Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall: A Novel
3.5/5
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About this ebook
A beautiful and compulsively readable literary debut that introduces Owen Burr—an Olympian whose dreams of greatness are dashed and then transformed by an epic journey—and his father, Professor Joseph Burr, who must travel the world to find his son. After his athletic career ends abruptly, Owen flees the country to become an artist. He lands in Berlin where he meets a group of art monsters living in the Teutonic equivalent of Warhol’s Factory. After his son’s abrupt disappearance, Burr dusts off his more speculative ideas in a last-ditch effort to command both Owen’s and the world's attention. A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall offers a persuasive vision of faith, ambition, art, family, and the myths we write for ourselves.
Editor's Note
An epic retelling…
Will Chancellor’s expansive, electric debut is, at its essence, a postmodern retelling of the “Odyssey.” If that seems like an ambitious gamble for a new author, it is. But it’s also quite the introduction.
Will Chancellor
Will Chancellor grew up in Hawaii and Texas, and lives in New York City. This is his first novel.
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Reviews for Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall
31 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crap; beyond a little Socrates and Plato my philosophy knowledge is wanting; and psychiatric schools of thought? Really? Oh wait now we're into the world of modern art; I don't think we're talking Frazetta here. What a pretentious snob! Blah, blah, blah... Shut book. Open book, but wait the story still grabs hold; the writing can soar and then go clunk! Somehow someway it works and ends up being a satisfying read. This is a book that had I seen it in a bookstore and opened to the first page or so, would never have ended up at the checkout counter. The first 20 or so pages can be work...but the story still wins out. It was in my thoughts the entire time I was reading it and I still have it on my mind. Bottom line: If you can get through the beginning the remainder of the book can be very rewarding. Just do it.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Such a weird book I'm not sure what to think about it. I liked the father-son story, but many of the plot points struck me as warmed-over John Irving. (Kurt the wheelchair-bound artist, I'm looking at you.) Overwritten in parts, but there were a few scenes I really liked.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Owen is an Olympian - playing water polo until he loses an eye early in the book. He sets out to find something else to do with his life, going on an Odyssey of his own, without telling his dad. Owen's father is a professor, who thinks a lot about extinct words and liminality - the in between, the either/or. The book seems a lot like liminality itself, Owen and his dad never in the same place, but their paths have some similarities or coincidences. Owen runs into some shady artists and chaos follows. I'm not sure what to make of this book, but the explanation of liminality sounds awfully like the plot of Neil Gaiman's 'American Gods'. My favorite bit was the discussion of music on the cruise. Chancellor is very intelligent, so I'm probably missing some things.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Owen Burr’s hopes of competing in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens are dashed when he is blinded in one eye during his final college water polo match. Before his father Joseph, a well-known classics professor, can help him plot out his next steps, Owen decides to go to Berlin and attempt life as an artist. Soon, he is taken in by an art collective with questionable intentions while his father organizes a speaking tour that will allow him to search for his son
It’s clear from the beginning of A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall, as the story of Joseph’s heartbreak is woven into the action of Owen’s blinding water polo match, that Chancellor can write. Sadly, the book soon seems to split in two, with half of it favoring a fast talking, dialogue-heavy style that feels too stark against the more meditative foundation established in the beginning of the novel. Though the plot Chancellor writes for Owen in Berlin is a fascinating one, the change in voice makes it feel a little like a misplaced short story sandwiched in a much better novel.
Though the two halves come back together toward the end of the book, which is incredibly strong, the middle remains disconnected and uneven. Still, the standout moments of A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall mark the entrance of a new, creative voice in the world of fiction that will be well worth watching in years to come.
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