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Heartbreak
What becomes of the broken-hearted? Craig Raine's first novel is an exquisite, moving, erotic investigation of love and its painful corollary.
In Heartbreak , Craig Raine's startlingly moving, intellectually nimble, sexually candid, wickedly funny first novel, the central character is not a person, but an invisible heartbreak.
Through the stories of a virtuoso cast of characters - among them a physically scarred academic, a strangely beautiful young girl with Down's syndrome, a world-renowned actress, and a brilliant Czech poet - Heartbreak investigates one of the most elusive yet deeply felt of human conditions. It is a compassionate and textured novel about what happens to us when love and loss collide.
In Heartbreak , Craig Raine's startlingly moving, intellectually nimble, sexually candid, wickedly funny first novel, the central character is not a person, but an invisible heartbreak.
Through the stories of a virtuoso cast of characters - among them a physically scarred academic, a strangely beautiful young girl with Down's syndrome, a world-renowned actress, and a brilliant Czech poet - Heartbreak investigates one of the most elusive yet deeply felt of human conditions. It is a compassionate and textured novel about what happens to us when love and loss collide.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
1 person is currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Craig Raine
81 books46 followersPoet and critic Craig Raine was born on 3 December 1944 in Bishop Auckland, England, and read English at Exeter College, Oxford.
He lectured at Exeter College (1971-2), Lincoln College, Oxford, (1974-5), and Christ Church, Oxford, (1976-9), and was books editor for New Review (1977-8), editor of Quarto (1979-80), and poetry editor at the New Statesman (1981). Reviews and articles from this period are collected in Haydn and the Valve Trumpet (1990). He became poetry editor at the London publishers Faber and Faber in 1981, and became a fellow of New College, Oxford, in 1991. He gained a Cholmondeley Award in 1983 and the Sunday Times Writer of the Year Award in 1998. He is founder and editor of the literary magazine Areté.
His poetry collections include the acclaimed The Onion, Memory (1978), A Martian Sends a Postcard Home (1979), A Free Translation (1981), Rich (1984) and History: The Home Movie (1994), an epic poem that celebrates the history of his own family and that of his wife. His libretto The Electrification of the Soviet Union (1986) is based on The Last Summer, a novella by Boris Pasternak. Collected Poems 1978-1999 was published in 1999. A new long poem A la recherche du temps perdu, an elegy to a former lover, and a collection of his reviews and essays, entitled In Defence of T. S. Eliot, were both published in 2000. Another collection of essays, More Dynamite, appeared in 2013.
Craig Raine lives in Oxford. His latest books are How Snow Falls (2010), a new poetry collection; and two novels, Heartbreak (2010), and The Divine Comedy (2012).
He lectured at Exeter College (1971-2), Lincoln College, Oxford, (1974-5), and Christ Church, Oxford, (1976-9), and was books editor for New Review (1977-8), editor of Quarto (1979-80), and poetry editor at the New Statesman (1981). Reviews and articles from this period are collected in Haydn and the Valve Trumpet (1990). He became poetry editor at the London publishers Faber and Faber in 1981, and became a fellow of New College, Oxford, in 1991. He gained a Cholmondeley Award in 1983 and the Sunday Times Writer of the Year Award in 1998. He is founder and editor of the literary magazine Areté.
His poetry collections include the acclaimed The Onion, Memory (1978), A Martian Sends a Postcard Home (1979), A Free Translation (1981), Rich (1984) and History: The Home Movie (1994), an epic poem that celebrates the history of his own family and that of his wife. His libretto The Electrification of the Soviet Union (1986) is based on The Last Summer, a novella by Boris Pasternak. Collected Poems 1978-1999 was published in 1999. A new long poem A la recherche du temps perdu, an elegy to a former lover, and a collection of his reviews and essays, entitled In Defence of T. S. Eliot, were both published in 2000. Another collection of essays, More Dynamite, appeared in 2013.
Craig Raine lives in Oxford. His latest books are How Snow Falls (2010), a new poetry collection; and two novels, Heartbreak (2010), and The Divine Comedy (2012).
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 19, 2012
Formally, I would call this an "elliptical exploration," with fictional sections, biographical reflections, literary criticism, and parts that are more like essay. No matter, really: but at parts a full accounting of this most primal (?) subject is delivered like a passing fog. One wants the full cloudburst — or did I just want the book to be longer? At the same time, let's be real: Raine is a great poet and is capable of mighty descriptive power: "Here she is at her kitchen table, fingering a jigsaw of thalidomide ginger, thinking about the arthritis in her hands." (10)
September 7, 2016
Picked this up at the library, started it - not in the right space for it. It's evocative, spare, gets right to the heart of things - it was the theme that grabbed me. Provocative (frustrating?) writing style - what's not written, contrasted with what is....
January 4, 2014
In many ways this book is a cheat. It certainly is not a novel although some of the "chapters" run on to make longer short stories. It is also not always about heartbreak. Craig Raine's writing is at times pretentious beyond belief. Luckily it improved towards the end.
January 3, 2011
Unique.
September 4, 2012
I wanted to like this and loved some parts, but hated the way that, although described as a novel, it moved from story to story. Unsatisfying.
July 14, 2013
Not sure about this one, not a particularly enjoyable read, but an interesting one,I definitely enjoyed the longer stories the best, you get more invested in the character with the longer ones.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews