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London Fragments: A Literary Expedition
Rüdiger Görner
#UC3182
Hardcover, 253 pages; 2007
$19.95
 Members' Price: $16.96
But enough; back into the ventricles of the city. Because it does not have just one heart. Every part of the city is one of its hearts; and each has its very own labyrinth.
A longtime London resident and literary scholar, Rüdiger Görner knows the city intimately, and yet he finds it always confounding and a little beyond his reach. In London Fragments he maps this elusive city on foot, drawing on its vast literary heritage and his own sharp observations from its crowded streets. Görner also has extensive knowledge of London's writers, from Geoffrey Chaucer to Hanif Kureishi. He seems to feel their presence with every step, and he makes them his guides. The resulting walking tour is dreamlike and enchanting, taking him past fires, plagues, intrigues, and art movements, which exist simultaneously for him with modern London's track-suited and cell phone-equipped denizens. While London Fragments is at times dense and rambling, it is easily worth the trouble thanks to Görner's passion for his subject and his mesmerizing erudition.
(BB)
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