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Blaise Cendrars
"Preface" to The Astonished Man by Blaise Cendrars,
pp-iv (London: Peter Owen, 2004). The publisher commissioned the preface.
Visit http://www.peterowen.com/pages/nonfic/aston.htm
Blaise Cendrars
Published in The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Volume XXIV, No. 1 (Spring 2004), pp. 58-93. Visit http://www.centerforbookculture.org/review/04_1.html
This is a scholarly overview and analysis of the prose works of Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961), with a brief biographical component.
"That Crude Mixture”: How Theater Gives Shape to Plexus”
Published in Nexus: The International Henry Miller Journal,
Volume 4, No. 1 (Winter 2007), pp.105-119.
Visit http://nexusmiller.org.
Carrollian Nonsense Prose
in Henry Miller’s “Jabberwhorl Cronstadt”
Published in Nexus: The International Henry Miller Journal,
Volume 1, No. 1 (Fall 2003), pp.23-43.
Visit http://nexusmiller.org.
Abstract
Black Spring, Henry Miller’s second major publication, is often treated in a somewhat cursory fashion by scholars. Instead of subjecting the fiction to a consistently close reading, many critics recapitulate its contents and give the plot of each piece, when present, while others regard the book as a form of biographical writing. Though work has been done on “The Angel Is My Watermark!” and “The Tailor Shop,” there are few adequate explorations of the eight other pieces. “Jabberwhorl Cronstadt,” while not neglected, has not been examined at its roots, on the word level, where hidden meanings reside, and in that respect this paper sharply departs from previous criticism.
The argument begins with a sketch of the thematic and aesthetic role “Jabberwhorl Cronstadt” fulfils in Black Spring. From there the essay moves into the piece’s similarities with Lewis Carroll’s wordplay, to reach the point where the text’s language becomes the focus. Through denotative analysis of one illustrative passage a deliberately constructed yet previously unseen message is revealed, one of sickness leading to death, which rests in what look like random notes filled with odd words and nonsense phrases. This discovery opens a window into the piece’s full implications.
Far from being, as many regard it, a sunny word painting of Miller’s friend, the poet Walter Lowenfels, or, alternately, a whimsical exercise in word games, “Jabberwhorl Cronstadt” is a darker and more pregnant work than commentators have recognized. It is the aim of this essay to explicate a subtle and insufficiently analysed work by a skilful United States modernist.
Book Reviews
I review books regularly for Books in Canada -- The Canadian Review of books and The Review of Contemporary Fiction. Here are the authors and titles, broken down into BiC and RCF. This gets added to frequently, so check back often. The links to these reviews are, respectively: www.booksincanada.com and www.centerforbookculture.org
BiC
Skipping Towards Armageddon: The Politics and
Propaganda of the Left Behind Novels and the LaHaye Empire
by Michael Standaert (January/February 2007)
The Singer on the Shore: Essays 1991-2004
by Gabriel Josipovici (November 2006)
Siberia
by Nikolai Maslov (November 2006)
Centuria: One Hundred Ouroboric Novels
by Giorgio Manganelli (October 2006)
Things in the Night, and Hidden Camera
by Mati Unt and Zoran Zivkovic (September 2006)
Lunar Follies
by Gilbert Sorrentino (May/June 2006)
A Strange Commonplace
by Gilbert Sorrentino (May/June 2006)
Over the Rainbow? Hardly: Collected Short Seizures
by Chandler Brossard (April 2006)
My Life in CIA: A Chronicle of 1973
by Harry Mathews (January/Febuary 2006)
Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time
by Michael Downing (November 2005)
Sebastian's Arrows: Letters and Mementoes of Salvador Dali and Federico Garcia
Lorca ed, trans., annotated by Christopher Maurer (October 2005)
A*hole
by Hilton Obenzinger (September 2005)
Memories of My Melancholy Whores
by Gabriel García Márquez (September 2005)
Tribute to Saul Bellow (May 2005)
The End: Hamburg 1943
by Hans Erich Nossack (March 2005)
Vanishing Point
by David Markson (January/February 2005)
Right and Left
by Joseph Roth (November 2004)
The Fountain at the Center of the World
by Robert Newman (September 2004)
Siegfried
by Harry Mulisch (August 2004)
The Moon in Its Flight
by Gilbert Sorrentino (June/July 2004)
Tests of Time: Essays
by William H. Gass (April/May 2004)
Dan Yack, Confessions of Dan Yack, and Gold
by Blaise Cendrars (January/February 2004)
Actress in the House
by Joseph McElroy (January/Febuary 2004)
P
by Andrew Lewis Conn (January/Febuary 2004)
Three Novellas
by Thomas Bernhard (December 2003)
The Dance of Geometry
by Brian Howell (October 2003)
Ascension
by Steven Galloway (September 2003)
Agapë Agape and The Rush for Second Place
by William Gaddis (April 2003)
RCF
"Review," of Colonel Zoo
by Oliver Cadiot (Summer 2006)
"Review" of Memories of My Melancholy Whores
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Spring 2006)
"Review" of Writers on the Air: Conversations about books
by Donna Seaman and The Believer's Book of Writers Talking to Writers ed. Vendela Vida (Spring 2006)
"Review" of Gold
by Blaise Cendrars (Summer 2005)
"Review of Moragavigne
by Blaise Cendrars (Spring 2005)
“Review” of P
by Andrew Lewis Conn (Spring 2004)
"Review" of Witch Grass and We Always Treat Women Too Well
by Raymond Queneau (Fall 2003), reprinted in CONTEXT #15 (Spring 2004)
“Review” of To the End of the World
by Blaise Cendrars (Spring 2003), reprinted in CONTEXT #13 (Spring 2003)
"Review" of Selected Works of Cesar Pavese
by Cesare Pavese, trans. and intro. R.W. Flint (Summer 2002)
Quarter After Eight
Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections.
