description: In his first novel since Earthly Powers (1980), Burgess here returns with a vengeance in this rich and witty historical tale - a broad project spanning major events of the 20th century. The tale begins with David Jones, a Welshman, steaming out across the Atlantic aboard that traveling Babylon of modernism, the Titanic, and surviving to arrive in New York. He there marries a Russian immigrant, Ludmila, and the two find themselves back in Britain when Jones takes up active service in WW I. Their offspring Reg and Dan bring readers on a conducted tour through WW II - grisly, demeaning, and completely convincing - while daughter Beatrix takes up with an American GI, Irwin Roth. Roth, stationed in a posh desk-job, goes on to write a completely unconvincing book about WW II, and one of the finer touches here is Burgess' skewering, in very few words, of the overproduced, post-WW II war novel. At the center of it all, and drawing in the varying political fortunes of Wales, England, the USSR, and Israel, is the myth of Caledvwlch, the sword of Attila, supposedly the one used by King Arthur. Originally in Britain, the artifact was wrested from an order of Benedictines by the Nazis as they foraged through Europe, then passed into the hands of Soviet troops as the war winds down - and provides the impetus for Reg to draw the narrative towards another creation of the 20th century, the Soviet Union. Though it's clear that Burgess sees the modern age as already long gone to hell in an overpriced handbasket, each episode here flashes with wit and buoyant verbal play. Fine spinning - with the author's telltale skill for detail - linguistics, music, impeccable dialogue - again in top form.Desde que logra sobrevivir milagrosa, y quizás inmerecidamente, al naaufragio del Titanic, David Jones sabe que tiene una deuda con la humanidad. Deuda que le será cobrada con creces a sus hijos, que acabarán enredados en todas las guerras de este siglo de catástrofres. Desde la revolución rusa hasta la conflictiva creación del Estado de Israel, pasadno por las dos guerras mundiales, y demás manifestaciones de la intransigencia humana.En medio del tráfago de las batallas, reaparece Excalibur, la mítica espada del rey Arturo. ¿Un llamado del destino para inventar nuevos conflictos o una simple e inocente chatarra?Mito y realidad, idealismo y sentido práctico, pasado y presente se confrontan en esta novela en la que, con un estilo ágil y desenfadado y una buena dosis de humor e ironía, Anthony Burgess se lanza por los caminos de la reflexión histórica y la sátira humana.
language: English
title: Any Old Iron
titlecomplete: Any Old Iron
genres: Fiction, British Literature, Literature, Novels, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Literary Fiction, Arthurian
ratings_count: 500
publisher: Random House UK