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A perfeita ordem das coisas
Há coisas que só podem ser compreendidas quando vividas uma segunda vez…
Um escritor parte numa viagem rumo ao próprio passado. Ele vagueia pelas ruas de Paris, de Toronto, de uma cidadezinha praiana da Jamaica. Lá, estão o internato, uma roda-gigante girando na noite; uma casinha de campo caindo aos pedaços, lugares onde foi feliz e triste, na maioria das vezes desesperado, buscando um sentido para sua vida. Ele reencontra as pessoas, as conversas, os sonhos e as paixões, memórias que tinham se perdido no tempo e agora voltavam para que ele as visse com novos olhos, estes bem abertos para o que não conseguiu enxergar quando as viveu pela primeira vez.
Um escritor parte numa viagem rumo ao próprio passado. Ele vagueia pelas ruas de Paris, de Toronto, de uma cidadezinha praiana da Jamaica. Lá, estão o internato, uma roda-gigante girando na noite; uma casinha de campo caindo aos pedaços, lugares onde foi feliz e triste, na maioria das vezes desesperado, buscando um sentido para sua vida. Ele reencontra as pessoas, as conversas, os sonhos e as paixões, memórias que tinham se perdido no tempo e agora voltavam para que ele as visse com novos olhos, estes bem abertos para o que não conseguiu enxergar quando as viveu pela primeira vez.
217 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 11, 2011
4 people are currently reading
149 people want to read
About the author
David Gilmour
68 books77 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
David Gilmour is a novelist who has earned critical praise from literary figures as diverse as William Burroughs and Northrop Frye, and from publications as different as the New York Times to People magazine. The author of six novels, he also hosted the award-winning Gilmour on the Arts. In 2005, his novel A Perfect Night to Go to China won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. His next book, The Film Club, was a finalist for the 2008 Charles Taylor Prize. It became an international bestseller, and has sold over 200,000 copies in Germany and over 100,000 copies in Brazil. He lives in Toronto with his wife.
David Gilmour is a novelist who has earned critical praise from literary figures as diverse as William Burroughs and Northrop Frye, and from publications as different as the New York Times to People magazine. The author of six novels, he also hosted the award-winning Gilmour on the Arts. In 2005, his novel A Perfect Night to Go to China won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. His next book, The Film Club, was a finalist for the 2008 Charles Taylor Prize. It became an international bestseller, and has sold over 200,000 copies in Germany and over 100,000 copies in Brazil. He lives in Toronto with his wife.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
August 25, 2020
A 60-year old man looks back on his life and narrates some episodes that he probably finds reportworthy and important.
The writing style is really pleasant, but the man's stories didn't move me and I was a tad bored.
2 stars.
The writing style is really pleasant, but the man's stories didn't move me and I was a tad bored.
2 stars.
October 12, 2011
In The Perfect Order of Things, David Gilmour writes a quasi-autobiographical novel, with a narrator we are encouraged to view as being the voice of David Gilmour. However, he very carefully fashions a novel that jumps and skips lightly over moments in a life. Moments that are personally painful. Links to the present day appear through an examination of place, and revisiting a place years later triggers memories of that past event which shaped the narrator's life profoundly.
I enjoyed the conversational and anecdotal writing in this novel. Because of the personal first person narrative, we are limited to one perspective, and the other characters are presented very enigmatically. Underlying the novel's main arc, I felt this was a central theme, that we cannot ever know other people in our lives, we can only interpret their actions and words. This can end in tragedy when the people in our lives are troubled, as we see with the narrator's father and his best friend.
Gilmour is to be commended on writing another deeply personal novel, in the vein of his bestseller The Film Club, yet with more substantial examination of life and how it's lived.
I enjoyed the conversational and anecdotal writing in this novel. Because of the personal first person narrative, we are limited to one perspective, and the other characters are presented very enigmatically. Underlying the novel's main arc, I felt this was a central theme, that we cannot ever know other people in our lives, we can only interpret their actions and words. This can end in tragedy when the people in our lives are troubled, as we see with the narrator's father and his best friend.
Gilmour is to be commended on writing another deeply personal novel, in the vein of his bestseller The Film Club, yet with more substantial examination of life and how it's lived.
February 28, 2012
This is one of those books with prose I thoroughly enjoyed but with a protagonist who didn't make me care.
