The Portable Veblen: A Novel by Elizabeth McKenzie (Epub)

Description

Longlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for FictionFinalist for the Baileys Prize for Women’s FictionAn exuberant, one-of-a-kind novel about love and family, war and nature, new money and old values by a brilliant New Yorker contributorThe Portable Veblen is a dazzlingly original novel that’s as big-hearted as it is laugh-out-loud funny. Set in and around Palo Alto, amid the culture clash of new money and old (antiestablishment) values, and with the specter of our current wars looming across its pages, The Portable Veblen is an unforgettable look at the way we live now. A young couple on the brink of marriage—the charming Veblen and her fiancé Paul, a brilliant neurologist—find their engagement in danger of collapse. Along the way they weather everything from each other’s dysfunctional families, to the attentions of a seductive pharmaceutical heiress, to an intimate tête-à-tête with a very charismatic squirrel. Veblen (named after the iconoclastic economist Thorstein Veblen, who coined the term “conspicuous consumption”) is one of the most refreshing heroines in recent fiction. Not quite liberated from the burdens of her hypochondriac, narcissistic mother and her institutionalized father, Veblen is an amateur translator and “freelance self”; in other words, she’s adrift. Meanwhile, Paul—the product of good hippies who were bad parents—finds his ambition soaring. His medical research has led to the development of a device to help minimize battlefield brain trauma—an invention that gets him swept up in a high-stakes deal with the Department of Defense, a Bizarro World that McKenzie satirizes with granular specificity. As Paul is swept up by the promise of fame and fortune, Veblen heroically keeps the peace between all the damaged parties involved in their upcoming wedding, until she finds herself falling for someone—or something—else. Throughout, Elizabeth McKenzie asks: Where do our families end and we begin? How do we stay true to our ideals? And what is that squirrel really thinking? Replete with deadpan photos and sly appendices, The Portable Veblen is at once an honest inquiry into what we look for in love and an electrifying reading experience.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐If you combined Natalie Portman’s character in Garden State with a Wes Anderson movie, you would get The Portable Veblen. Quirkiness abounds in this National Book Award-longlisted novel.When Veblen and her boyfriend Paul get engaged, they each have a bit of an existential crisis. Bearing the scars from both their dysfunctional families, they come to wonder if they can deal with each other’s respective flaws. Maybe this was a mistake.The bulk of the story focuses on Veblen, the titular character. Her father is in a mental institution. Her mother is one of the most amusingly grating, awful and passive aggressive parental figures I’ve ever come across. And Veblen herself talks to squirrels, convinced that they’re invested in the ins and outs of her life. Veblen’s secret fear is that no one will fully accept her until they accept her mother—and questions whether Paul can pass this test.Meanwhile, what Veblen doesn’t realize is that Paul’s family has its own skeletons in the closet, and that Paul hasn’t escaped his upbringing unscathed.The Portable Veblen is a book about relationships—both familial and romantic. Through their own unconventional journey, Veblen and Paul face quandaries and revelations that affect any couple: that being in a relationship means sharing your idiosyncrasies and accepting those of your loved one, and finding that crucial balance between retaining your individuality and becoming a harmonious unit.I struggled rating this one. As much as I enjoy quirky, eccentric stories and characters, there were times when it felt over the top. But McKenzie’s writing is fluid, funny, and full of surprising depth. The interactions between Veblen and her mother alone make it worth the read, and as someone in a long-term relationship, I appreciated the insights on love and commitment. Lots of little treasures to be found in this one if you’re willing to endure some borderline-tweeness.

⭐This is not the easiest book to read, as it is hard to sense its direction at first. However, it is an easy book to love if you give it a chance. It offers deep insights on love, family, fidelity/loyalty, Truth, and acquisitions – and that’s just a start!The protagonist, named for economist Thorstein Veblen, is young woman almost paralyzed by her overbearing, hypochondriac mother and a mentally ill father. Veblen is not your “average girl” in that she speaks with animals, especially one squirrel in particular, and is an intensely anti-materialistic soul in Bay-Area California. The plot revolves primarily around her meeting and planning to marry the love of her life (maybe?!), a man named Paul.Paul has his own set of challenges as he is involved with testing a medical device he has invented. His dream job drops in his lap, but finds the line between licensing and selling out is a very thin one.There are a cast of characters in this story that are so mind- bogglingly odd that they seem totally authentic. Only real families could seem this dysfunctional. There are a few things that get a little out of hand, but overall, the people who populate this book are like you and me.I bought the kindle edition of this book to start, bit I liked it enough to buy a hard copy too. It’s one I’ll read again and share with friends and family.

