A review by jessrock
This Is Not a Novel by David Markson
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.