The narrative structure is interesting. Gilmour presents a series of vignettes where his main character, a wealthy trust-fund kid turned writer, revisits places and people from his past. He recounts lost loves and obsessions, but I couldn't sympathize with someone who's has had nothing but privilege yet wrecks all that is good around him. When he recounts the story of heartbreak as an older adult, I could hardly care. Here was a middle-aged man with two ex-wives who fell in love with a much younger woman. He is crushed when she leaves him and takes up with someone younger, and all I could think is "And you were surprised by this?"
The writing is sparkling, but it was not enough in this case. I need to care about characters, not scoff at them.
The narrative structure is interesting. Gilmour presents a series of vignettes where his main character, a wealthy trust-fund kid turned writer, revisits places and people from his past. He recounts lost loves and obsessions, but I couldn't sympathize with someone who's has had nothing but privilege yet wrecks all that is good around him. When he recounts the story of heartbreak as an older adult, I could hardly care. Here was a middle-aged man with two ex-wives who fell in love with a much younger woman. He is crushed when she leaves him and takes up with someone younger, and all I could think is "And you were surprised by this?"
The writing is sparkling, but it was not enough in this case. I need to care about characters, not scoff at them.
December 20, 2013
Awful. Tone is whiny and self-indulgent.
September 22, 2017
A self-indulgent tale of an older man, reflecting on the tragedies of his life which were the result of too much money and too little humanity.
April 3, 2022
Absolutely in love with Gilmour's writing style and the numerous references he makes to other works.
I would describe this as a "powerfully simple" story. The man's life is not particularily different from anyone else's who has suffered a fair amount, but continued on with a normal life. His father's suicide, his childhood bestfriend turning out to be a murderer, and the heartbreaks he suffers but always gets over explore the outcomes of impactful themes: paternal failure, addiction, jaded romanticism, misdirected masculine pride, and disintegration. The events of his life seem however to remain in a certain bubble of the privilege he was surrounded with, as he easily retreats to places around the globe to escape his career and relationship failures.
What I found beautiful about this story was the way he recounted his memories of people and experiences once in the places that brought them to light. He seems to accept that the way he views these things is not the same, sometimes ridiculing his discarded selves, but ultimately appreciating them for the role they played at that time. The final scene is so precious; a next generation father-son relationship, both of them in their own "private silence" and reflections under the night sky on Sunset Strip. Setting is so prominent throughout the novel. Overall, it simply makes you realize how many moments there are to live over life's course, and how many cherished memories they will later on create, perhaps regareded under a more peaceful light, and all in an effortlessly perfect order of things.
I would describe this as a "powerfully simple" story. The man's life is not particularily different from anyone else's who has suffered a fair amount, but continued on with a normal life. His father's suicide, his childhood bestfriend turning out to be a murderer, and the heartbreaks he suffers but always gets over explore the outcomes of impactful themes: paternal failure, addiction, jaded romanticism, misdirected masculine pride, and disintegration. The events of his life seem however to remain in a certain bubble of the privilege he was surrounded with, as he easily retreats to places around the globe to escape his career and relationship failures.
What I found beautiful about this story was the way he recounted his memories of people and experiences once in the places that brought them to light. He seems to accept that the way he views these things is not the same, sometimes ridiculing his discarded selves, but ultimately appreciating them for the role they played at that time. The final scene is so precious; a next generation father-son relationship, both of them in their own "private silence" and reflections under the night sky on Sunset Strip. Setting is so prominent throughout the novel. Overall, it simply makes you realize how many moments there are to live over life's course, and how many cherished memories they will later on create, perhaps regareded under a more peaceful light, and all in an effortlessly perfect order of things.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 11, 2020
the thing about this book is that it’s not... a bad book. in fact, it’s an almost-good book. its an almost-good book about a bad person but since it’s a semi-autobiographical memoir-type novel and the author is also the narrator you just. dislike the entire thing, yk? bc it’s a book by a bad person about themselves and no amount of almost-good writing can save your work from that fact. no amount of semi-anything can make you understand how deeply unsympathetic you come across if you don’t see it yourself.
point is, this book is written by a moderately well-off white guy for other moderately well-off white guys so they can all feel good about growing old and not having fucked quite ENOUGH but a decent amount of hot girls in their lifetime. they aren’t tolstoi but that’s okay bc not EVERYONE is tolstoi, right? it’s a little pathetic but you don’t really wanna say that about a man’s life so let’s ignore i just said that.
