Desert Island Books
THE COMFORTERS by Muriel SparkOne of the first true postmodern novels to be written after Tristram Shandy, this is without a doubt one of the classics of our age. Caroline Rose, a Catholic woman who has just been involved in a serious car accident, has...
THE COMFORTERS
by Muriel Spark
One of the first true postmodern novels to be written after Tristram Shandy, this is without a doubt one of the classics of our age. Caroline Rose, a Catholic woman who has just been involved in a serious car accident, has begun to hear voices - voices that seem to echo her very own thoughts. Even more disturbing are the sharp taps of the typewriter keys that seem to punctuate her every word. Struggling to finish her own book on the twentieth century novel, Caroline reaches the startling conclusion that she is herself a character in a novel that is being written. Echoing the same existential questioning that so haunts Jacques the Fatalist, and pre-empting the problematizing of narrative boundaries so celebrated in Chapter 13 of The French Lieutenant's Woman, this narrative is and will remain not only a true triumph of the postmodern novel, but more importantly one of the most enjoyable reads to have ever graced my shelves!
TEXTERMINATION
by Christine Brooke-Rose
Wildly amusing and entertaining, this novel by the regrettably little-read Christine Brooke-Rose is without a doubt one of my true favourites. Set at the San Francisco Hilton, the novel follows the proceedings of the Annual Convention for the Prayer of Being - a convention attended by a multitude of characters from an array of other literary works, who gather to pray to their God: the Implied Reader! Appropriated from their original texts, and away from the watchful eye of their own authors, these characters are caught up in the mayhem of their colliding fictional worlds. Emma Woodhouse, relieved to have escaped the unwanted attentions of Mr Elton, finds herself sharing a carriage with Goethe from Thomas Mann, who is himself later accosted by a paranoid Oedipa Mass who insists on telling him all about the workings of secret postal systems! Emma Bovary, emerging from the fast-moving carriage she shares with Leon, falls for the charms of fair Lancelot, while Humbert Humbert, quiet and nervous, has eyes only for Maisie! To the immense horror and shock of the Victorian ladies present, the Emperor - in the splendour of his 'new clothes' - also makes an appearance!
AUTO DA FE
by Elias Canetti
Anyone who has ever cringed at the mere thought of a bent cover or at the sight of a broken spine, anyone whose heart bleeds if a page so much as comes a little loose, will without a doubt recognise themselves in Peter Kien! However, Kien's passion for his books and the reverence he shows his library go well beyond a mere bewailing of the breaking of a book's spine - this Borgesian character that Canetti has created is indeed downright neurotic. Plagued by the recurring image of burning books, Kien falls prey to the wiles of his illiterate housekeeper, a brutish caretaker, and a lowlife hunchback dwarf, all of whom mistake his complete disregard for money and material goods for a sign of his wealth. Driven finally to complete madness, the fiery inferno of his imagination drives him to set his library, and himself, ablaze. Painfully funny and disturbing, this is a novel to which I will return again and again.
THE BLUE FLOWERS
by Raymond Queneau
Is it Cidrolin, lying in his chaise-longue on his barge in Paris in the 1960s, who dreams of the Duke of Auge rampaging through 700 years of history, or is it the Duke who is dreaming up Cidrolin? Exceedingly playful and peppered with what at times turn out to be excruciatingly bad puns, this novel by Queneau traces the exploits of these two eccentric characters who only come alive when the other falls asleep. Endlessly entertaining, this novel will have you solving riddles, reading between the letters and words, and generally wondering why so many other novels insist on being so staid and take themselves so seriously!
CASSANDRA
by Christa Wolf
The figure of Cassandra is without a doubt the character from Greek literature that I find most fascinating and tragic. Having had the audacity to spurn Apollo's love and reject his advances, this Trojan Princess is cursed and condemned to a gift of prophecy that will never be believed. Foreseeing the fall of Troy and the devastation ahead, her warnings go unheeded and unheard; her prophecies ignored and interpreted as signs of madness. In this contemporary re-working of the Greek myth by Christa Wolf, Cassandra - the figure of woman ignored and deemed hysterical - returns to narrate her own story and to finally, if belatedly, escape Apollo's cruel curse that for so many years bound her to the chains of silence and madness. This novel by Wolf is not merely a 'feminist' re-working, but more importantly one example of a more widespread attempt to voice that which has been silenced.
