestseller Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar He is a Harvard graduate in philosophy and an acclaimed writer of both fiction and nonfiction When not enjoying the slow life on Greek islands, he lives in Massachusetts with his wife He is seventy five years old.

899 Comments

This novel was a delight to read. Philosophical and quirky, filled with characters just a little too odd to be normal -- this narrative continually surprised me. It is about small towns and young love and theatre production, about an old fashioned movie house and a philosophy class called 'Phil of Flicks', about fires that recur and also revenge plots that surround royal tennis. But mostly it is about moments. It is a very quiet book. The narrative is a collection of moments, and connection betw [...]

i won this on first reads; so far so good. i knew i'd like the writing early on, when i read this sentence:Hark! Once again, Franscoise deVries flies in from the wings, but this time in lieu of tender morsels and treble warbles, she comes bearing train tickets.tender morsels and treble warbles. how brilliant and dramatic! i like. status update: i finished this over a year ago. i liked it, an interesting and easy read (two characteristics that are good in common). however it didn't live up to thi [...]

As a story about life in a small town in western Massachusetts, this book isn't bad. Unfortunately, it tries to be a lot more than that. Many chapters begin with vaguely interesting historical vignettes about the ancestors of the family at the center Then we have the story of Hector as he moves from rural Colombia to Bogota to Miami to Connecticut and finally to Grandville. At first, I found his story the most compelling of all, even if it was all too predictable how he would eventually figure i [...]

Definitely not what I expected when I read the endflaps, but still a good read. I found the way the stories were intertwined was interesting.

Daniel Klein's novel, The History of Now, is an ingenious philosophical examination of cause and effect and, at the same time, an engaging story of a small-town family. That Klein manages to execute both premises successfully is impressive indeed. The New England village of Grandville has been the home of generations of the deVries family; Wendell, who never wanted to leave the projection booth of the theater-turned-cinema, his daughter Franny, a doubt-ridden artist, and his granddaughter Lila, [...]

The History of Now by Daniel Klein[return]Permanent Press[return]March 1, 2009, HC, 296 pages[return]ISBN 1579621813[return]$28.00[return][return][return]Have you ever thought your life was so average that no one would want to read about it? Daniel Klein dispels that myth in his new book,The History of Now as he tells the story of a somewhat typical family living in Grandville, Massachusetts. The town is the quintessential image of bucolic New England. As the story unfolds you quickly become enm [...]

Written by one of the authors of the recent philosophy gem Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar, this is a sweet and rewarding study of people intent on living in the present while assimilating the lessons of the past, their own personal pasts as well as their ancestral pasts. The primary plot line chronicles about a year in the lives of the DeVries family of Grandville, Massachusetts, but woven in with this tale are stories about past members of the DeVries line, as well as a history of the reb [...]

This book isn't terrible But its not that great either. It was really hard for me to get into. I started off really liking the character of Franny, and was very happy when she got pissed enough to do something about another douchhebag resident of her small town however when she breaks, i was most displeased. I didn't like that at all. The one awesome female character in the book has a nervous breakdown? come on, her daughter is a prick and not likable at all. Wendell was likeable but in the end, [...]

My wife found this at the library and brought it home to me because it was written by Daniel Klein who co-wrote "Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar" and knew how much I'd liked it.I really enjoyed it. I tried to write a review and just can't get any words tonight so I'm quoting from someone else's review who does the book justice.In The History of Now, we focus on various members of the DeVries family through a year in their lives. What makes this book so fascinating is it's exploration of the [...]

The History of Now was a delight for me to read. From the moment I started, I could hardly put it down. It was a near perfect balance of philosophical musings, current events, and history told through some of the most beautiful prose I've read in a very long time.The story is about a snapshot in the present, in a small Massachusetts town, and what happened to get everyone there. Even though the characters are all over the map (e.g. people of both African and European descent, young, old, educate [...]

Klein gives us an enjoyable novel that revolves around the town of Grandville, MA. The philosophical question he asks is how a small change or a decision can have a ripple effect and bring about change in the lives of people even generations later. For example, what is the effect of business men in the late 1800's deciding how to rebuild a street in which the buildings were burned down? And, what of the decision to build a grand theatre? What of the decision Wendell to not go to college but to r [...]

I did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped to, but I think it will have its audience. It's driven by plot, setting and, to some extent, ideas, rather than getting into the hearts and minds of its characters, which is my preference. It has an omniscient narrator who directly addresses the reader as in, "We shall speed ahead here . . .", a technique I find irritating and distracting. The title and opening epigraph are intriguingly thought provoking, but the book ends with a bold-text, paragraph- [...]

The question I always ask of a novel is this: Does it make me forget that I'm reading a book? Am I so convinced by the story, so caught up in its flow, that I'm taken out of my own existence and woven into the book itself? It's not an easy mark to reach, but this fine novel managed it. I rarely came up for air, staying submerged in the fictive stream, seeing the sights, chatting up the locals, going thru the travails of the characters as if I were one of them. Klein has written a profoundly mora [...]

This book was interesting in concept, but it was just an okay read (probably a 2.5 star for me). I found the ending a bit unsatisfying and too many characters kept being introduced (especially after the halfway point of the story). There were definitely characters the story could have lived without. I think what dissatisfied me the most about the ending of the book was that it seemed like everything was getting tied up into a nice neat bow.but then there were several characters/elements that wer [...]

"The book revolves around the de Vries family, which consists of Wendell; his unmarried thirty-something daughter, Franny; and her teenage daughter, Lila. Wendell and Franny have lived in tiny Grandville their whole lives, without any inclination ever to leave despite the gradual descent of well-off "second-homers" from New York City. Much like the town itself, all three characters eventually break out of their self-imposed shells to varying degrees, with varying results. Klein uses these charac [...]

This book definitely had a different kind of writing style. I did not particularly like the book. The plot seemed very interesting, but when it came to executing it, I felt as though the author got a lot of jumbled up words that did not deliver quite well. However, a big part might also be that the book referenced back to many movies that were beyond my time. Even so, I would not recommend this book to most people.

This was an interesting read. I liked how interlinked the dips into the past are with the present of the story. I found it interesting that the pacing was a little laid back, mirroring the small town community it chronicles. The characters are compelling and the storyline is interesting. An enjoyable read.

I very much enjoyed everything about this novel: Klein's artistry of painting the past and the now of a small New England town, the interwoven cast of vivid characters, the philosophical & historical digressions and parallels.

I really liked this book. Daniel has a way of weaving the character's lives together that made reading The History of Now quite enjoyable. I have posted an author's interview with Daniel on my blog at lumorgan.