there’s a line towards the end of this book where david says that the book he wrote about his son and how much he loved him is by far his best selling work, probably bc it’s not about himself, and i... how dyou say... think he’s right. david gilmour is absolutely insufferable as a person and im glad he knows that.
point is, this book is written by a moderately well-off white guy for other moderately well-off white guys so they can all feel good about growing old and not having fucked quite ENOUGH but a decent amount of hot girls in their lifetime. they aren’t tolstoi but that’s okay bc not EVERYONE is tolstoi, right? it’s a little pathetic but you don’t really wanna say that about a man’s life so let’s ignore i just said that.
there’s a line towards the end of this book where david says that the book he wrote about his son and how much he loved him is by far his best selling work, probably bc it’s not about himself, and i... how dyou say... think he’s right. david gilmour is absolutely insufferable as a person and im glad he knows that.
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August 11, 2017DNF page 43
Seems to early to break off now but I'm bored and could care less how the story unfolds
Seems to early to break off now but I'm bored and could care less how the story unfolds
October 16, 2016
The associations with the author are too close for me not to consider this autobiographical; which is too bad, as I feel almost no empathy for the main character whose name I don't think I remember. Robert Monday maybe? George? Charles? Pft. The man is empty of consideration, marches to the beat of Beatles tunes and dead Russian authors, objectifies women, and senses a lifelong presence of doom which in the end he misinterprets as an appreciation of life but fails to realize he has completely missed the boat. The writing is clean and interesting but the character and story is as vapid and unimaginative as they come. Gilmour claims to understand the middle-aged male author. Well, I guess I don't.
July 13, 2018
This is my third Gilmour book and it will be my last. He is at best an uneven writer, exhibiting little flashes of almost-brilliance but one is obliged to wade through a good deal of banal, self-indulgence along the way. What we have here is a meandering series of reminiscences, some of it no doubt based on his own life experiences, the rest of it simply dressed-up fanciful musings. Reading his accounts of his amorous escapades, I was reminded of the glamorous waltzes passing through the daydreams of Baron Ochs in Der Rsenkavalier. Gilmour's sheer egocentricity is at times quite astonishing; little wonder that wives and girlfriends flee, one by one. Life is a party, but when the candles flicker and dim, what is left?
September 26, 2012
Enjoyable read. First time reading David Gilmour. Will most likely some of his other stuff. I liked how human this book was - following some of the characters mental, anxious inner-critic dialogue was funny but also very truthful. I think everyone has some of these thoughts at some point (maybe all the time).
Read
October 19, 2015I guess this probably violates the new super-secret policy that suggests that readers can't or shouldn't make decisions about what to read when authors who say sexist things, but this is coming off my to-read list: http://www.randomhouse.ca/hazlitt/blo...
November 14, 2013
Oh, I am so disappointed in this book! I was so looking forward to it being another good read from David Gilmour but it failed miserably for me! It was too much of a guy's book and I just couldn't relate very well! I am not sorry that I read it but let's just say that it fell very flat.
December 12, 2011
Gilmour's latest novel ties all of his work together by revisiting people and places from the past.
October 27, 2018
Na tego audiobooka natrafiłem w mojej lokalnej bibliotece. Nawet za bardzo nie wiedziałem co to za książka, autora nie znałem, postanowiłem wypożyczyć coś nowego, coś oryginalnego. Trochę zaryzykowałem, ale ostatecznie nie żałuję. Książka nie jest aż tak obszerna, audiobook nagrany jest na czterech płytach CD.
Okazuje się, że David Gilmour to kanadyjski pisarz, dziennikarz i redaktor. Prowadzi programy telewizyjne, głównie publicystyczne i kulturalne. Ma na koncie też kilka książek. Aktywny jest już od kilkudziesięciu lat, można powiedzieć, że ma bogate doświadczenie jako redaktor, pisarz, ponieważ jego pierwsze publikacje, programy został opublikowane już 40 lat temu. David Gilmour ma już prawie 70 lat, książka została napisana jak był już po sześćdziesiątce.
