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Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1938. Orphaned at age nine by a zeppelin crash, DeFoe Russet grew up in a hotel under the care of his magnetic uncle Edward. Now thirty, DeFoe works with Edward as a guard in Halifax's three-room Glace Museum. By day, he and his uncle break the silence of the museum with heated conversations that show them to be "opposites at life." By night, DeFoe spends his time trying to keep the affection of Imogen Linny, the young caretaker of the small Jewish cemetery.
Their relationship is a most provocative example of unrequited love. When the Dutch painting Jewess on a Street in Amsterdam arrives at the museum, Imogen becomes obsessed and abandons her life in favor of the ennobled one she imagines for its subject - even though being a Jew in Amsterdam is becoming more and more perilous as the clouds of World War II begin to gather.
As the true story of the Jewess emerges, Imogen leaves DeFoe and enters the orbit of Edward and his own fascination with the horrific news being broadcast from Europe. Drawing together the mysteries of identity and self-determination and the ominous aura of the late 1930s, The Museum Guard is an examination of the desire to step out of the everyday and into action - and of that desire's often tragic consequences.
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The museum guard: a novel
1998, Alfred A. Knopf Canada
in English
- 1st Canadian ed.
0676971725 9780676971729
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The museum guard: a novel
1998, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
in English
- 1st ed.
0374216495 9780374216498
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Work Description
This is an amazing and beautifully written novel about two museum guards, one an eccentric uncle, the other his orphaned nephew, DeFoe. By day they spend their time curating an art collection, breaking the silence of the museum with heated conversation; by night we learn about their loves and past histories. DeFoe is in love with Imogen, the young caretaker of the sole small Jewish cemetery in Halifax Nova Scotia, where the novel begins in 1938. She becomes obssessed with a Dutch painting called Jewess on a Street in Amsterdam and abandons her life to look for nobility in the intensity of life in Amsterdam for Jews in the late 30s. The book is an examination of the desire to step out of the everyday and into action, with a startling conclusion. With echoes of the holocaust and of a world lost but not forgotten, this is a poignant and perfect novel of great power.
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- Created April 1, 2008
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July 13, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
October 5, 2021 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
February 19, 2021 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
November 28, 2020 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from Scriblio MARC record |