Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Vintage (1995), Paperback, 320 pages
Description
Having turned phone sex into the subject of an astonishing national bestseller in Vox, Baker now outdoes himself with an outrageously arousing, acrobatically stylish "X-rated sci-fi fantasy that leaves Vox seeming more like mere fiber-optic foreplay" (Seattle Times). "Sparkling."--San Francisco Chronicle. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Media reviews
The Fermata is not concerned with human dignity, or even the loss of it [...] this unsettling concoction of gentle observation and moral indifference is served, politely, over and over again to the reader.
By literally objectifying women, he courts contemporary disapproval, but he is also partaking
By literally objectifying women, he courts contemporary disapproval, but he is also partaking
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of a centuries-long tradition of serious writers trying their hand at a stroker [...] The Fermata is not really about Arno Strine. It’s a long, dreary, dirty note scrawled in the margins of Nicholson Baker’s work. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member Zmrzlina
I so enjoyed this book. The "hero" has found a way to stop time but not his own time. So he gets to move through that moment in time while everything else is frozen. Frozen but very hot. A steamy story with lots of voyeuristic scenes, but more than that. Just a great sexy read. I spent some
And I never look at a man in glasses without thinking about this book.
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delicious moments wondering if there had ever been an Arnold Strine in my life.And I never look at a man in glasses without thinking about this book.
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LibraryThing member wirkman
The greatest pornographic novel ever written.
Well, it is certainly the most pornographic novel I've read . . . and still was able to call it "literature."
In truth, it's very funny. And, as with this author, very beautifully written.
Nicholson Baker fixes on a note, and dares to hold it longer than
Well, it is certainly the most pornographic novel I've read . . . and still was able to call it "literature."
In truth, it's very funny. And, as with this author, very beautifully written.
Nicholson Baker fixes on a note, and dares to hold it longer than
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anyone else. And still succeed. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kavinay
Once in a while I venture back towards "literary fiction" in the hope that maybe there's more to it than WASPy sexual dysfunction.
Nope.
I've never understood this fascination literary writers or their fans have with self referential composition as end to itself--a profoundly empty meta. Congrats to
As an aside, man has this book not aged well to boot. The adventures of a serial rapist are not as charming or funny as Baker seems to think he makes them.
Nope.
I've never understood this fascination literary writers or their fans have with self referential composition as end to itself--a profoundly empty meta. Congrats to
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Baker for reaching Ondaatje levels of lettered masturbation.As an aside, man has this book not aged well to boot. The adventures of a serial rapist are not as charming or funny as Baker seems to think he makes them.
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LibraryThing member Sean191
The Fermata tells a story, written by the protagonist, about a man with the ability to stop time through various means. Stopping time means stopping everything - except of course, himself. Once stopped, Arno (the main character) uses the temporary temporal freeze to indulge in his favorite pastime
Arno has a conscience though and doesn't want to distress them, so he always makes sure to put everything back as it was. The work itself is typical Baker in its amazing attention to every tiny descriptive detail. That fact makes the various sex scenes in the book very graphic - and not in an "art sex" way, but in a X-rated way. It's definitely not a read for the easily or even the not-so-easy to offend out there. It's very graphic and covers a lot of territory.
Now that that's out of the way, I have to say I really liked the book. The story was interesting, the main character was intriguing and I feel like what he does in the story is tame compared to what many people might choose to do. As I read, I wondered if the time stops were really happening or if Arno was insane. Baker could have went any direction he wanted to resolve the story, but the very last page was a great way to conclude and made me almost laugh with the brilliance of it.
I believe the overt sexual descriptions, while possibly making the reader uncomfortable, could serve to also make the reader question her or himself about how they would employ the stop-time power were they to have the ability.
If that's not enough, again, Baker's talent is in display throughout and I'm fond of his writing. But I do have to warn again, the sex is graphic and the language is graphic in those scenes. If you get offended, you may want to skip. His other books like Mezzanine and Room Temperature are fairly tame and also filled with Baker's talent as well.
