The Man Who Was Late

by Louis Begley

Book Overview

"Begley writes with a contemplative wisdom that permeates his work.... He] has captured some of the wispy melancholy of midcentury fiction, and this feat in itself is mellifluous to both ear and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679415114
• Release Date: December 1992
• Publisher: Knopf
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 3.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

This is an extraordinary book

In prose beautiful for its sheer economy as well as its clarity, here is the story of the genteel life adopted by a survivor of the least genteel event of the century. There are hidden costs associated with the comforts of Ben's chosen path, not least of which is his self-image, as a man who is perpetually late to realize the existential significance of major choices, and late to act thereupon; a man who misses chances; a man out of sync with his own life. This is simply an extraordinary story, told with a courtliness and understatement evocative of William Maxwell and Ford Madox Ford, from the author of About Schmidt, Schmidt Delivered, Shipwreck, Mistler's Exit, Wartime Lies, and As Max Saw It.