Książka to w zasadzie jeden długi esej. Autor dzieli się swoimi przemyśleniami. Tworzy też fikcyjną narrację gdzie w pierwsze osobie narrator opisuje trochę o swoją młodość, związki, relacje z żonami, których miał kilka w ciągu swojego ciekawego życia. Pisze również o pracy redaktorskiej, szczególnie ciekawe dla mnie było to, jak wspominał o wywiadach z członkami zespołu The Beatles. Przez książkę przewija się też motyw nawiązujący do "Wojny i Pokoju" Lwa Tołstoja, ulubionej książki narratora, być może autora? Trudno powiedzieć, bo ta książka to fikcja literacka, sam autor tajemniczo nie potwierdza tego czy rzeczywiście jest oparta na motywach autobiograficznych.
Kolejnym ciekawym wątkiem opisanym w książce były relacje z Międzynarodowego Festiwalu Filmowego w Toronto. W tym kontekście pojawia się krótka anegdota z Robertem de Niro w roli głównej.
Ta książka to może nie była żadna rewelacja, jednak dobrze jest zagłębić się w całkiem inne realia kulturowe, a w zasadzie popkulturowe i spojrzeć na świat z perspektywy kanadyjskiego pisarza. W sumie mało czytałem książek autorów kanadyjskich, także nie żałuję tej lektury.
Okazuje się, że David Gilmour to kanadyjski pisarz, dziennikarz i redaktor. Prowadzi programy telewizyjne, głównie publicystyczne i kulturalne. Ma na koncie też kilka książek. Aktywny jest już od kilkudziesięciu lat, można powiedzieć, że ma bogate doświadczenie jako redaktor, pisarz, ponieważ jego pierwsze publikacje, programy został opublikowane już 40 lat temu. David Gilmour ma już prawie 70 lat, książka została napisana jak był już po sześćdziesiątce.
Książka to w zasadzie jeden długi esej. Autor dzieli się swoimi przemyśleniami. Tworzy też fikcyjną narrację gdzie w pierwsze osobie narrator opisuje trochę o swoją młodość, związki, relacje z żonami, których miał kilka w ciągu swojego ciekawego życia. Pisze również o pracy redaktorskiej, szczególnie ciekawe dla mnie było to, jak wspominał o wywiadach z członkami zespołu The Beatles. Przez książkę przewija się też motyw nawiązujący do "Wojny i Pokoju" Lwa Tołstoja, ulubionej książki narratora, być może autora? Trudno powiedzieć, bo ta książka to fikcja literacka, sam autor tajemniczo nie potwierdza tego czy rzeczywiście jest oparta na motywach autobiograficznych.
Kolejnym ciekawym wątkiem opisanym w książce były relacje z Międzynarodowego Festiwalu Filmowego w Toronto. W tym kontekście pojawia się krótka anegdota z Robertem de Niro w roli głównej.
Ta książka to może nie była żadna rewelacja, jednak dobrze jest zagłębić się w całkiem inne realia kulturowe, a w zasadzie popkulturowe i spojrzeć na świat z perspektywy kanadyjskiego pisarza. W sumie mało czytałem książek autorów kanadyjskich, także nie żałuję tej lektury.
January 3, 2018
Grauenvoll. Wie kann sich kapitellang über die Bücher anderer Schriftsteller ergießen kann, ist mir ein Rätsel. Um was es in dem Buch überhaupt geht, blieb mir gänzlich verborgen. So viel Grütze auf einem Haufen ist mir schon lange nicht mehr unter gekommen. Wenn es kein Hörbuch gewesen wäre, hätte ich nach spätestens 40 Seiten aufgegeben. Warum gibt es hier bitte keine negativen Sterne?
October 14, 2018
It is hard to believe this is the same person who wrote “a perfect night to go to China” What a disappointing book. There was not one aspect of this book that would make want to finish reading it(I persevered halfway through). What a waste of time.
November 18, 2019
Some really lovely writing in a book I didn't much care for by a man who doesn't seem to care much for himself.
"...that odd mixture of euphoria and sadness, of being close to but still on the outside of something terribly, terribly important."
"...that odd mixture of euphoria and sadness, of being close to but still on the outside of something terribly, terribly important."
April 29, 2025
Ein zärtliches Buch, im seinem brutal-offenen Umgang mit dem jüngeren Selbst.
Manches versteht man erst im zeitlichen Abstand, manches kann man erst mit diesem Abstand als abgeschlossen akzeptieren - so die Weisheit des Alters, die (für mich) hinter diesem Buch steht.