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- undressing women. Arno has a conscience though and doesn't want to distress them, so he always makes sure to put everything back as it was. The work itself is typical Baker in its amazing attention to every tiny descriptive detail. That fact makes the various sex scenes in the book very graphic - and not in an "art sex" way, but in a X-rated way. It's definitely not a read for the easily or even the not-so-easy to offend out there. It's very graphic and covers a lot of territory.
Now that that's out of the way, I have to say I really liked the book. The story was interesting, the main character was intriguing and I feel like what he does in the story is tame compared to what many people might choose to do. As I read, I wondered if the time stops were really happening or if Arno was insane. Baker could have went any direction he wanted to resolve the story, but the very last page was a great way to conclude and made me almost laugh with the brilliance of it.
I believe the overt sexual descriptions, while possibly making the reader uncomfortable, could serve to also make the reader question her or himself about how they would employ the stop-time power were they to have the ability.
If that's not enough, again, Baker's talent is in display throughout and I'm fond of his writing. But I do have to warn again, the sex is graphic and the language is graphic in those scenes. If you get offended, you may want to skip. His other books like Mezzanine and Room Temperature are fairly tame and also filled with Baker's talent as well.
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LibraryThing member xollo
This is one of the most brilliant books I’ve ever read. It is also, by far, the dirtiest. Baker’s attention to every detail—the feel of a needle pushing through a callus on one’s hand, the particular look of the tag on a beach towel—and his amazing sexual imagination make for profound,
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non-put-down-able reading. Best, most original, impossibly human yet totally odd sex scenes ever! Concept: man with the power to stop time (although the power comes and goes and sometimes must be resurrected in bizarre ways), uses said power to seduce (without their knowing) women. Vibrating toothbrush and avocado scene is priceless. Show Less
LibraryThing member browner56
What would you do if you had the ability to stop time in a way that still allowed you—and only you—to move around at will? Some of us would think of how to change history in an attempt to make the world a better place, while others would be content to increase their own wealth in “real
Arno Strine, the protagonist of Nicholson Baker’s “The Fermata,” has this time-stopping ability, but he also has extremely modest ambitions when it comes to using that gift. Instead of acquiring financial riches, Arno is content to simply remove the clothes of women—both those he knows and total strangers—and look at their naked bodies. Although a pathological voyeur, Arno does have rigid set of ethics that keeps him from committing more severe violations when he has “Dropped” into the Fermata, as he calls it. He gradually increases the extent of his intrusions, setting up elaborate schemes to find a soul-mate that he hopes will come to fruition when he turns real time back on. By the end of the novel, Arno finds that one of these schemes does come true, but with surprising and unanticipated results.
I had a decidedly mixed reaction to this book. On one hand, Baker delivers a richly (and minutely) imagined alternative reality. If nothing else, the author has clearly thought very deeply about what Dropping would be really be like and many of his detailed observations are fascinating and occasionally very funny. Additionally, Baker does not shy away from the obvious moral ramifications of the story he tells; Arno is conflicted about the effect that his abilities has on others and, when not in self-denial, he adheres to a complex set of behavioral standards. Conversely, there are two extended sections in the novel that can only be described as pure pornography (think of some of the better-written “Penthouse Letters” submissions you might have read). The problem with these passages is not the subject matter per se (although the scatological nature of them was unexpected and off-putting), but the fact that they are gratuitous and completely unnecessary to the main plot line.
So, how do you rate a book like this? Do you give it four stars for its creativity and imagination or just two stars for its excessively prurient character? For me, splitting the difference seemed to be about right.
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time” (e.g., steal, alter the outcome of gambling or sporting events) or take the opportunity to exact revenge on enemies and former lovers. However, to the extent that any of us actually do day-dream about such things, I suspect that we dwell on ultimate outcomes and not on the myriad details involved in exercising that power.Arno Strine, the protagonist of Nicholson Baker’s “The Fermata,” has this time-stopping ability, but he also has extremely modest ambitions when it comes to using that gift. Instead of acquiring financial riches, Arno is content to simply remove the clothes of women—both those he knows and total strangers—and look at their naked bodies. Although a pathological voyeur, Arno does have rigid set of ethics that keeps him from committing more severe violations when he has “Dropped” into the Fermata, as he calls it. He gradually increases the extent of his intrusions, setting up elaborate schemes to find a soul-mate that he hopes will come to fruition when he turns real time back on. By the end of the novel, Arno finds that one of these schemes does come true, but with surprising and unanticipated results.