⭐Relationships can be a bit crazy and The Portable Veblen illustrates this in a literal nutshell. I love the tongue in cheek humor and overall deep subjects this book takes on. I think we can all relate to a bit of insanity when analyzing our relationship with our mothers. Then the merging of our self with marriage. Big pharmaceutical companies and the evils they play in our modern day world are all presented with the contrast of nature and squirrels. Veblen works it all out in an interesting manner as we all try to do. Great book. Loved it.

⭐A highly entertaining, quirky little book with some great insight into how we can recover from dysfunctional families and childhood and move onto serious adult relationships.As the central character, Veblen puts it: “A wedding is the time and place to recognize the full clutch of the past in the negotiation of a shared future. Try devoting a few pages to that, Brides magazine!”And how could you not love a book with a squirrel as a key character?

⭐The writing is skillful and there are lovely lyrical passages here and there, and the book is kissed with warmth and humor. Mackenzie can write, no doubt.Unfortunately, a faint air of inauthenticity pervades the book, which feels second-hand and derivative. Despite the book’s undoubted virtues, it’s a bit too cute, too contrived, too eager to please, too artificial.I read deep into the book, but couldn’t finish it for these reasons.

⭐This book was simply delightful. After reading it, by chance not plan. I have been visited by a very young squirrel whom I named Arnie. He comes for breakfast on my patio daily. I digress, the book is original, characters are vividly developed and I like them. Even the unlikable ones are interesting. I also learned about a famous philosopher that I never heard of.

⭐A sweet, yet intelligent read.it is especially wonderful if you are drawn towards the fantastic communication between all living beings! I loved this book. Read it in one session. It is one of those books that i like to reread when I’m feeling down. A sensational little book!

⭐I bought this book after seeing it as a recommendation, it was described as a good self help book for empowering women. I hadnt realised it was a novel. I started reading as soon as it arrived. What an amazing book, just about how life can change and how we can change. It was engaging all the way through. This one I shall read more than once.

⭐Huddled together on the last block of Tasso street, in a California town known as Palo Alto, was a pair of humble bungalows, each one plot in lilies.’Elizabeth McKenzie’s protagonist is named after Thorstein Veblen, famous for the idea of conspicuous consumption. The novel opens with Paul’s proposal to Veblen, watched by a squirrel and furnished with a large engagement ring that Veblen’s mother says is “the ring of a kept woman.” Paul grew up in a hippy family and seeks material success. Veblen is described in the opening pages as an ‘independent behaviourist, experienced cheerer-upper, and freelance self, who was having a delayed love affair with the world due to an isolated childhood.’ The reason for the that delayed affair becomes obvious as both Veblen and Paul come from eccentric, dysfunctional families; McKenzie’s portrait of Veblen’s hypochondriac, narcissistic mother is both funny and frightening and probably one of the reasons why this novel was shortlisted for the Bailey prize. The squirrel’s role in Veblen’s story emphasises the whimsical aspects of this novel but it’s also about how to live an ethical life.

⭐A fairytale… a juicy, sweet, tart pie… with the lightest crispiest nutty pastry…bite after delicious bite of beautiful fruit topped with creamy coconut yoghurt… Squirrelfolklore and folklore… Characters you have met… in life… in dreams… I believe no animals were harmed in the creating of this book… and much light was seen by those in the dark… A caveat to say that my 4 star rating is actually very high… it is hard to rate using this system so I kind of use my own system within the Amazon given…

⭐I had to force myself to finish this. I found the depth of detail on the characters’ neuroses and unbelievable levels of introspection to be almost unbearable. I kept wanting the story to actually start and for the plot to develop, neither of which really happened until the last couple of chapters, and when they did arrive, they were hardly worth waiting for.

⭐I quite enjoyed this but I must say I’m a little puzzled at all the rave reviews. Didn’t make me laugh beyond a quiet snigger now and then. And she could have left all the quirky squirrel stuff out as far as I’m concerned. I don’t think I would have bothered finishing it had it been much longer. Feel rather underwhelmed on the whole.

Keywords

Free Download The Portable Veblen: A Novel in Epub format
The Portable Veblen: A Novel Epub Free Download
Download The Portable Veblen: A Novel 2016 Epub Free
The Portable Veblen: A Novel 2016 Epub Free Download
Download The Portable Veblen: A Novel Epub
Free Download Ebook The Portable Veblen: A Novel