The Ouroboros
a novel by Howard Coale.
Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times:
"An eccentric and very funny novel that is set largely in Taiwan and Nepal.... Several scenes – including one at the Monkey Temple in Nepal, which reads like a parody of the famous Odessa steps sequence in Eisenstein's movieThe Battleship Potemkin – are comic tours de force. All in all, The Ouroboros is a lively and entertaining novel, a novel that heralds the arrival of a talented new writer."
Pico Iyer, The Los Angeles Times:
"The narrative picks up a crazy kind of hurtling intensity, and quickens as it goes on, racing toward a dramatic climax, around the Monkey Temple in the shadow of Annapurna, in which all the foreigners unexpectedly reassemble, chasing their own tails with increasing ferocity, and realizing, of a sudden, in the high, clear air of the Himalayas, that they've traveled half-way around the world to find the very people they were trying to flee at home."
Lorrie Moore
"An absolute pleasure to read."
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