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Explaining the Difficult-to-Explain
We’re serializing John Domini’s essay “Against the ‘Impossible to Explain’: The Postmodern Novel and Society” in two parts, the first of which has just been published at The Quarterly Conversation.
The essay brings in a number of books and essays, and it covers three particular works in depth: Aureole by Carole Maso, Zeroville Steve Erickson, and Michael Martone by Michael Martone by Michael Martone. It’s a lengthy piece that’s a little difficult to summarize, but essentially Domini is writing against criticism that throws its hands up in the face of “difficult” books. Part of the essay is him railing against such criticism, and part of it is him demonstrating precisely the better kind of criticism he’s asking for (with three excellent reads of the three main books being discussed here). It more or less jumps off from something Domini read in the NYTBR:
Another book I’m going to look at, Steve Erickson’s far-from-ordinary Zeroville (2007), enjoyed high-profile encomiums; the Times Book Review hailed it as the author’s “best.” Yet the Times reviewer, Liesl Schillinger, went on to say: “it’s simply impossible to explain the intent and direction of this . . . novel.” Oh really? And this from someone described as “a regular contributor” to the Review? A better brief example of the problem with contemporary criticism would be hard to find.
Have a look at the essay in full–I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. And remember that part 2 of the piece will be published in The Quarterly Conversation next week.
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- Back Copy Dan Green finds a book’s back copy pointless. Does a serious reader really make a decision to read or not to read based on blurbs...
- Difficult to Believe Wyatt Mason's review of The Skating Rink, plus Elizabeth Hawes’ review of Desert by JMG Le Clezio marks the first time in memory that there...
- Friday Column: Martone As a member of the LBC, I was greatly impressed by Michael Martone, our Summer 2006 Reah This! selection. For those who haven’t read...
- The African “Literary Boom” and Beckett’s Letters I've got to agree with Michael Orthofer's take on James Gibbons's piece in the new Bookforum, Clout of Africa. Michael writes: James Gibbons does review...
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Recommended Books DeLillo's major work before White Noise is probably his most underrated novel. Its all right here--the politics of paranoia, terrorism, the unnamable--set in an evocative, timeless Greece.
The most bizarre Abe novel I've yet read, which is indeed saying something. About a subclass of Japanese men who go around wearing boxes from the waist up (and then use them as domiciles in the evening), the book is also an experiment in perspective shifts, a highly unstable, metafictional first-person narrative, and an exploration of voyeurism, consumerism, and aberrant sexuality.
Charting the path to three gunshots--the one that killed filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, the one that disabled his Islamic extremist assassin, Mohammed Bouyeri, and the one that led to Vincent Van Gogh’s one hundred years earlier--Olsen tells three separate stories that resonate with one another on numerous levels: the logic of extremism, the role of the dissident in Dutch society, the limits of tolerance, the purpose of the artist, the feeling of the most important five minutes of your life. Read my interview with the author.
Creatively structured, well-executed epic novel of rural South Africa from 1950 - 2000. Takes on a lot and lives up to it magnificently. Highly recommended.
A book that's an interview about the book you're supposedly holding in your hands. Creative, potent, and full of life. Just what metafiction should be. Read my post on it.
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The Rachel Shihor Interview
Graphs, Maps, Trees
The Names by Don DeLillo (1982)
The Box Man by Kobo Abe (1973, English 1974)
Head in Flames by Lance Olsen (2009)
Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk (2006, English 2010)
The Weather Fifteen Years Ago by Wolf Haas (2006, English 2009)
Wow, that was a great piece by Mr. Domini. A must read for fans of serious fiction. I cant wait for the second part.
a really terrific piece…. very much looking forward to Part II..
one thought re: criticism: people who do film criticism tend to focus on commercial releases as well but i think they may be more conscious of that as a choice. If they’re spending their time on Crash, instead of In the Company of Men, for instance, what they end up saying may have more relevance, as they see it. People have seen the film, Hollywood has called it important: academics like this situation–like being able to say, Let’s take a closer look….