I had a decidedly mixed reaction to this book. On one hand, Baker delivers a richly (and minutely) imagined alternative reality. If nothing else, the author has clearly thought very deeply about what Dropping would be really be like and many of his detailed observations are fascinating and occasionally very funny. Additionally, Baker does not shy away from the obvious moral ramifications of the story he tells; Arno is conflicted about the effect that his abilities has on others and, when not in self-denial, he adheres to a complex set of behavioral standards. Conversely, there are two extended sections in the novel that can only be described as pure pornography (think of some of the better-written “Penthouse Letters” submissions you might have read). The problem with these passages is not the subject matter per se (although the scatological nature of them was unexpected and off-putting), but the fact that they are gratuitous and completely unnecessary to the main plot line.
So, how do you rate a book like this? Do you give it four stars for its creativity and imagination or just two stars for its excessively prurient character? For me, splitting the difference seemed to be about right.
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LibraryThing member DuneSherban
Baker's The Fermata tiptoes the line between pornography and, well, a very literary work. That it becomes both genres very well is testament to its quality and the uniqueness of its message.
And that message, put simply, concerns a man who has the ability to stop time. Whether through the snap of
This is an uncomfortable book; it shouldn't not be, as throughout it Baker -as I said- tiptoes that line between aesthetics and straight obscenity. Some reviews that I have read, however, berate him unfairly; they say that this is simply pornography (!), or that it is ridiculous that Arno does not choose to save the world with his spectacular temporal powers.
That he does not save the world, however, is the most interesting thing about The Fermata.
Arno, like other of Baker's characters, is both thoughtful and mediocre; he is a product of the modern world, of the reproduction of capital and cafes, noodle restaurants and law firms. His wry, carefully modulated narration is a retrospective on the world, and Arno really believes that he acts in an ethical manner. He claims to love women. Yet he also degrades them. Arno is pathetic and considerate, he is dangerous an he is pleasant. We wonder how normal he really is. We never really receive an answer to where this ability to stop time comes from, but that isn't really ever a flaw to the work.
Baker has written a study in obsession, an essay to the realisation to desire. Set against the backdrop of that same, capital driven world (the world where we are told that mere money will grant us whatever we so wish!), Arno's pleasure seems actually quite ordinary. He is the logical extension of Modern Man. He has embodied, literally, the power to control the world through a simple, exchangeable currency -the power to halt time.
Within Baker's novel are two interpolated texts. These are two works of 'straight' pornography written by Arno in order to gift to other readers. He delights in watching them read his smutty works.
This device, of the text within the text, is old as Cervante's Don Quixote, isn't it? And there, Cervantes lovingly reproduces and satires the Romance novel. Baker, too, is lovingly reproducing and satirising the pornographic novel.
The device is even more intriguing when we realise what the text within the text does. Arno writes one such work and buries it in the sand next to a beach sun bather. The bather finds it in the sand and reads. Arno watches, becoming more excited as he studies her reaction. I found this moment to be the most powerful in the text, as the very next chapter features that interpolated text itself; we, the reader, replace the bathing woman, reading the text, and our knowledge that Arno watches her makes us aware that he is actually watching us. We become the subject of the author, the repository of his sexual fantasies and expectations. Reading, external subject becomes reading, internal object. And so, as we read the text, we study our own reactions to it.
Baker's (or Arno's) The Fermata is a study in fantasy and, importantly, it is a study of the fantasising subject. Those readers who dismiss Baker for smuttiness are not really dismissing the book at all -they are actually playing to it. They are the bather who rejects the book with a disgusted look. If we like the book, we play a role in Baker's game, and we open up the idea of fantasy and repression that is central to his poetic world.
As a novelist, Baker is extreme and brilliant at drawing the reader into that world.
There are problems with the text; perhaps it is a bit clunky at times, or even repetitive, yet the overall impression of discomfort and fantasy is especially interesting and powerful. Baker doesn't want us to say, "oh, pornography is equal to the best of literature", but he does want us to have a meaningful reaction to it.