• Marija Grech is into all things literary, and particularly poststructuralist theory and experimental fiction. She is currently working as a feature writer for Kuwait's The Daily Star.
by Muriel SparkOne of the first true postmodern novels to be written after Tristram Shandy, this is without a doubt one of the classics of our age. Caroline Rose, a Catholic woman who has just been involved in a serious car accident, has begun to hear voices - voices that seem to echo her very own thoughts. Even more disturbing are the sharp taps of the typewriter keys that seem to punctuate her every word. Struggling to finish her own book on the twentieth century novel, Caroline reaches the startling conclusion that she is herself a character in a novel that is being written. Echoing the same existential questioning that so haunts Jacques the Fatalist, and pre-empting the problematizing of narrative boundaries so celebrated in Chapter 13 of The French Lieutenant's Woman, this narrative is and will remain not only a true triumph of the postmodern novel, but more importantly one of the most enjoyable reads to have ever graced my shelves!
TEXTERMINATION
by Christine Brooke-RoseWildly amusing and entertaining, this novel by the regrettably little-read Christine Brooke-Rose is without a doubt one of my true favourites. Set at the San Francisco Hilton, the novel follows the proceedings of the Annual Convention for the Prayer of Being - a convention attended by a multitude of characters from an array of other literary works, who gather to pray to their God: the Implied Reader! Appropriated from their original texts, and away from the watchful eye of their own authors, these characters are caught up in the mayhem of their colliding fictional worlds. Emma Woodhouse, relieved to have escaped the unwanted attentions of Mr Elton, finds herself sharing a carriage with Goethe from Thomas Mann, who is himself later accosted by a paranoid Oedipa Mass who insists on telling him all about the workings of secret postal systems! Emma Bovary, emerging from the fast-moving carriage she shares with Leon, falls for the charms of fair Lancelot, while Humbert Humbert, quiet and nervous, has eyes only for Maisie! To the immense horror and shock of the Victorian ladies present, the Emperor - in the splendour of his 'new clothes' - also makes an appearance!
AUTO DA FE
by Elias CanettiAnyone who has ever cringed at the mere thought of a bent cover or at the sight of a broken spine, anyone whose heart bleeds if a page so much as comes a little loose, will without a doubt recognise themselves in Peter Kien! However, Kien's passion for his books and the reverence he shows his library go well beyond a mere bewailing of the breaking of a book's spine - this Borgesian character that Canetti has created is indeed downright neurotic. Plagued by the recurring image of burning books, Kien falls prey to the wiles of his illiterate housekeeper, a brutish caretaker, and a lowlife hunchback dwarf, all of whom mistake his complete disregard for money and material goods for a sign of his wealth. Driven finally to complete madness, the fiery inferno of his imagination drives him to set his library, and himself, ablaze. Painfully funny and disturbing, this is a novel to which I will return again and again.
THE BLUE FLOWERS
by Raymond QueneauIs it Cidrolin, lying in his chaise-longue on his barge in Paris in the 1960s, who dreams of the Duke of Auge rampaging through 700 years of history, or is it the Duke who is dreaming up Cidrolin? Exceedingly playful and peppered with what at times turn out to be excruciatingly bad puns, this novel by Queneau traces the exploits of these two eccentric characters who only come alive when the other falls asleep. Endlessly entertaining, this novel will have you solving riddles, reading between the letters and words, and generally wondering why so many other novels insist on being so staid and take themselves so seriously!
CASSANDRA
by Christa WolfThe figure of Cassandra is without a doubt the character from Greek literature that I find most fascinating and tragic. Having had the audacity to spurn Apollo's love and reject his advances, this Trojan Princess is cursed and condemned to a gift of prophecy that will never be believed. Foreseeing the fall of Troy and the devastation ahead, her warnings go unheeded and unheard; her prophecies ignored and interpreted as signs of madness. In this contemporary re-working of the Greek myth by Christa Wolf, Cassandra - the figure of woman ignored and deemed hysterical - returns to narrate her own story and to finally, if belatedly, escape Apollo's cruel curse that for so many years bound her to the chains of silence and madness. This novel by Wolf is not merely a 'feminist' re-working, but more importantly one example of a more widespread attempt to voice that which has been silenced.
• Marija Grech is into all things literary, and particularly poststructuralist theory and experimental fiction. She is currently working as a feature writer for Kuwait's The Daily Star.