A Box of Matches (Vintage Contemporaries)

Overall, this is an interesting read in that the author skillfully let us follow a man’s daily musings as he strikes a match to start the morning’s fire. Some musings are entertaining, some are deep, but most are ... not. I wanted to stop reading when he examined his belly button lint and then threw it on the fire to see what colors the flame would turn (and no, I don’t remember the colors, but if you are actually interested, read the book; it’s belly button lint, for gawd sakes.) Yet, I persevered, and went on to learn such things as the correct way to wash, and rinse, a casserole dish. In the dark. Because the man does everything in the dark, to avoid the adverse effects of light screwing up his Circadian rhythms or something before it’s daylight. I dunno. It wasn’t my kind of read, but I don’t fault the author for that. It was skillfully done.

‘I fell asleep a little after ten reading a software manual, and now I’m up and waiting for the train whistle. The fire today is made partly of half-charred loggage from yesterday, but mostly from thin apple branches that I sawed up when I got home from work. I tried the ax first and had a heck of a time. But a handsaw will slide right through with wondrous ease, sprinkling handfuls of sawdust out of either side of the cut, like—I can’t think of what—like a sower sowing seeds, perhaps. Anyway the fire took to burning so readily that I’ve had to move my chair back a little so that my legs aren’t I pain through the flannel.’were it not for the software manual, this paragraph could have been attributed to henry david thoreau. the meditative quality is achieved by arising early every morning, between four and five a.m. and starting a fire in a fireplace built in 1789 and preparing coffee. the writer’s observations are daily, perhaps written in a journal or on a computer. his reflections often turn speculative, productive of homespun wisdom of the marvels of the mundane, the falling of leaves from trees when there is no wind, how the brain uses nightmares as a way of awakening as a summoning to urinate. unlike thoreau, he is no solitary, a medical textbook editor, he is married to claire, and they have a fourteen year old daughter, phobe and an eight year old son, henry.and for such familial reasons, his reflections over his daily risings in robert frost’s dark wintry vermont in the month of january become less, for lack of a better word, profound. his mind meanders to memories and observations of his family life and the family pets, a cat and a duck. not the stalwart companions for adventures of a man in the cold north.in TO BUILD A FIRE, a short story by jack london, the protagonist, with his dog, trapped in the yukon has three matches standing between himself and death. emmet has the luxury of an entire box. comparatively, it’s an easy enough metaphor. a neat novel for use in high school english classes. would it be trite of me to leave the potential reader wondering, if the family ate the duck?

This is a very interesting book to rate. If the reader is also a writer, then this is a “must read” selection. The detail is very good, the settings leave little to the imagination though concise, and the reader will find themselves in the scene. If the potential reader is looking for action and drama, keep looking. There are no extraterrestrials, the content is neither in the past nor future, and there is only a hint of romance. Baker describes present day very well but can leave a reader asking themselves why they ever picked this up and started it. As a writer myself I appreciated the craft and effort very much.

A man who nightly entertains thoughts of suicide pours out mundane daily observations of his duck, the texture of snow and the art of making a fire and kindling a fire in the dark. The type of pretentious novel for book clubs and freshman lit where everyone oohs and aahs over the deep insights, not unlike the Emperors clothes. A book club member and taken many more lit classes than English lit, I find I prefer substance to grand insight.

I hate to say it, but it seemed to me that in this novel Nicholson Baker was merely going through the motions....happy to repeat the formula that worked for him in "The Mezzanine", but showing a lot less creativity this time. That's not to say that "A Box Of Matches" is a bad book- it's not. It's enjoyable in a "passing the time" sort of way and you'll get a few chuckles. The book won't stay with you, though. Where "The Mezzanine" had truly remarkable 1-2 page footnotes on things such as straws, staplers and ice cube trays (remarkable for the author's powers of observation as well as for his sense of humor), this new book has sitcom-silly humor concerning things like belly-button lint, vomit and the subtle nuances of a man trying to urinate with accuracy in the middle of the night with no lights on. It's not all like that, but there's enough cheap humor to leave a bad taste in your mouth. We know that Nicholson Baker can do better than this, and I hope he is a bit more thoughtful the next time around and makes a return to top form.

This is a beautiful little story. Early every morning for 33 mornings a man, Emmett, gets up, makes a cup of coffee, lights a fire and thinks. As a reader, we get to participate in Emmett's simple, yet detailed, musings on his life. While doing so we develop a picture of a man with more clarity than most characters in modern fiction. This is a story well worth reading.Unfortunately, it is difficult for me to get past the fact that I spent [$$] on what is basically a short story. A small book with widely spaced lines of 178 pages--I didn't do a word count but I would have been much happier if I had read this as part of an anthology of other stories.I am a big fan of Nicholson Baker. I think he is one of the best writers of prose in America today. Therefore, I ultimately don't regret having purchased and read this story. But if I were not a fan of Baker, I might feel a little ripped off. It might be better to start with one of his other books like Nory or Double Fold.

Like a Bach fugue or a Ravilious painting, the ideas and images chase each other around in the corners of his/your mind. Well worth reading and re-reading.

This small book seems at first to be not about very much. Baker’s books tackle small subjects ( a shoelace, bottle feeding a baby, not writing a biography) in very profound ways.A Box of Matches is concerned with the minutae of one person’s life through a small window of time across a few days. The beauty here is that Baker has discarded much of the brash intellectualism of his previous books and just tells it as it is. This book has a much more human feel to it, and there is almost an air of sadness throughout the book. The tragedy of the everyday is felt in the cadences of the prose, and captures the atmosphere (the dark kitchen, the fire growing each morning) perfectly. That’s not to say there is no humour in this book – I found myself laughing out loud at some of the anecdotes within, particularly concerning his cat. The narrator’s duck, beautifully described, is a superb character.The book begins and ends quietly, and not much happens on the surface, but it will stay with you for a very long time.

A novel without a plot! That actually works. This is something I would definitely recommend outside of my literature degree.

I was thinking to get matchsticks box but got book. Its ok it was my mistake but book is also good

excellent condition and a great book!