Rating: 
Summary: Verging on bad taste, you'll hate yourself for liking it
Review: Okay, let's get the central conceit out in the open: Arno Strine is this guy with the ability to stop time, which he uses to take women's clothes off. Yeah, I agree, sophomoric. Yet I dare you to find a heterosexually oriented teenage boy (or ex-teenage boy) who hasn't had this fantasy. Even so, why are we getting this from Baker, who publishes in places like The New Yorker not Penthouse. My guess is that it was an experiment--could Baker raise the concept beyond pornography by the style and manner of its writing? He even succeeds at times, finding a poetry of desire and curiosity in detail that goes beyond mere titillation, that somehow corresponds with basic human nature. However, the sections where he does not overcome the salaciousness of the idea are as--in my view--pornographic as anything posted in, say, alt.sex.stories, which posts have much, much less literary ambition. The ending redeems this dual nature only somewhat (the character does change and mature, something that I had not expected through a full three-fourths of the book), but I hesitate to suggest this to people unaccustomed to "adult" material. On the other hand, er, let me rephrase that...the innuendoes are dangerous when you have material of this type...The Fermata is much better reading than The Starr Report.
Rating: 
Summary: kosher ( )
Review: The best feature of Baker's writing is his rapier wit (not to mention his exquisite language). I died laughing during parts of this book. Baker is a terrific writer (and a daring one). This is the best time you'll ever have reading daring sexual material. I sought out all of Baker's books and it didn't surprise me that he has many witty and insightful critical essays as well. After this book and Vox, he's become one of my favorite all time writers.
Rating:
Summary: Slow starting but worth it!
Review: The Fermata had such an interesting premise, I bought the book solely based on that. It starts off a tad slow but when Arno starts writing his escapades of Marian the libarian, watch out! The object of his desire is not the only one getting hot. I've read those chapters several times and plan to share the book with my lover so we can enjoy it together...
Rating:
Summary: A thrilling novel mixing high and low
Review: The Fermata is an amazing novel by an extraodinarily gifted writer; all the sex and hoop-la can't distract from the innovative vantage point that is Nicholson Baker's. Perhaps the most gratifying thing about the novel is its eagerness to mix the highbrow (technique, language), and the lowbrow (pornographic subject matter), herein resembling Nabokov's Lolita. The Fermata is a tour de force of comic execution, displaying a rare shrewdness and tenderness. Baker's use of language is simply astonishing: the musicality of his prose is particularly delightful. A hugely gifted stylist, Baker is a writer who has an almost magical ability--he enchants and charms like no other.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, sexy and beautiful
Review: The Fermata is quite simply a joy to read. Whilst a story about a man freezing time and undressing women may sound seedy or somewhat misogynistic it is neither of these things. Bursting with sex and humour the book manages to be both extremely erotic and also very funny. What does shine through is our hero, and his total love of everything about women.An absolute must read.
Rating:
Summary: The Fermata - An unusual view of writing itself
Review: The Fermata, by Nicholson Baker, can be considered a rather unique view from the author himself about the hard task of writng ficction.
The character's singular points of view while the word is stand by, or on "Strine Time" are a metaphor on how a writer does capture a singular moment from ordinary lives and transform them into a work of art which origin comes from his own imagination.
On the other hand the novel plot does not consider such capture a casual matter. While some writers say that they usually write unintentionally, that is, writing to them simply happens by chance or they are naturally gifted; Arno Strine, who happens to be a typist, in other words, must write to have something to live of, struggles very hard in order to get some inspiration.
His personal battle to find good things to write about is made easier by a gift that has nothing to do with writing itself. Arno wrote because he wanted, since any of us would do many other things if we were gifted like him.
The real question is: Was Arno Strine a writer or he became a writer due to his own efforts?
That is the great question that the books leaves us with no answer. Despite all the erotic appeal that Baker uses, this book cannot be seen as a mere erotic or pornographic literature.
There is a writer's brain and soul in great struggle throughout the novel, which therefore is worth reading from a metalinguistical point of view on writing
Rating: 
Summary: "The Fermata" will change the way you think of Baker
Review: The gist of this book is bizarre pornography, way beyond "Vox." The fantasies are puerile, and there's a fascination with excrement. That Baker could follow this book with "The Everlasting Story of Nory" is an instance of Michael-Jacksonesque weirdness. Prior to reading Fermata I admired Baker; now, I'm not so sure. This was not my cup of tea at all.
Rating:
Summary: A tour-de-force of writing, but tiresome
Review: The main character, Arno, has a marvelous ability to stop time for everyone but himself. This ability enables him to get away with a lot, but he chooses to use it mainly to undress women, fondle them, rearrange their clothes, go back to where he was, and start time back up again. If he decides he's really interested in a woman, he follows her home, then stops time while she has her door open, slips into her home, hides, and watches her undress, bathe, etc. Baker's writing is dazzling. The book is replete with literary, musical, scientific, and historical references, which are always aptly chosen and frequently striking. He delights in constructing amusing new words to deal with the context of Arno's fixations on time and sex. The problem is that his character's single-minded obsession with sex and pornography grows deadeningly tiresome after awhile. One of the things Arno likes to do is to write pornographic stories and then plant them in places where a woman he's interested in will see (or hear) them. Baker does us the great "favor" of including those stories verbatim in the book. Arno is a much less accomplished writer than Baker, so there is less to appreciate in his writing than in the novel itself. Just to make this review as accurate and informative as possible, I will acknowledge that I myself am a regular reader of hard-core pornography. However, even my own interest in the subject did not prevent me from screaming, "Enough already!" when one of Arno's stories goes on to its tenth tedious page. The basic idea of the book is captivating, and Baker's writing is brilliant. Arno could have done so much more with his ability to stop time, especially with Baker's vivid imagination animating him. Sadly, the book turns out to be much less than it could have been.
Rating:
Summary: An American Masterpiece
Review: This book is pornography. The kind of pornography that doesn't make you sleezy for reading it. It's like seeing people have sex at the MoMA. It's art!?! The writing in this book, unlike this review, is excellent, clever and honest. A childhood dream, surfaced in a very adult book. This book was recommended to me and I have since recommended it to many of my friends. If you can handle reading very explicit/graphic material, but more intelligent than HUSTLER/PLAYBOY/ETC., this book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: A great read. A very astonishing point of view.
Review: This book is unusual in its perspective of love and lust. The reality of sexual acts are blurred by the concept of stopping time. I found myself waiting for the next time he would freeze time. The erotic content is only one avenue the
author chose to explore. It is a basic act that everyone can
relate with. Any other path, such as theft, would have been lost in its uselessness. The sexual nature allowed a human
element to enter the story, no matter how one sided it may seem to some people.
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