Manches versteht man erst im zeitlichen Abstand, manches kann man erst mit diesem Abstand als abgeschlossen akzeptieren - so die Weisheit des Alters, die (für mich) hinter diesem Buch steht.
August 19, 2019
Lovely.
May 6, 2020
It was uneven for me but did finish.
July 17, 2022
Listen to my Biblio File podcast conversation with David about The Perfect Order of Things here: https://thebibliofile.ca/david-gilmou...
November 15, 2011
Reading David Gilmour's new novel, "The Perfect Order of Things", I was reminded of Mark Twain's take on the well-known Socrates quote about a life that is not "examined". "The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the life too closely examined may not be lived at all." Canadian fiction author and film critic Gilmour, probably best for his internationally most popular book, "The Film Club", and his award-winning novel "A Perfect Night to go to China", may have found the middle ground between Socrates and Twain with this recent light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek "fictional autobiography". The author or his alter-ego, reincarnating the sum-total of narrators of previous novels, revisits and relives pertinent personal moments of his past and ponders their meaning with the hindsight of decades. What has changed in his perspective, his feelings? Why was he hurt, angry or resentful and what, if anything, has he learned from these intimate experiences? How important were all or some of them in molding his character and views on life today? While categorized as a novel - it says so under on the title page- and easily recognized as having autobiographical aspects, "The Perfect Order of Things" is the kind of book that glides comfortably between fact and fiction and in that is attractive beyond the author's personal life.
Approaching his subject matter in a collection of ten semi-autonomous stories his first person narrator touches on everything from first love and loss, friends, wives and lovers, personal and professional highs and lows as journalist, writer, traveler, reader and music lover... Seen together, we come away with a portrait of a peripatetic and somewhat self-indulgent, yet vulnerable and sensitive human being, who has the ability mock and laugh at his emotional hang-ups, his insecurities and irrationalities and, at the same time, has the ability to get absorbed with the places where his life has taken him. The line between fiction and personal reality appears to be fluid and, usually very thin.
Several "stories" stand out for me, partly because they move beyond the intimate personal, in part because they strike a special cord with me. His sensitive reflection on his last visit with his father and on the events shortly thereafter are vivid and their impact profound - on him and the reader. Gilmour intriguingly introduces linkages between his reading and events in his life. For example, when he revisits his childhood home and, suddenly, feels intimately connected with the past, that "you're neither here (in the present of my old country home) nor there (myself as a child lifting a window) but instead in some delicious limbo *in between*." Finally, he continues, after many years, he understood Proust and his concept of being "beyond time". The chapter on his reading and "living" with Tolstoy's War and Peace is a strong encouragement to pick up the novel (again) and delve into it with open eyes. His depiction of his long-term love affair with the Beatles made me dig up my CDs and play them along while reading. Gilmour's emotional reaction and long lasting resentment to a particularly unfavorable book review should give any book reviewer food for thought...
Those of us who are familiar with David Gilmour's work will read and enjoy "The Perfect Order of Things" first of all on a personal - Gilmour "unplugged" - level. Beyond that level of appreciation, however, whether we are familiar with the author or not, most chapters invite, or can trigger, our own personal musings on memories - and can motivate us to "revisit" our own past life and "examine it", to re-live certain moments in certain places and/or draw lessons from those for our lives today.
Approaching his subject matter in a collection of ten semi-autonomous stories his first person narrator touches on everything from first love and loss, friends, wives and lovers, personal and professional highs and lows as journalist, writer, traveler, reader and music lover... Seen together, we come away with a portrait of a peripatetic and somewhat self-indulgent, yet vulnerable and sensitive human being, who has the ability mock and laugh at his emotional hang-ups, his insecurities and irrationalities and, at the same time, has the ability to get absorbed with the places where his life has taken him. The line between fiction and personal reality appears to be fluid and, usually very thin.
Several "stories" stand out for me, partly because they move beyond the intimate personal, in part because they strike a special cord with me. His sensitive reflection on his last visit with his father and on the events shortly thereafter are vivid and their impact profound - on him and the reader. Gilmour intriguingly introduces linkages between his reading and events in his life. For example, when he revisits his childhood home and, suddenly, feels intimately connected with the past, that "you're neither here (in the present of my old country home) nor there (myself as a child lifting a window) but instead in some delicious limbo *in between*." Finally, he continues, after many years, he understood Proust and his concept of being "beyond time". The chapter on his reading and "living" with Tolstoy's War and Peace is a strong encouragement to pick up the novel (again) and delve into it with open eyes. His depiction of his long-term love affair with the Beatles made me dig up my CDs and play them along while reading. Gilmour's emotional reaction and long lasting resentment to a particularly unfavorable book review should give any book reviewer food for thought...
