Andorra

by Peter Cameron

Book Overview

For mysterious reasons, a man forsakes his American life and arrives in a strange country called Andorra. He settles into the grand--and only--hotel in its seaside capital, and gradually makes the aquaintance of this tiny city's most prominent residents: the ancient Mrs. Reinhardt, who has a lifetime lease on the penthouse in the hotel; Sophonsobia Quay, the kayaking matriarch of an Andorran dynasty; and the Ricky Dents, an Australian couple...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312428715
• ISBN13: 9780312428716
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

compelling

I love this book. It is not, by any means, literary perfection, but it has stuck with me for the last 3.5 years since I read it. I suppose it appeals to the computer scientist and simulator in me, since it concerns recursion and worldbuilding... but there is something more affective about it than that. Something about the way the protagonist's world unravels around him and around you, something about how he keeps trying to rewrite his past, and fails. The way picturesque Andorra becomes menacing. The book is minimalist, elegant, yet sucks you in. Andorra. I once read a book about a place called Andorra...

sublime

This is a stunning book, and one I don't really recognize in most of the editorial or customer reviews posted here. By purposefully misnaming the book Andorra, the author seems to be telling us that the plot details are secondary...instead the focus is on is the attempts of the main character to maintain strict control over his new life, measuring everything and everyone around him. We slowly come to understand why he has done this, as we see the simplest of encounters cause his life to spin out of control. It's a testament to Cameron's writing that this doesn't quickly get tiring; instead the result is striking, with wonderful insights coming from each encounter. The writing is nimble and spare. A wonderful book...I found myself wanting to reread it as soon as I had finished it.

Superb but suspend disbelief & geography

A magnificent book. Read it for the story then reread it for the quality & beauty of the prose. Don't try to look for reality. This is an Andorra on the sea inhabited by only English speakers. Since the whole book is metaphor so is the site. Enjoy.

Clever book has Out-Foxed Some

This elegant novel has evaded (and therefore disapointed)some readers but those who read it closely -- and enjoy its details -- will be richly rewarded. Peter Cameron's characters in this novel are at once immensely human and mysterious. Cameron's Andorra is beautiful and mysterious. Read the bood: allow yourself to leave your country for awhile and luxuriate in Peter Cameron's. It's worth the trip.

There is no There There - But That's the Whole Point

Minimalist fiction with its perfect sentences and sometimes obscure and unknowable characters usually does not appeal to me. However, in Andorra the style and technique match the author's purpose. The Andorra of the title is not the real country, but a world we would escape to. (The unreal geography is the first clue.) Yet this world of escape is like the one we live in. It reflects ourselves. We cannot always succeed in being good or kind or in finding truth; the police will make us paranoid (especially if we have something to be paranoid about); love and friends are hard to find and keep; escape is a wish or perhaps only escapism. Cameron expertly pulls all this together.The book is not quibble-less. The restrained depiction of characters often results in a certain coldness. The conversation is sometimes too unreal for even this unreal Andorra. Still, these were minor faults in an otherwise profound book.