Final Decree

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F1NAL
GEORGE JONAS
Until now, readers in Canada have known George Jonas as a gifted poet, columnist and non-fiction writer. The Canadian critic Kent Thompson called him "one of our major poets," while A1 Purdy wrote "Jonas is Jonas, and he's very good."
His non-fiction book, By Persons Unkno^yn, written in collaboration with Barbara Amiel, held i^oders spellbound in Canada as well as ín the United States. Mordecai Richler hailed it as "uncommonly gripping," and the Ottawa Journal said: "A true crime book considered by somé the classic of the century." When the book won the Edgár Allan Poe Award, the Buffalo Evening News wrote: "It is not difficult to understand why the Mystery Writers of America has just selected By Persons Unknosm as the best fact-crime book of the year."
Now, making dramatic use of the skills displayed in By Persons Unknown and of his poetic gifts, George Jonas has produced an extraordinary növel — Final Decree.
"The stranger who was going to help Kazmer... Tovább

Fülszöveg

F1NAL
GEORGE JONAS
Until now, readers in Canada have known George Jonas as a gifted poet, columnist and non-fiction writer. The Canadian critic Kent Thompson called him "one of our major poets," while A1 Purdy wrote "Jonas is Jonas, and he's very good."
His non-fiction book, By Persons Unkno^yn, written in collaboration with Barbara Amiel, held i^oders spellbound in Canada as well as ín the United States. Mordecai Richler hailed it as "uncommonly gripping," and the Ottawa Journal said: "A true crime book considered by somé the classic of the century." When the book won the Edgár Allan Poe Award, the Buffalo Evening News wrote: "It is not difficult to understand why the Mystery Writers of America has just selected By Persons Unknosm as the best fact-crime book of the year."
Now, making dramatic use of the skills displayed in By Persons Unknown and of his poetic gifts, George Jonas has produced an extraordinary növel — Final Decree.
"The stranger who was going to help Kazmer bring justice into the world parked his Chevrolet in front of the workshop, got out and dropped a dime into the parking meter. From where Kazmer was sitting behind his bench in the basement, all he could see was the stranger's feet and the frayed edges of his dark overcoat. It would have made no difference if he could have seen his face, for Kazmer had never laid eyes on the stranger before____"
Final Decree reads like a thriller. Yet, by sheer literary skill, George Jonas thrills us not through artificial catastrophes of far-fetched fiction, but through the dangers and suspense of familiar, everyday life. His book expresses the fears, frustrations and sufferings of ordinary people with haunting, touch-ing clarity. Inspired by a real-life divorce case, it is a masterpiece that every reader will find gripping and heartbreaking.
Challenging all contemporary no-tions about men and women, Final Decree is destined to become one of the most controversial books of the 1980s, since it deals directly with the clash between modern society and humán nature. Kazmer Harcsa, an immigrant carpenter, has worked unstintingly to give his wife, Petrona, and their two children all the comforts of a modest middle-class life in Toronto. Kazmer's confident dreams of a happy future are shattered, however, on the day he comes home to find his family gone and himself a casualty of Petrona's quest for self-fulfillment.
Confronted by trendy divorce law-yers and judges who mistake his native wit for simple-mindedness and his fierce pride for insolence, Kazmer becomes desperate in his search for justice. Humiliation gives way to rage when he decides that to be a man worthy of his ancestors he must take the law into his own hands.
A controversial indictment of how progressive laws destroy the very people they seek to protect, Final Decree is, above all, a work of literature. It strips away the masks of fashion to focus on the basic emotions of men and women. It does not plead for social reform, but celebrates the resilience of the humán spirit. Tragedy, suspense and controversy combine to make Final Decree an explosive, masterful növel. Vissza