Those of us who are familiar with David Gilmour's work will read and enjoy "The Perfect Order of Things" first of all on a personal - Gilmour "unplugged" - level. Beyond that level of appreciation, however, whether we are familiar with the author or not, most chapters invite, or can trigger, our own personal musings on memories - and can motivate us to "revisit" our own past life and "examine it", to re-live certain moments in certain places and/or draw lessons from those for our lives today.
Read
July 20, 2015What an interesting idea for a book.
Assuming the combined identities of the narrators in his previous novels, Gilmour has written a thinly veiled autobiographical memoir in which he returns to places where he has suffered, trying to revisit current miseries, relearn early lessons, and reflect on his failings and loses. He wants to see what he has missed, what his former misery blinded him to and to gain something from those past experiences.
The meditations in the ten separate chapters move back and forth in time to create a portrait of a man who has had his share of bad times but who also seems to have come through to a reflective period later in life. The pieces include former love affairs, vacations at the family’s summer cottage, visits to the Caribbean, brushes with celebrities and the haunting return to the home where his depressed father committed suicide. There is a harrowing and violent sequence in which he describes a friend’s complete unraveling, somersaulting naked in a field and later his descent to murder. The writer’s experience at the Toronto Film Festival where he bumped into De Niro is witty and laugh out loud funny. And there is always the booze, the drugs and the former wives. The narrator is open and honest about the pain he has caused the many women in his life although he does not hesitate to say how they have hurt him as well. But for the most part he is continually looking for and ready to confront his own failings.
The stories are told against the background of Toronto and his experience as a writer. He confesses openly to his yearning for recognition and admits to being like other writers, at times pretentious, jealous, insecure and self-absorbed. But he also alludes to the occasional thought that crosses his mind--that he may be an imposter. And he rails against mean critics and the gall of mean spirited reviewers who carelessly write nasty pieces about his work.
There is a closing chapter in which he shares the experience of being on a book tour with his son, a time when he also tries to make peace with old age and ever approaching death.
The book has an interesting cover in which water streams out from a set of file drawers. It is an interesting suggestion that even a life created with a certain orderliness is bound to get messy. As the flow of water dampens the paper, blurs the words and even destroys the content, it reminds us life can never be “perfectly ordered”.
Written with a sense of candor as well as humour, this fictional work in which Gilmour has integrated portions of his own life, allows him to confront the truth as well as lean away from it.
A pleasure to read.
Assuming the combined identities of the narrators in his previous novels, Gilmour has written a thinly veiled autobiographical memoir in which he returns to places where he has suffered, trying to revisit current miseries, relearn early lessons, and reflect on his failings and loses. He wants to see what he has missed, what his former misery blinded him to and to gain something from those past experiences.
The meditations in the ten separate chapters move back and forth in time to create a portrait of a man who has had his share of bad times but who also seems to have come through to a reflective period later in life. The pieces include former love affairs, vacations at the family’s summer cottage, visits to the Caribbean, brushes with celebrities and the haunting return to the home where his depressed father committed suicide. There is a harrowing and violent sequence in which he describes a friend’s complete unraveling, somersaulting naked in a field and later his descent to murder. The writer’s experience at the Toronto Film Festival where he bumped into De Niro is witty and laugh out loud funny. And there is always the booze, the drugs and the former wives. The narrator is open and honest about the pain he has caused the many women in his life although he does not hesitate to say how they have hurt him as well. But for the most part he is continually looking for and ready to confront his own failings.
The stories are told against the background of Toronto and his experience as a writer. He confesses openly to his yearning for recognition and admits to being like other writers, at times pretentious, jealous, insecure and self-absorbed. But he also alludes to the occasional thought that crosses his mind--that he may be an imposter. And he rails against mean critics and the gall of mean spirited reviewers who carelessly write nasty pieces about his work.
There is a closing chapter in which he shares the experience of being on a book tour with his son, a time when he also tries to make peace with old age and ever approaching death.
