{"product_id":"spadework-for-a-palace-by-laszlo-krasznahorkai-9780811228404","title":"Spadework for a Palace","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSpadework for a Palace\u003c\/i\u003e bears the subtitle \u003cem\u003eEntering the Madness of Others\u003c\/em\u003e and offers an epigraph: \"Reality is no obstacle.\" Indeed, this high-octane obsessive rant vaults over all obstacles, fuelled by the \u003cem\u003eidées fixe\u003c\/em\u003e of a \"gray little librarian\" with fallen arches whose name—Mr Herman Melvill—is merely one of the coincidences binding him to his lodestar Herman Melville (\"I too resided on East 26th Street... I, too, had worked for a while at the Customs Office\"), which itself is just one aspect of his also being \"constantly conscious of his connectedness\" to Lebbeus Woods, to the rock that is Manhattan, to the \"drunkard Lowry\" and his \u003cem\u003eLunar Caustic\u003c\/em\u003e, to Bartok.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnd with this consciousness of connection, he is not only gaining true knowledge of Melville but also tracing the paths to \"a Serene Paradise of Knowledge.\" Driven to save that Palace (a higher library he also serves), he loses his job and his wife leaves him, but \"people must be told the truth: there is no dualism in existence.\" His dream will be realised, for he is not giving up: \"I am merely a day-labourer, a spade-worker on this dream, a Herman Melvill, a librarian from the lending desk, currently an inmate at Bellevue, but at the same time—may I say this?—actually a Keeper of the Palace.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853300519148,"sku":"9780811228404","price":33.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/22668003482476.jpg?v=1759195888","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/products\/spadework-for-a-palace-by-laszlo-krasznahorkai-9780811228404","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}