And that message, put simply, concerns a man who has the ability to stop time. Whether through the snap of
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his fingers, or the use of a washing machine, he is able to control time and to do as he so wishes therein. As he (named Arno) points out early on, he is aware that he could, if he wished, use this power to snoop on government secrets, or even to better the world. Yet he opts for the voyeuristic act of undressing women. Women that he loves (and he admits that he falls in love easily and frequently). This is an uncomfortable book; it shouldn't not be, as throughout it Baker -as I said- tiptoes that line between aesthetics and straight obscenity. Some reviews that I have read, however, berate him unfairly; they say that this is simply pornography (!), or that it is ridiculous that Arno does not choose to save the world with his spectacular temporal powers.
That he does not save the world, however, is the most interesting thing about The Fermata.
Arno, like other of Baker's characters, is both thoughtful and mediocre; he is a product of the modern world, of the reproduction of capital and cafes, noodle restaurants and law firms. His wry, carefully modulated narration is a retrospective on the world, and Arno really believes that he acts in an ethical manner. He claims to love women. Yet he also degrades them. Arno is pathetic and considerate, he is dangerous an he is pleasant. We wonder how normal he really is. We never really receive an answer to where this ability to stop time comes from, but that isn't really ever a flaw to the work.
Baker has written a study in obsession, an essay to the realisation to desire. Set against the backdrop of that same, capital driven world (the world where we are told that mere money will grant us whatever we so wish!), Arno's pleasure seems actually quite ordinary. He is the logical extension of Modern Man. He has embodied, literally, the power to control the world through a simple, exchangeable currency -the power to halt time.
Within Baker's novel are two interpolated texts. These are two works of 'straight' pornography written by Arno in order to gift to other readers. He delights in watching them read his smutty works.
This device, of the text within the text, is old as Cervante's Don Quixote, isn't it? And there, Cervantes lovingly reproduces and satires the Romance novel. Baker, too, is lovingly reproducing and satirising the pornographic novel.
The device is even more intriguing when we realise what the text within the text does. Arno writes one such work and buries it in the sand next to a beach sun bather. The bather finds it in the sand and reads. Arno watches, becoming more excited as he studies her reaction. I found this moment to be the most powerful in the text, as the very next chapter features that interpolated text itself; we, the reader, replace the bathing woman, reading the text, and our knowledge that Arno watches her makes us aware that he is actually watching us. We become the subject of the author, the repository of his sexual fantasies and expectations. Reading, external subject becomes reading, internal object. And so, as we read the text, we study our own reactions to it.
Baker's (or Arno's) The Fermata is a study in fantasy and, importantly, it is a study of the fantasising subject. Those readers who dismiss Baker for smuttiness are not really dismissing the book at all -they are actually playing to it. They are the bather who rejects the book with a disgusted look. If we like the book, we play a role in Baker's game, and we open up the idea of fantasy and repression that is central to his poetic world.
As a novelist, Baker is extreme and brilliant at drawing the reader into that world.
There are problems with the text; perhaps it is a bit clunky at times, or even repetitive, yet the overall impression of discomfort and fantasy is especially interesting and powerful. Baker doesn't want us to say, "oh, pornography is equal to the best of literature", but he does want us to have a meaningful reaction to it.
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LibraryThing member stephenmurphy
Outstanding, witty and honest. A f***fest for the brain. I love this book and the scene in the middle, with the hosepipe is the hottest I have ever read
LibraryThing member 9days
I want to start out by saying that I really liked the idea of this book. Really, I did. However, this book fell way short of my expectations. About the story...
The narrator has the unique ability to stop time, to drop into what he calls "The Fold". One aspect of the story I enjoyed was learning of
The narrator uses his ability to do exactly what you would expect he would do (sort of): he undresses and fondles women. I find this unlikely. I believe having him stop short of sex is the authors way of garnering sympathy for the character. Unfortunately, it fails. Honestly, and this may sound terrible, I would have enjoyed it more, and would have found it to be more credible, if he would have gone further, testing the limits of his ability. Instead, the author keeps him in a sort of safe stasis, never pushing his desires or curiousity further.
