Search Results for: noll

A review of Lord, João Gilberto Noll’s abject novel of dissolving identity

Edwin Turner2 Comments

João Gilberto Noll’s short novel Lord is an abject and surreal tale of madness. Madness is perhaps not the correct term, although it does point towards Lord’s gothic and abject modes. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that in Lord, Noll gives us a consciousness dissolving and reconstituting itself, a first-person voice shifting from one reality to the next with absurdly… Continue reading A review of Lord, João Gilberto Noll’s abject novel of dissolving identity

João Gilberto Noll’s Lord (Book acquired, 5 Nov. 2018)

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João Gilberto Noll’s novel Lord is new in English translation (by Edgar Garbeletto) from Two Lines Press. I really enjoyed the last two I read by Noll, Atlantic Hotel and  Quiet Creature on the Corner, so I’m looking forward to carving out time for Lord. In the meantime, Two Lines’ blurb: As Lord begins, a Brazilian author is arriving at London’s Heathrow airport for reasons he… Continue reading João Gilberto Noll’s Lord (Book acquired, 5 Nov. 2018)

João Gilberto Noll’s Atlantic Hotel (Book acquired, 14 August 2017)

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João Gilberto Noll’s novella Atlantic Hotel is new English translation by Adam Morris from Two Lines Press. I loved loved loved the last one I read by Noll, Quiet Creature on the Corner. Full review to come; for now, here’s Two Lines’ blurb: Compared by critics to filmmaker David Lynch—and deeply influenced by Clarice Lispector—João Gilberto Noll… Continue reading João Gilberto Noll’s Atlantic Hotel (Book acquired, 14 August 2017)

A review of João Gilberto Noll’s surreal novella Quiet Creature on the Corner

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Brazilian writer João Gilberto Noll’s 1991 novella Quiet Creature on the Corner is new in English translation (by Adam Morris) from Two Lines Press. The book is probably best read without any kind of foregrounding or forewarning. Forewarning (and enthusiastic endorsement): Quiet Creature on the Corner is a nightmarish, abject, kinetic, surreal, picaresque read, a mysterious prose-poem that resists allegorical interpretation. […]

… Continue reading A review of João Gilberto Noll’s surreal novella Quiet Creature on the Corner

A review of João Gilberto Noll’s surreal novella Quiet Creature on the Corner

Edwin Turner8 Comments

Brazilian writer João Gilberto Noll’s 1991 novella Quiet Creature on the Corner is new in English translation (by Adam Morris) from Two Lines Press. The book is probably best read without any kind of foregrounding or forewarning. Forewarning (and enthusiastic endorsement): Quiet Creature on the Corner is a nightmarish, abject, kinetic, surreal, picaresque read, a mysterious prose-poem that resists allegorical interpretation.… Continue reading A review of João Gilberto Noll’s surreal novella Quiet Creature on the Corner

A quick riff on the first 30 pages of Quiet Creature on the Corner, João Gilberto Noll’s nightmare novella (Book acquired, 5.03.2016)

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In today’s mail I found a small package from Two Lines Press containing João Gilberto Noll’s 1991 novella Quiet Creature on the Corner, freshly translated into English from Portuguese by Adam Morris. I started into the Noll. Each sentence made me want to read the next sentence. What is it about? you ask, perhaps. Well. I’m not sure. Let’s… Continue reading A quick riff on the first 30 pages of Quiet Creature on the Corner, João Gilberto Noll’s nightmare novella (Book acquired, 5.03.2016)

Schrödinger’s Deer | A review of Dashiel Carrera’s surreal debut novel The Deer

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Dashiel Carrera’s debut novel The Deer is puzzling, sometimes brilliant, and occasionally frustrating. Gloomy, surreal, and terse, The Deer is at its best when it’s at its most sinister—namely, on its first half, “Side A.” Taking a record album as its model, The Deer has two sides (A and B), each divided into titled Tracks  (on side… Continue reading Schrödinger’s Deer | A review of Dashiel Carrera’s surreal debut novel The Deer

Read “Love on the Bon-Dieu,” an Easter story by Kate Chopin

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“Love on the Bon-Dieu” by Kate Chopin from Bayou Folk (1894)   Upon the pleasant veranda of Père Antoine’s cottage, that adjoined the church, a young girl had long been seated, awaiting his return. It was the eve of Easter Sunday, and since early afternoon the priest had been engaged in hearing the confessions of those… Continue reading Read “Love on the Bon-Dieu,” an Easter story by Kate Chopin

Ann Quin’s novel Passages collapses hierarchies of center and margin

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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

“Dreams like machines in the head” | A review of NYRB’s new Anna Kavan anthology

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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

Blog about some recent reading (Spring break/quarantine (?) edition)

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Left to right: I used interlibrary loan to check out a copy of Clifford Mead’s Thomas Pynchon: A Bibliography. It’s pretty neat, and includes some photos of Our Reclusive Favorite that I’d never seen before, like this one: pic.twitter.com/jtEeiFvn1K — biblioklept (@biblioklept) March 10, 2020 I read Charles Wright’s 1966 novel The Wig last weekend. The novel is… Continue reading Blog about some recent reading (Spring break/quarantine (?) edition)

Three Books (that were my favorite books published by indie presses in 2019)

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Berg by Ann Quin. 2019 trade paperback (advanced reader proof) from And Other Stories. No designer credited on the advanced reader proof, but the cover photograph (of Ann Quin) is by Oswald Jones. The designer credited with the final version of the cover is Edward Bettison. Berg might have been my favorite reading experience of 2019.… Continue reading Three Books (that were my favorite books published by indie presses in 2019)

Three Books (that were my favorite books I read in 2019 that were published in 2019)

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I read very few contemporary books, especially contemporary novels. This reluctance to read contemporary literature isn’t a rule as much as it is a necessity born from the human limitations of my time and the fact that I am a slow reader. (I’ll also admit to a certain wariness towards trends coupled with an antipathy… Continue reading Three Books (that were my favorite books I read in 2019 that were published in 2019)

Reviews, March 2019 (and an unrelated wombat)

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Links to and brief excerpts from reviews I mustered this month (and an unrelated wombat): I reviewed João Gilberto Noll’s short novel Lord, writing, …Lord is an abject and surreal tale of madness. Madness is perhaps not the correct term, although it does point towards Lord’s gothic and abject modes. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that in Lord, Noll gives us… Continue reading Reviews, March 2019 (and an unrelated wombat)

Blog about some recent reading

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I finished Angela Carter’s surreal fantasia The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman a week or so ago, in a bit of a fever at its depraved horniness. Hoffman sprints along with an out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire energy. The story is essentially a picaresque adventure—our narrator Desiderio sets out on a mission to assassinate Dr. Hoffman, a not-really-mad scientist… Continue reading Blog about some recent reading