frumiousb

"Nonlinear. Discontinuous. Collage-like. An assemblage.
Self-evident enough to scarcely need Writer's say-so.

Obstinately cross-referential and of cryptic interconnective syntax.
Here perhaps less than self-evident to the less than attentive."
pg. 128

This is the first book that I have read by David Markson, and had picked this up based on a glowing review. I read it with no real idea what to expect except the general literary brand value Markson has: underappreciated and postmodern.

When I realized what I was reading, I smiled, but I expected to hate it by the end. I don't really like overly referential works and I also do not think that poets should only talk to poets. This Is Not A Novel is a series of unconnected sentences that mix quotations, snippets of biography, literary gossip and fleeting thoughts of Writer in a way that creates a flow rather than a narrative. The allusions connect to each other, creating a variety of themes. The more that you know about the works and the artists that Markson selects, the more that you are going to get the cross-references. There is literary snobbery built right in at the core and I actually have no idea what it would be like to read this if you did not get at least (say) 25% of the joke.

I am not actually sure how much I really got about the book. But I am almost embarrassed to say that despite the elitism, I found it absolutely delightful to read.

I spent a fair amount of time scrambling for a reference. Several times I stopped to try and remember where a particularly haunting line of poetry had come from. I reminded myself of several of my favorite poets and poems. I actually laughed out loud several times. There was something overarching about the fear of death. There is something about the relationship between critic and writer. Something about translation. Perhaps even something slightly unreliable in the narration? It was great fun to connect the dots, and I really admired the spirit in which the book was written.

Like I said, this is probably a wonderful book for compulsive readers. Less wonderful if you are just starting your journey in the world of books. It is probably not wonderful at all if you are looking for... well, looking for a novel. Markson does warn you from the start. I am going to file it under literature instead of essays, myself, but nobody will ever accuse it of having a plot.

Markson has moved up my priority list as a writer to explore. I would be curious to read something more substantial by him-- something not quite such an elegant (albeit delightful) conceit.

*****

"Insistently, Brahms wore his pants too short
Sometimes actually taking a scissors to the bottoms."
pg. 5

"Lamb was in fact known to pretend surprise that people did not say grace before reading." pg. 11

"A hyena that writes poetry on tombs, Nietzche called Dante." pg. 16

"Eleanora Duse died of pneumonia. In Pittsburgh." pg. 20

"Account for Hamlet's treatment of Ophelia." pg. 45

"This is even a disquisition on the maladies of the life of art, if Writer says so." pg. 86

"Roosevelt on Henry James:
A miserable little snob."
pg. 95

"Archaeological evidence for the existence of Susan Sontag." pg. 108

"A Latin translation of Marco Polo once belonging to Christopher Columbus is extant in Seville. With seventy marginal notes in Columbus's handwriting.
Mainly in regard to the whereabouts of treasure."
pg. 133

"James Laughlin once changed a flat tire for Gertrude Stein." pg. 145

"I suppose my main source of annoyance with him was his affectation of not being a writer, but a farmer; this would have been pretentious even had he been a farmer.
Said Allen Tate, re Faulkner"
pg. 160

"Gertrude Stein to Jacques Lipchitz:
Besides Shakespeare and me, who do you think there is?"
pg. 167

"No one ever lacks a good reason for suicide.
Said Caesar Pavese."
pg. 175

ultima multis

*****
added to my wish list:

Cousin Bette, Honoré de Balzac
The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius
Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston, Boyd
Fox's Book of Martyrs: A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Deaths of the Early Christian and Protestant Martyrs, William Byron Forbush
Selected Poems, Else Lasker-Schuler
A Hero of Our Time, M. Y. Lermontov
Collected Poems and Selected Prose: Charlotte Mew
Robert Frost: A Life, Jay Parini