Ann Quin’s third novel Passages (1969) ostensibly tells the story of an unnamed woman and unnamed man traveling through an unnamed country in search of the woman’s brother, who may or may not be dead. The adverb ostensibly is necessary in the previous sentence, because Passages does not actually tell that story—or it rather tells that… Continue reading Ann Quin’s novel Passages collapses hierarchies of center and margin
I’m a big fan of Ann Quin. Her last novel, Tripticks, is reissued this month from the good folks of And Other Stories. Here is their blurb: First published in 1972, Ann Quin’s fourth and final novel was a radical break from the introspective style she had developed in Three and Passages: a declaration of independence… Continue reading Ann Quin’s Tripticks (Book acquired, 15 Aug. 2022)
Ann Quin’s third novel Passages (1969) ostensibly tells the story of an unnamed woman and unnamed man traveling through an unnamed country in search of the woman’s brother, who may or may not be dead. The adverb ostensibly is necessary in the previous sentence, because Passages does not actually tell that story—or it rather tells that… Continue reading Ann Quin’s novel Passages collapses hierarchies of center and margin
Ann Quin’s 1964 novel Berg begins with one of the best opening lines I’ve ever read: A man called Berg, who changed his name to Greb, came to a seaside town intending to kill his father… This opening line encapsulates the plot of Berg, its terminal ellipses pointing to the radical indecision that propels the novel’s central oedipal… Continue reading A review of Berg, Ann Quin’s grimy oedipal comedy of horrors
A new edition of Ann Quin’s third novel Passages is out in a few days from indie juggernaut And Other Stories. The new edition (the first in nearly two decades) features a new introduction from Claire-Louise Bennett, whose book (novel?) Pond was a favorite of mine a few years back. Ann Quin’s first novel Berg was one of the… Continue reading Ann Quin’s Passages (Book acquired, 30 Jan. 2021)
Ann Quin’s 1964 novel Berg begins with one of the best opening lines I’ve ever read: A man called Berg, who changed his name to Greb, came to a seaside town intending to kill his father… This opening line encapsulates the plot of Berg, its terminal ellipses pointing to the radical indecision that propels the novel’s central oedipal… Continue reading A review of Berg, Ann Quin’s grimy oedipal comedy of horrors
Beyond these, illuminated by past summers, one summer remained that stayed the sun long into the night after you had watched the others; others with their fathers knee-deep, belly-button unconcerned, roly-poly mothers stretching out of the sea. Whiter than starch hands on bat and ball, you failed to catch. Tents, buckets, spades; others that went… Continue reading Cells tighter than shells, you spinning into spirals, quick-silver, thrashing the water, making stars scatter (Ann Quin)
Ann Quin’s 1964 novel, Berg, is in print again from And Other Stories. I’m psyched for this one—Quin is a writer I’ve wanted to read for a while now. Here is And Other Stories’ blurb: ‘A man called Berg, who changed his name to Greb, came to a seaside town intending to kill his father .… Continue reading Ann Quin’s Berg (Book acquired,15 Feb. 2019)
If you follow this blog even semi-regularly, you may know that I frequently frequent Chamblin Bookmine. This sprawling bookstore, with an inventory of close to three million books (mostly used, and often very weird), is about a mile from my house, and in some small ways might constitute a mute coauthor of this blog. I… Continue reading Four Books (Barthelme, Burroughs, and Barry [Hannah])
Machines in the Head, new from NYRB, compiles twenty-three Anna Kavan stories that were originally published between 1940 and 1975, as well as one previously unpublished story. The stories here, culled from five previous collections, show not so much a stylistic evolution over three decades of Kavan’s writing as they do a writer pushing herself… Continue reading “Dreams like machines in the head” | A review of NYRB’s new Anna Kavan anthology
The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman, Angela Carter Deeply horny and deeply deprave. Hoffman sprints along with an out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire energy. It’s a picaresque adventure with narrator Desiderio taking on titular mad scientist Hoffman and his war against reality. Wild shit happens and each chapter feels like it could stand on its own as a… Continue reading Annotations on a probably incomplete list of books I read or reread in full in 2019
In a corporate State 1, a place must be made for innocence, and its many uses 2. In developing an official version of innocence, the culture of childhood has proven invaluable 3 . Games, fairy-tales, legends from history, all the paraphernalia of make-believe 4 can be adapted and even embodied in a physical place, such as at Zwölfkinder 5. Over the… Continue reading A place must be made for innocence | Gravity’s Rainbow, annotations and illustrations for page 419
No such discovery as “breakfast” had then been made: breakfast was not invented for many centuries after that. We have always admired, and always shall admire, as the very best of all human stories, Charles Lamb’s account of the origin of roast pig in China. Ching Ping, it seems, had suffered his father’s house to be burned… Continue reading Breakfast was not suspected. No prophecy, no type of breakfast had been published. (De Quincey)
As books multiply to an unmanageable excess, selection becomes more and more a necessity for readers, and the power of selection more and more a desperate problem for the busy part of readers. The possibility of selecting wisely is becoming continually more hopeless as the necessity for selection is becoming continually more pressing. Exactly as… Continue reading “As books multiply to an unmanageable excess, selection becomes more and more a necessity for readers” (Thomas De Quincey)
“On the Knocking at the Gate, in Macbeth” by Thomas De Quincey From my boyish days I had always felt a great perplexity on one point in Macbeth. It was this: the knocking at the gate, which succeeds to the murder of Duncan, produced to my feelings an effect for which I never could account.… Continue reading “On the Knocking at the Gate, in Macbeth” — Thomas De Quincey
☉ indicates a reread. ☆ indicates an outstanding read. In some cases, I’ve self-plagiarized some descriptions and evaluations from my old tweets and blog posts. Red Shift, Alan Garner ☆ Three plots, three eras, one place: Roman-conquered England, English Civil War, contemporary (early seventies) England. Great read, reminded me a bit of Hoban’s Riddley Walker. Tyll,… Continue reading A few sentences on every book I read or reread in 2022
Biblioklept 