The book has an interesting cover in which water streams out from a set of file drawers. It is an interesting suggestion that even a life created with a certain orderliness is bound to get messy. As the flow of water dampens the paper, blurs the words and even destroys the content, it reminds us life can never be “perfectly ordered”.
Written with a sense of candor as well as humour, this fictional work in which Gilmour has integrated portions of his own life, allows him to confront the truth as well as lean away from it.
A pleasure to read.
June 13, 2012
This review is from my book review blog: http://trythisbookonforsize.blogspot.ca/
As much as this is a work of fiction, David Gilmour can be gleaned in every sentence. This beautiful story is a trail of breadcrumbs that brings us to the author himself.
Gilmour’s first person narrator walks the reader of The Perfect Order of Things through a complex, well-lived life of a man always on the brink of the brink. We are treated to the narrator’s great loves, including Tolstoy and the Beatles, and we learn how these loves altered and enriched his life. We listen in as he walks us through the calamity of errors that go into making up his wondrous life and we wonder at the fact that he is still with us to tell the story.
This is a remarkable look at a man split open and vulnerable. The reader will delight in the way the stories of the narrator’s life are told. He is able to see the humour in each of his falls and he is able to mock himself and give us a clear unbiased look into his most inner thoughts as he maps out the fractured route of destruction taken through his remarkable and ordinary life.
Be prepared for honesty! You will see a small, bitter man being a wallflower at parties of the rich and famous and you’ll be able to listen to his inner thoughts and get a glimpse into just how fragile he is when he points out the flaws of the flawless people around him. He’ll give you glimpses into his parenting skills, his lust for beautiful women, his lust for accolades and fanfare. He’ll show you his broken friendship with a man more on the brink than he himself. And he’ll show you a small pathetic man who tries to recapture the places of his youth with a failure so ripe you can smell it!
David Gilmour’s writing is simply beautiful. For me, nothing comes close to beating it. He may be his generation’s most gorgeous wordsmith. And I constantly feel that he is underrated. Even by myself. I don’t think about Gilmour between his books. When I hear that another book is on the shelves, I think to myself that I must pick it up. And then, maybe six or eight or ten months later I will get it. And then I will read it…and I will die a million deaths from the beauty I discover within its pages.
The Perfect Order of Things is a look into the seedy underbelly of the mindscape of a human being. It’s simply a vulnerable view of a vulnerable man…an honest retelling of a man’s life and a man’s mistakes. And a man’s passions. I would recommend The Perfect Order of Things to anybody.
As much as this is a work of fiction, David Gilmour can be gleaned in every sentence. This beautiful story is a trail of breadcrumbs that brings us to the author himself.
Gilmour’s first person narrator walks the reader of The Perfect Order of Things through a complex, well-lived life of a man always on the brink of the brink. We are treated to the narrator’s great loves, including Tolstoy and the Beatles, and we learn how these loves altered and enriched his life. We listen in as he walks us through the calamity of errors that go into making up his wondrous life and we wonder at the fact that he is still with us to tell the story.
This is a remarkable look at a man split open and vulnerable. The reader will delight in the way the stories of the narrator’s life are told. He is able to see the humour in each of his falls and he is able to mock himself and give us a clear unbiased look into his most inner thoughts as he maps out the fractured route of destruction taken through his remarkable and ordinary life.
Be prepared for honesty! You will see a small, bitter man being a wallflower at parties of the rich and famous and you’ll be able to listen to his inner thoughts and get a glimpse into just how fragile he is when he points out the flaws of the flawless people around him. He’ll give you glimpses into his parenting skills, his lust for beautiful women, his lust for accolades and fanfare. He’ll show you his broken friendship with a man more on the brink than he himself. And he’ll show you a small pathetic man who tries to recapture the places of his youth with a failure so ripe you can smell it!
David Gilmour’s writing is simply beautiful. For me, nothing comes close to beating it. He may be his generation’s most gorgeous wordsmith. And I constantly feel that he is underrated. Even by myself. I don’t think about Gilmour between his books. When I hear that another book is on the shelves, I think to myself that I must pick it up. And then, maybe six or eight or ten months later I will get it. And then I will read it…and I will die a million deaths from the beauty I discover within its pages.
