A Box of Matches

Like a Bach fugue or a Ravilious painting, the ideas and images chase each other around in the corners of his/your mind. Well worth reading and re-reading.

This small book seems at first to be not about very much. Baker’s books tackle small subjects ( a shoelace, bottle feeding a baby, not writing a biography) in very profound ways.A Box of Matches is concerned with the minutae of one person’s life through a small window of time across a few days. The beauty here is that Baker has discarded much of the brash intellectualism of his previous books and just tells it as it is. This book has a much more human feel to it, and there is almost an air of sadness throughout the book. The tragedy of the everyday is felt in the cadences of the prose, and captures the atmosphere (the dark kitchen, the fire growing each morning) perfectly. That’s not to say there is no humour in this book – I found myself laughing out loud at some of the anecdotes within, particularly concerning his cat. The narrator’s duck, beautifully described, is a superb character.The book begins and ends quietly, and not much happens on the surface, but it will stay with you for a very long time.

A novel without a plot! That actually works. This is something I would definitely recommend outside of my literature degree.

I don't claim to know much about books but for some reason I find the wide variety of Nicholson Baker's work wholly intuitive - very natural to read (whatever the subject may be). In a Box of Matches, I've read some of the most vivid descriptions of some of life's ordinary tasks, they make you live in the present and take all you can from your environment. I found the descriptions so pleasing and often very funny - there is a mention of the woes of having fallen asleep with one's socks on which perfectly describes the intense frustration of that particular struggle. If I were to use one word to describe the book, it would be "human." I can understand that Baker's writing might not be to everyone's taste, but I just adore it, and I go out of my way to look for it.

How great it is to be alive. Rejoicing in the ordinary and everyday, Nicholson Baker has produced a brilliantly original and mesmerising short novel of thoughts, memories and ideas, run through with plain non-drama.In concept, it may seem a daring move. But never underestimate the consummate observation and affirmation which sparkles within Nicholson Baker’s prose.“A box of matches” can be summed up as a snapshot of a middle aged man from Maine getting up between 4-5 am to light a fire in his grate, in the dark, making coffee and reflecting on his life and current concerns. Are we sleepy yet? That’s your plot; full stop.But wait, wake up. Recounts of the loving wife and two fast growing kids tells of a family man and over-hours publishing editor who cares; he’ll be sure to be ready to drive them to school, get the shopping in and earn a serious wage. Tales of the pet duck and the pet ant are laugh out loud drollness gone mad. The matter of fact of human nature with children, parents, grandparents, love, hope, sincerity and bodily functions are all here. Was that bodily functions? All will sound a chord somewhere, in an endearing and thoroughly witty and smile inducing way.Strike a light, settle back and be reflected in the glow. An amazing short dazzle of inspiration. Don’t miss it.

I think I came across this book on "Mariella's Book Show" (RIP). This really is a little treasure of a novella like nothing else I have read before. Simple, pared down writing but with hidden depths and many pleasures buried within the eloquent prose. I suppose it's really about drawing pleasures from the every day, taking time to acknowledge and appreciate the simple but important things in life.

This is one of those books where nothing really happens, but that's not really a bad thing! It is the story of a man who get up every morning very early, while it's still dark, to light the fire with a box of matches.The narrative takes us through the motions of each of these mornings, and the subsequent day, through his thoughts, and via a series of flashbacks, over some of the events of his life.Will it keep you on the edge of your seat? No. Is it worth reading for sheer skill of the storytelling? I think so

I picked this up at random in a bookshop and discovered, in the first two pages, one beautiful simile (about a fire) and one profound truth (about socks).So I bought it, and enjoyed it thoroughly. It's always a pleasure to read a book that, rather than striving and failing to be the Great American Novel, instead meets its own humbler goals. "A Box Of Matches" is full of fresh and meditative observations on a quiet domestic life. The narrator's obvious love for his wife and children (who spend most of the book either asleep or padding around discreetly in the background) saves the book from sliding towards solipsism, and his pets in particular are beautifully drawn. It's not entirely true to say there is no plot - over the course of the book Emmett's comforting suicide fantasies melt away, and one can try reading between the lines for a better understanding of who he is.But really it's Baker's gifts for imagery and anecdote that make every page a pleasure, dare I say the literary equivalent of basking in front of a warm fire.