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kathrichards's review
second time reading this, really vibed with it this time actually
jessrock's review
4.0
I am still really not sure what to say about this book. I don't think I have even begun to understand it, and I would like to read it several more times to see how much I can puzzle out. It is, as the title purports, Not A Novel (et cela n'est pas une pipe, aussi), being a book without characters or plot but which nonetheless compels the reader (easily!) to glide through its 190 pages. In lieu of characters or plot, the writer provides trivia, coincidences, and miscellany about writers, artists, and other intellectuals, which at first appear to be unrelated but later begin to settle into a pattern or whole. The repeated details of illnesses, hygiene and fame eventually point toward the writer's own obsessions with these topics, his own hypochondria and desire for immortality.
This book, like so many others, reminded me of how little I have read (and how little I have retained of what I have read): the times I could identify a quote or place a word or phrase into the larger puzzle of the book, I felt inordinately proud of myself. So much more of the book went right by me, isolated phrases that seemed unrelated but that I knew I Ought To Recognize. I am seriously considering purchasing the book, looking up every quote and reference in its pages, and explicating the text in its margins.
So. It is nearly impossible for me to explain what the book is, let alone to discuss its value or recommend it, but I highly enjoyed the experience of reading it just the same, and maybe you will too. If nothing else, much of the trivia is interesting, funny, and the sort of thing you want to stop and read out loud to whomever happens to be in the room at the same time as you.
This book, like so many others, reminded me of how little I have read (and how little I have retained of what I have read): the times I could identify a quote or place a word or phrase into the larger puzzle of the book, I felt inordinately proud of myself. So much more of the book went right by me, isolated phrases that seemed unrelated but that I knew I Ought To Recognize. I am seriously considering purchasing the book, looking up every quote and reference in its pages, and explicating the text in its margins.
So. It is nearly impossible for me to explain what the book is, let alone to discuss its value or recommend it, but I highly enjoyed the experience of reading it just the same, and maybe you will too. If nothing else, much of the trivia is interesting, funny, and the sort of thing you want to stop and read out loud to whomever happens to be in the room at the same time as you.
wilreads87's review
dark
funny
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
lucasmiller's review
5.0
My sister bought my a copy of Wittgenstein's Mistress on a trip to New York. It was a nice gesture. As with most books acquired in this manner, it set on my shelf for awhile. I came across of copy of This is Not a Novel at a used bookstore a few years later and bought it instinctively. Over the course of reading it I began to annotate entries. For quotations, just the source or author, for individuals country of origin, dates, and briefest career description. Long hours were spent reading a few pages, making tick marks where necessary and going back to fill in some information. I've gone through maybe two or two and half times and nothing ever feels finished. I eventually bought a second copy of This is Not a Novel. This was the copy that I read this go around, in two days no less.
Following Reader's Block, the tone of This is Not a Novel feels like crawling out of a ditch. the emphasis of the anecdotes switches from suicide to death disease and accident. While this remains gloomy as hell, it imbues the whole thing with a sense of inevitability and is allowed to be much funnier than Reader's Block. Writer is much more driven than Reader. There might be a few less narrative statements here as well, but the consonance of the entries, even when I didn't know the references is more propulsive and witty than I expected.
Following Reader's Block, the tone of This is Not a Novel feels like crawling out of a ditch. the emphasis of the anecdotes switches from suicide to death disease and accident. While this remains gloomy as hell, it imbues the whole thing with a sense of inevitability and is allowed to be much funnier than Reader's Block. Writer is much more driven than Reader. There might be a few less narrative statements here as well, but the consonance of the entries, even when I didn't know the references is more propulsive and witty than I expected.
nami_notfromonepiece's review
challenging
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
gef's review
4.0
An entertaining and provocative experiment in writing "A novel with no intimation of story whatsoever.... / And with no characters. None. ... / Plotless. Characterless. / Yet seducing the reader into turning pages nonetheless." Oddly, it works. If not a novel, it is perhaps an epic poem, if Writer says it is, or, most accurately, as he suggests on one of the last pages, "a kind of verbal fugue." The paragraphs, some no more than two words and none more than five lines, are like (or simply are) stanzas, most containing odd facts about writers and other creative people ("Frans Hals was once arrested for beating his wife.") A recurrent theme is the manners of death of these people, further emphasized by this repeated statement:- "Timor mortis conturbat me. / The fear of death distresses me." Another is the ironies of anti-Semitism: "What the world would know of the Holocaust if the Germans had won" is one entire stanza. (The answer? Not much, I suppose.) The overriding theme is the writer's right to create whatever he pleases and call it whatever he wants. "Chi son? Chi son? Son un poeta / Che cosa faccio? Scrivo." It's an inspiring note for any writer, or at least for this one (me) 021215.
jlc's review
3.0
Hard to explain. Mostly a list of how famous creative types died. But oddly engaging and an entertaining, quick read.
h2oetry's review
5.0
This non-novel by this not non-writer is the second in Writer's series of four books(see: tetralogy).
Was the book also the last at one point?
Or was it always second, before the birth of the third?
The fourth is the final.
As was the first. The second. The third.
What was intended as the final?
All -- or at least some -- things are cut short.
The anecdotes die off quickly, with no failure of heart.
Some, it would seem, resurrect.
Or is it repeated?
Writer blends and blurs, but beginnings rarely surface.
But an ending is here.
Is there.
Is there?
It's there.
It's there?
Was the book also the last at one point?
Or was it always second, before the birth of the third?
The fourth is the final.
As was the first. The second. The third.
What was intended as the final?
All -- or at least some -- things are cut short.
The anecdotes die off quickly, with no failure of heart.
Some, it would seem, resurrect.
Or is it repeated?
Writer blends and blurs, but beginnings rarely surface.
But an ending is here.
Is there.
Is there?
It's there.
It's there?
kellbellhells's review
4.0
This book feels, in part, like the author was showing off how well-read he was in life and the ending was something I saw coming fairly early on, but by the end, it worked for me: the facts given about these artists in the book, how they died, their quotes, and a rumination on the act of writing were beautifully written. It was just the right amount of pretentious.