The Perfect Order of Things is a look into the seedy underbelly of the mindscape of a human being. It’s simply a vulnerable view of a vulnerable man…an honest retelling of a man’s life and a man’s mistakes. And a man’s passions. I would recommend The Perfect Order of Things to anybody.
November 18, 2012
In order to install some such things as perfectness & get some closure for past chapters of his life, David Gilmour sets out to visit places of past failures. Like a tourist looking outside-in on his own life, Gilmour ventures out to re-examine those moments that left him humiliated and ultimately shaped him into the person he is today: 1st love, his dad’s suicide, friendships gone wrong, unrelenting jealousy, among other rites of passage.
Sections of sheer, somehow sweet honesty are interrupted by anecdotes of Gilmour’s encounters with Tolstoy, the Beatles and other cult celebrities. And, of course, Gilmour’s struggles with finding his voice in literary life.
All in all this, according to Gilmour “fictional autobiography” is such a pure and honest collection of stories, containing confessions one would only tell a stranger not a friend. In contrast to other memoirs, Gilmour does not focus on the glam and glory in one’s life but puts the spotlight on past failures, even finding humour in the humilation.
In essence, THE PERFECT ORDER OF THINGS alludes to one true thing: Life is all but perfect. Gilmour’s bittersweet revelations give hope to everyone who has ever fallen down, leaving the reader hungry to learn from human life itself.
Sections of sheer, somehow sweet honesty are interrupted by anecdotes of Gilmour’s encounters with Tolstoy, the Beatles and other cult celebrities. And, of course, Gilmour’s struggles with finding his voice in literary life.
All in all this, according to Gilmour “fictional autobiography” is such a pure and honest collection of stories, containing confessions one would only tell a stranger not a friend. In contrast to other memoirs, Gilmour does not focus on the glam and glory in one’s life but puts the spotlight on past failures, even finding humour in the humilation.
In essence, THE PERFECT ORDER OF THINGS alludes to one true thing: Life is all but perfect. Gilmour’s bittersweet revelations give hope to everyone who has ever fallen down, leaving the reader hungry to learn from human life itself.
November 19, 2011
Yet another sixty year old man looked back on his life and viewed events, people, places in a different light. Using that as the structure, the author covered his experience in different places that had meant something to him, positively or negatively, talked about books (War and Peace) and music (The Beatles) , what they meant to him, then and now. It was, as David Gilmour himself said, an attempt to bring some order to things before end of life - hence the title of the book. It was a man trying to make sense of his life and relationship with people, places and things - why he did what he did, etc. It is an interesting read as he is a good story teller but got a bit tiresome when it got very self-centred.
September 15, 2016
Well...if this book is semi-autobiographical, I'm beginning to think that David Gilmour has lead one of the most testosterone-filled, archetypal heterosexual lives ever. It drips from the pages so much that you could bottle it up and sell it, and more often than not it comes across as needy & irritating. Then, about one third of the way through the novel, the subject mattert takes a reflective turn, with lovely notes of wry & dry humour that transform the irritating into the wistful. This novel sings when it's concentrating on the beauty of everything from George Harrison to Tolstoy, and I wish there had been ever more of this gorgeous self-reflection. These are the sections of the novel that glow, and make this little book worth the read.
January 23, 2016
I enjoyed The Perfect Order of Things the way I enjoy most of Gilmour's work. He has the ability to temper first-person introspection in his characters with interesting and often humorous storytelling. In this novel, Gilmour successfully uses a protagonist from previous novels and forces him to look back on various failures and embarrassments in his life to lend context to his present situation. This is likely something we all do to some extent, although probably not to the extent Gilmour has his author-protagonist experience some pieces of his history. Overall an interesting concept novel and an enjoyable read.
January 9, 2012
I can't find a reference to the narrator's first name. His dad was JP Monday, so we know his last name. I'll call him X. He could be any middle aged man revisiting his past. X is a ladies man and has two ex-wives both of whom he is on good terms with and has three children from each of his three wives. At the beginning of the book he talks about his aimless teenage years eventually becomes a writer and works in TV.
X reminisces about his many obsessions, including The Beatles, War and Peace, and old girlfriends. We relive these moments in his life with him as he mourns, shares his weaknesses, failures losses and achievements.
X reminisces about his many obsessions, including The Beatles, War and Peace, and old girlfriends. We relive these moments in his life with him as he mourns, shares his weaknesses, failures losses and achievements.
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