- Everything But The Girl - Best Of Brazil Import
Some people would call Frank Guerra fussy, even compulsiveâ€"but they’re wrong. He simply believes in perfection. He strives to make every textbook he writes into a work of art, and he intends that every Cuba Libre he mixes come out textbook-perfect. (The key? Exactly six drops of lime juice for each ounce of rum.) And Frank also believes in romantic love.
In fact, he believes in love so strongly that he’s willing to divorce his faithful wife Marta (who’s a real mensch about it), lose his old fri! ends, and even leave behind his adoring daughter Emilyâ€"all for the sake of his new americana, a sedate but supremely sexy schoolteacher named Catherine O’Neal, or Cat for short. But it’s worth all the pain: Cat believes in their love, too.
So why, when he looks deep into Cat’s cool sphinx-like eyes, can Frank never penetrate into her depths? Why does he begin to see only his own gaze reflected there, as if from twin funhouse mirrors? Is she hiding something from himâ€"anything? (Everything, maybe?) Is his Cat merely toying with him? Frank finds the possibility disturbing. He expects his perfect love to be fully and equally reciprocated. After all, in an imperfect, unstable world filled with disappointment, isn’t there any ideal, anything, that’s really worth living for, maybe even dying for? Frank can’t think of anything but love.
Born in Havana, GUSTAVO PÉREZ FIRMAT is the author of the acclaimed, best-selling Next Year in Cuba, published in Span! ish by Arte Público Press as El año que viene estamos en Cub! a, descr ibed by Library Journal as “A fascinating account of a 30-year search for a homeland and a new national identity... Engrossing and full of insights into the Cuban exile community,†and hailed by The Washington Post Book World as “A serious work of literature â€" as well as a ripping good book…[Perez Firmat] offers us an eloquent, amusing, often moving testament of a long moment in the troubled history of two countries.†A professor at Columbia University, he has published numerous nonfiction works and three collections of poetry.
The conflicted protagonist of Anything but Love, the steamy and sardonic first novel by Gustavo Pérez Firmat (author of the acclaimed Next Year in Cuba) may remind some readers of Peter Tarnopol in Philip Roth’s painful sexual farce My Life as a Man, and others of Bob Slocum in Joseph Heller’s dark corporate satire Something Happened ... but Pérez Firmat has imbued his fiction debut with a Cuban-American flavor uniquely his own! .
Some people would call Frank Guerra fussy, even compulsiveâ€"but they’re wrong. He simply believes in perfection. He strives to make every textbook he writes into a work of art, and he intends that every Cuba Libre he mixes come out textbook-perfect. (The key? Exactly six drops of lime juice for each ounce of rum.) And Frank also believes in romantic love.
In fact, he believes in love so strongly that he’s willing to divorce his faithful wife Marta (who’s a real mensch about it), lose his old friends, and even leave behind his adoring daughter Emilyâ€"all for the sake of his new americana, a sedate but supremely sexy schoolteacher named Catherine O’Neal, or Cat for short. But it’s worth all the pain: Cat believes in their love, too.
So why, when he looks deep into Cat’s cool sphinx-like eyes, can Frank never penetrate into her depths? Why does he begin to see only his own gaze reflected there, as if from twin funhouse mirrors? Is she hiding somethi! ng from himâ€"anything? (Everything, maybe?) Is his Cat merely! toying with him? Frank finds the possibility disturbing. He expects his perfect love to be fully and equally reciprocated. After all, in an imperfect, unstable world filled with disappointment, isn’t there any ideal, anything, that’s really worth living for, maybe even dying for? Frank can’t think of anything but love.
Born in Havana, GUSTAVO PÉREZ FIRMAT is the author of the acclaimed, best-selling Next Year in Cuba, published in Spanish by Arte Público Press as El año que viene estamos en Cuba, described by Library Journal as “A fascinating account of a 30-year search for a homeland and a new national identity... Engrossing and full of insights into the Cuban exile community,†and hailed by The Washington Post Book World as “A serious work of literature â€" as well as a ripping good book…[Perez Firmat] offers us an eloquent, amusing, often moving testament of a long moment in the troubled history of two countries.†A professor at Columbia University, he has! published numerous nonfiction works and three collections of poetry.
Import-only compilation from the British duo featuring 15 of their best tracks spanning the years 1985-96. Includes the hit remix versions of 'Missing' and 'Driving', plus Tracey Thorn's vocal offering on Massive Attack's 1995 hit 'Protection' plus 'Apron Strings', 'I Don't Want To Talk About It', 'Each And Everyone', 'Love Is Strange', 'When All's Well' and more. Warner. 1996.The British duo Everything but the Girl (Ben Watt and ex-Marine Girl Tracey Thorn) have gone through two distinct phases in their career--they spent most of it as an acoustic, folky duo with some occasional lounge accompaniment, but after a Todd Terry remix of Amplified Heart's "Missing," they veered toward the dance floor. Best of tries to encapsulate all of that in 15 tracks, and while it brings together many of the essential songs--the remix of "Missing," "Apron Strings," "Rollercoaster," "I Don't Want To Talk A! bout It," and even Thorn's guest vocal on Massive Attack's "Pr! otection "--it also has a lot of holes. There are only 10 tracks from EBTG's entire nine album pre-remix career, and none that feature Watt as vocalist; also missing is Thorn's guest slot on the Style Council's "Paris Match" (from Café Bleu). As a slightly lopsided introduction to EBTG, this collection is fine, but you might do better buying a few albums instead (start with Amplified Heart, Acoustic, and Walking Wounded). --Randy Silver
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