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Losing Nelson
Losing Nelson
Author: Barry Unsworth
Barry Unsworth, author of the Booker Prize-winning Sacred Hunger and the bestselling Morality Play, has long established his genius for both historical narrative and for sharply observed, fantastically odd characters and stories. In Losing Nelson, Unsworth's most brilliantly imagined novel yet and a nominee for the Booker Prize, he has enlisted ...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780385486521
ISBN-10: 0385486529
Pages: 352
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Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette
Members Wishing: 0
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I found this book to be pretty snoozeworthy most of the way though. The story is told from Charles Cleasby's point of view, a crazy man with elements of OCD and paranoia and other stuff thrown in. He's severely obsessed with Lord Horatio Nelson and is in the process of writing Lord Nelson's biography. But in his hero worship, Charles cannot accept that Lord Nelson may have done anything dishonorable and is particularly devoted to clearing Lord Nelson of any wrongdoing in the events surrounding the Parthenopaean Republic of Naples in June 1799. Most of this book is taken up by Charles alternately dictating Lord Nelson's biography and being OCD. Three hundred pages later something different happens. And then the last two paragraphs left me slack-jawed. Mostly boring, I wouldn't recommend this, but if you happen to be particularly interested in Horatio Nelson or find that you've started reading this book for some other reason, don't skip the end. While it didn't, in my eyes, make the rest of the book worthwhile, the ending definitely puts a more interesting spin on it.


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