NY: Picador USA, 2002, 592 pp., $15.00, paperback, fiction.
James Buchan, The Persian Bride.
Boston: Mariner, 1999, 343 pp., paperback, fiction.
Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves.
London: Doubleday, 2002, 709 pp., paperback, fiction.
Quarter After Eight: A Journal of Prose and Commentary, Volume 9 (2002), pp.201-04, published in March 2003.
The Literary Review
God, Hell, Sex and Tobacco
review of Collaborators by Janet Kaufmann
The Literary Review, London, England, February 1989
Spanish Fly By Night
review of City of Marvels by Carlos Mendoza
The Literary Review, London, England, December 1988.
Unholy and not Innocent
review of The Unholy Innocents by Gilbert Adair, London, England, October 1988
Amazon.com Reviews
Test of Time: Essays by William Gass:
"Not much of an essay writer" - May 13, 2004 [See BiC for a lengthy review of this book]
Memed My Hawk by Yashar Kemal:
"Sturdy but it doesn't involve one" - December 25, 2001
The First World War by Ivan Klima
"A servicable work" - December 13, 2001
My Golden Trades by Ivan Klima:
"A light touch" - December 13, 2001
Women of Sand and Myrrh: A novel by Hanan Al-Shaykh
"Parched" - November 24, 2001
The Persian Bride by James Buchan:
"Poetic, hard-edged and timely" - November 6, 2001
[see "Three Reviews" for another review of this book]
The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen:
"A tight fit" - October 30, 2001
[see "Three Reviews" for another review of this book]
Wyndham Lewis: Painter and Writer by Paul Edwards:
"A clear gaze on a murky fellow" - October 28, 2001
Legally Speaking: Contemporary American Culture and the Law by Helle Porsdam:
"A persuasive case" - April 3, 2001
The Intuitionist: A Novel by Colson Whitehead:
"An underwhelming novel" - March 14, 2001
November 1916: The Red Wheel/Knot II by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn:
"Hunting for history with a big net" - December 9, 2000
Petrushka and the Dancer: the Diaries of John Cowper Powys, 1929-1939
by John Cowper Powys:
"Not just another english eccentric" - December 2, 2000
Rude Assignment by Wyndham Lewis
"Look into the shadows" - November 30, 2000
Diaries: 1899-1941 by Robert Musil:
"The penetrating mind of Robert Musil" - November 27, 2000
Moravagine by Blaise Cendrars:
"Sickness unto death" - September 19, 2000 [see RCF for another review of this book]
'Since at Least Plato...": And Other Postmodernist Myths by M.J. Devaney:
"Passion and intelligence combined" - June 9, 2000
Vast Alchemies by G. Peter Winnington:
"The mind and art behind the 'Titus' books" - May 29, 2000
Thesis
Use and Identity of the Narrator in the Works of Henry Miller
(1988): MA thesis, MUN
Buzz & Platinum PEI
The Buzz is a local monthly arts newspaper. Platinum P.E.I. focuses on local businesses. All articles were solicited by the publication or the subject:
“Local Initiative” – an article on Louise Vergnano, owner of The Reading Well Book Store and Bohemian Literary Society (March 2004)
"Having a blast" and "Falling in love" - Articles on the Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra, featuring Paul Merkelo (trumpet); amd a Valentine's Day concert in
Summerside PEI (February 2002)
"Lots of grog in the jar" - Article on The Olde Dublin Pub, a venue for live music in
Charlottetown PEI (February 2001)
"backalleydisks.com" - Article on Back Alley Discs, a record store in Charlottetown
(November 2000)
"The Reading Well Bookstore" - in Platinum P.E.I. Volume 1, no. 1
(December), p.30 profile) |