{"product_id":"murray-les-fredy-neptpb","title":"Murray, Les: Fredy Neptune: A Novel in Verse","description":"\u003cp\u003eFarrar, Straus and Giroux, paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: \u003cspan\u003eJanuary 10, 2000\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublisher Marketing:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA riveting, beautiful novel in verse by Australia's greatest contemporary poet, winner of the 1996 T. S. Eliot Prize.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI never learned the old top ropes,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI was always in steam.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLess capstan, less climbing,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003emore re-stowing cargo.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhich could be hard and slow\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eas farming- but to say\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhy this is Valparaiso!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOr: I'm in Singapore and know my way about\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003etakes a long time to get stale\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e-from Book I, \"The Middle Sea\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen German-Australian sailor Friedrich \"Fredy\" Boettcher is shanghaied aboard a German Navy battleship at the outbreak of World War I, the sight of frenzied mobs burning Armenian women to death in Turkey causes him, through moral shock, to lose his sense of touch. This mysterious disability, which he knows he must hide, is both protection and curse, as he orbits the high horror and low humor of a catastrophic age.Told in a blue-collar English that regains freshness by eschewing the mind-set of literary language, Fredy's picaresque life-as, perhaps, the only Nordic Superman ever-is deep-dyed in layers of irony and attains a mind-inverting resolution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40817131094039,"sku":"9780374526764","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0004\/6497\/7956\/products\/view_archive_6c3e1ec1-6b55-4d0f-8d47-56128408648a.jpg?v=1703281031","url":"https:\/\/open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com\/products\/murray-les-fredy-neptpb","provider":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","version":"1.0","type":"link"}