But, interestingly enough, the narrator says he would feel terrible having sex with these women. Which is strange, seeing as he has no problem undressing and molesting them (and even strapping sex toys to them). These inconsistencies and contradictions are part of what makes this book irritating. Again, this does absolutely nothing to garner sympathy or credibility for him. In another scene, the narrator attempts to rid the world of crime by removing all the guns from people in one area of town. This is a juvenile attempt by the author to somehow make the narrator a hero. This fails also.
One aspect that made this book nearly impossible to read was the over-abundance of euphamisms. Every single time breasts, female genitals, or penii were mentioned, a different euphamism was used. Every...single...time. Hundreds of them. I'm not sure if this was intended to be funny, or witty, but it fails on both accounts and is instead groan-inducing.
This book could have gone off the beaten path and possibly have been good, but the author decided to turn it into some sort of platform for his moral ideals. Most of the time, this book cannot decide if it wants to be playful or serious, and so tries to pull both off at once, which didn't work.
Surprisingly, the writing is promising (if at times long-winded. If you're not a fan of paragraph long sentences, you might skip this book). But, all in all, this book is sophomoric at best, juvenile at worst.
The narrator has the unique ability to stop time, to drop into what he calls "The Fold". One aspect of the story I enjoyed was learning of
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all the machinations he concocted to be able to do this (rigged parts of an electronic toy racetrack, throwing the shirt off his back into the spin cycle). All of this was original, and highly amusing. Unfortunately, that is where the amusement stops.The narrator uses his ability to do exactly what you would expect he would do (sort of): he undresses and fondles women. I find this unlikely. I believe having him stop short of sex is the authors way of garnering sympathy for the character. Unfortunately, it fails. Honestly, and this may sound terrible, I would have enjoyed it more, and would have found it to be more credible, if he would have gone further, testing the limits of his ability. Instead, the author keeps him in a sort of safe stasis, never pushing his desires or curiousity further.
But, interestingly enough, the narrator says he would feel terrible having sex with these women. Which is strange, seeing as he has no problem undressing and molesting them (and even strapping sex toys to them). These inconsistencies and contradictions are part of what makes this book irritating. Again, this does absolutely nothing to garner sympathy or credibility for him. In another scene, the narrator attempts to rid the world of crime by removing all the guns from people in one area of town. This is a juvenile attempt by the author to somehow make the narrator a hero. This fails also.
One aspect that made this book nearly impossible to read was the over-abundance of euphamisms. Every single time breasts, female genitals, or penii were mentioned, a different euphamism was used. Every...single...time. Hundreds of them. I'm not sure if this was intended to be funny, or witty, but it fails on both accounts and is instead groan-inducing.
This book could have gone off the beaten path and possibly have been good, but the author decided to turn it into some sort of platform for his moral ideals. Most of the time, this book cannot decide if it wants to be playful or serious, and so tries to pull both off at once, which didn't work.
Surprisingly, the writing is promising (if at times long-winded. If you're not a fan of paragraph long sentences, you might skip this book). But, all in all, this book is sophomoric at best, juvenile at worst.
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LibraryThing member santhony
Without question, one of the most original and fascinating premises I've ever encountered. What would you do if you were able to stop time? Think about it. This is a relatively short book and extremely sexually charged. Not for the prudish or even the moderately straight laced.
LibraryThing member datrappert
Works well on the level of juvenile pornography, but certainly doesn't live up to the promise of its premise in other ways, not that the idea of being able to stop time is an original one. I guess I was spoiled by the perfection of Baker's The Mezzanine and have searched his works for that same
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brilliance again - but still haven't found it. Show Less
LibraryThing member rrriles
A surprisingly credible take on what might happen if someone were able to stop and start time (almost) at will.
LibraryThing member LynnB
Arno Strine can stop time. And when he does, he uses this talent to undress, and sometimes touch, women.
