Unstrung Heroes

See Larger Image	Manufacturer: Random House Written By: Franz Lidz Average Customer Rating:


Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 929.20973 EAN: 9780394569888 ISBN: 0394569881 Label: Random House Manufacturer: Random House Number Of Pages: 194 Publication Date: 1991-02-13 Publisher: Random House Release Date: 1991-02-13 Studio: Random House
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Editorial Reviews: Franz Lidz recalls his unusual childhood spent in the care of his four wildly eccentric uncles. Unstrung Heroes will touch the hearts of millions when it hits the big screen this September. The major motion picture from Hollywood Pictures stars Andie MacDowell, John Turturro and Michael Richards (Kramer on TV's Seinfeld), and is directed by Diane Keaton.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: achingly funny Comment: This book may perhaps not meet your expectations regarding content: I expected to see the uncles in their own habitat, surrounded by the debris of compulsive hoarding, at one with the world they had created. Lidz does not show this world: instead, he shows mainly the two uncles who live outside asylums at odds with the outside world, fumbling their beyond-quirky way through the landscape of New York. That difference could make or break your interest in the book. Which do you want to read about, two curmudgeons at home in the nest they have created or two outcasts in society? I'm not saying that either narrative pathway makes for a bad or good book; I merely suggest that, before you read, you be prepared for what you will be reading. You might also consider that the four uncles of the title really refers mainly to two uncles; one of the others makes a single cameo appearance, and the other uncle gets a bit of space toward the end. Lidz takes slow steps in childhood, telling ancedotes about his times with the two main uncles. These humerous takes are made forceful because they are told against the backdrop of his mother's long, ultimately fatal bout with cancer, a narrative that underpins the first half of the book. You thus have two strong narrative themes in the first half: the bumbling uncles (and the question of how on earth they function) and the sick mother (and the question of how on earth she manages to hang on to life). The book becomes rockier in the second half, beginning when Lidz is an adolescent and his father remarries. Time speeds up considerably and without warning: you go from the slow ascent of the roller coaster to the rapid descent, and, narratively speaking, it's a rocky ride. It does make some narrative sense to speed up this second half, but it's too much too quickly and thus disconcerting for the reader. The second two uncles are introduced rapidly and don't receive as much analysis as the other two. The book goes on to wrap up (incompletely) too quickly as well. It's as if when one uncle dies, another uncle is plugged in to take his place, and, what with the uniqueness of the uncles being emphasized, it doesn't work in the narrative. Lidz's attempt to introduce his recording techniques is also akwardly introduced, though I don't know how he could have done it more smoothly. All in all, though, it's a good book. The strong first half does much to make up for the weaker second half, and the character's personalities make for excellent dialogue throughout. Lidz is an excellent prose writer who simply needs to pace himself a bit better; the writing itself is commendable. Recommended. Customer Rating: Summary: Laughs by the Dozen Comment: This story although sadding at times kept me giggling and laughing at the antics of these uncles based on the real-life uncles of the author. I can see why it was made into a movie--it is a ball of fun and yet heartbreaking in others and down-right silly at times--in the end you come to feel as if you KNOW these men and the rest of the family and you feel slightly sad that more people don't look at the world through their eyes, but instead are so quick to judge those considered "different". I hated to see it end---a great, great story!!! Customer Rating: Summary: If you thought your family was strange, wait until you meet this one! Comment: Heard the taped version of UUNSTRUNG HEROES by Franz Lidz, the author's tale of growing up in what might charitably be called a dysfunctional family . . . it consisted of him and his sister, their parents, and their father's four brothers who played an even more significant role in his upbringing when his mother died. If you ever thought your family was strange, wait until you meet this group of eccentrics . . . for example, one brother thought Mickey Mantle was out to get him . . . another collected shoelaces . . . how Lidz, who became a writer for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, managed to escape the lunacy is beyond me. The fact that he grew up on Long Island, not far from where I was raised, made the book even more interesting to me . . . that and the narration by John Turturro . . . the actor's work greatly aided in my enjoyment of UNSTRUNG HEROES. Customer Rating: Summary: STUNNING Comment: I could show you a sentence in Unstrung Heroes as elegant in its implications as the binomial theorem, and another as economically sphinx-like as the square root of minus one. The declarative sentence, Franz Lidz makes you suppose, is perhaps a writer's highest achievement. Customer Rating: Summary: Raises many hares without pursuing them too far Comment: The author possesses fierce intellectual honesty, and his prose has a bare, involuted rhythm that is almost hypnotic. Very, very funny. More Reviews