Arno is a complicated character, well drawn by Mr. Baker. He loves women and their imperfections. He doesn't want to harm people. He doesn't have the imagination or moral fortitude to do great
But the interesting character didn't make up for the lack of a plot. I know some have argued that the sex in this book is not pornographic -- some have even said it was funny. But I found the balance between writing about Arno and writing about (mostly imagined) sexual acts was skewed in favour of the latter. On balance, we have a book with very little plot, one basic idea (time stopping) and a interesting main character.
Arno is a complicated character, well drawn by Mr. Baker. He loves women and their imperfections. He doesn't want to harm people. He doesn't have the imagination or moral fortitude to do great
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things with his time-stopping power. In fact, he hardly thinks about such weighty matters. He's mostly pretty ordinary. But the interesting character didn't make up for the lack of a plot. I know some have argued that the sex in this book is not pornographic -- some have even said it was funny. But I found the balance between writing about Arno and writing about (mostly imagined) sexual acts was skewed in favour of the latter. On balance, we have a book with very little plot, one basic idea (time stopping) and a interesting main character.
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LibraryThing member chellerystick
I find Nicholson Baker's work to be very uneven, and although it has been several years since I read it, this would be one of the weaker works. Baker often writes about people with obsessions, and in this one the main character finds he has an unusual ability, a superpower, if you will. However, he
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has limited introspection or even humor about this power and instead uses it for silly pranks such as placing vibrators in women's underwear. I just didn't feel like my world was enriched by this one. Show Less
LibraryThing member evergene
Pornography has a proper place in culture, as does literature. This book is pornography masquerading as literature, and is a failure in both genres.
LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
I got this book because I read Baker's non-fiction book, "Double Fold" in library school, and thought it was very interesting and well-written. 'The Fermata' is quite different! Basically, it's porn. But not porn that I found appealing. It's written in the form of a memoir of a seemingly ordinary
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man who works as a temp transcriptionist - who has the ability to stop time. Rather than using this power to do any of the obvious possibilities (heists, assassinations, blackmail(?)), he uses his time in 'the fermata' pretty much exclusively to molest women. Morally, he tries to justify himself by saying that he's not hurting anyone - the women are totally unaware about what's been done to their frozen, unresponsive bodies, so what's the problem? The character has an ex-girlfriend, who broke up with him because she was disturbed and repelled by what she believed were his fantasies regarding these actions - and I'm totally with her: the exciting thing about sex is the seduction, the interaction. Molesting mannequin-like, unmoving bodies is thoroughly unexciting. Later in the book, when the narrator decides to try his hand at writing erotica (and placing it for women to read), the stories presented as his writing aren't terribly my cup of tea, either. This is undeniably a well-done book, but it is just meant to appeal to people with different fantasies than mine. Show Less
LibraryThing member billycongo
Mr. Baker's books are quite well written, for the ones I have read, but they seem to contain a flaw. The ideas are always good, but I find myself wanting to edit them.
LibraryThing member Crayne
A novel like The Fermata asks some important questions, most important of which is of course: "Does writing literary prose mean your novel about a guy stopping time to perv about is anything other than porn?" And it's a very good question too, one I haven't yet been able to fully answer. On the one
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hand there's a lot more to Baker's novel than a simple sex story. His protagonist is complex, troubled and off-kilter although he feels himself a paragon of normality in a world that simply does not and would not understand him. And yet there seems to be a definite "let's see how much porn I can write before someone catches on." And when I say porn, I don't mean the sultry covert eroticism sometimes present in novels, but stories in stories about women bouncing to orgasm with dildoes in every hole in the back of UPS trucks. Anyway, this is a story about a dysfunctional human being and as such it fascinates, porn or no porn. I just wish it would decide which way to go: smut story or novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member Arctic-Stranger
What would you do if you could "stop" time? Here the protagonist uses his special abilities to become a peeping tom extrordenaire. (Well he also uses it to speed up his christmas shopping.) Some might find this book erotic, others would find it disgusting. (There are two attempts at erotica proper
Can a peeping tom find love in the folds of time? Read it and find out.
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within the book, one of which is very graphic.) Can a peeping tom find love in the folds of time? Read it and find out.
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LibraryThing member Rostie
Interesting concept, great plot
Language
Original publication date
1994
Physical description
303 p.; 8.02 inches
ISBN
0679759336 / 9780679759331