David Rose, author of the superb Meridian, returns with a series of short-shorts reimagined with “interpolations”—semibold insertions from the author David Rose, author of the superb Meridian, returns with a series of short-shorts reimagined with “interpolations”—semibold insertions from the author into the original stories, all of which were published in un-interpolated form in magazines spanning two decades. Published by Mancunian indie publisher Confingo, the collection combines images from Leah Leaf alongside the stories, creating a striking art-book of the sort seen plopped alongside gallery exhibitions. The stories are strange little vignettes of a whimsical nature peppered with wordplay, each too slight to make an impact, and the interpolations seem like an unnecessary shoehorning in of self-regarding cleverness, detracting from the tales themselves....more
Billy Childish is an artist of immense self-belief and restlessness, prolific in music, painting, woodcutting, and literature. He is also the epitome Billy Childish is an artist of immense self-belief and restlessness, prolific in music, painting, woodcutting, and literature. He is also the epitome of the bish-bash-bosh school of creativity, where the explosive act of creation is unsullied by the finicky ick of revision. Those familiar with the copious canon of garage rock albums recorded under various names (The Milkshakes, Thee Headcoats, CTMF, etc) will have encountered a slew of patchy filler-filled records that Childish likes to record in inspired bursts, and the same applies to these poems, written in his dyslexic English with no spelling or grammar corrections. The poems explore Childish’s violent childhood and strained relationship with his father, his sexual gaucheries and encounters, more poet-ish ramblings on nature and time, and his moving conversion to fatherhood. The myth-making narcissism of Childish and this inflated sense of greatness feeds into the slapdash approach of these poems, and in that sense their potency is undone by their very own defiant (non-)aesthetic. But it is impossible not to warm to Childish’s energy, compassion, and commitment to an unpretentious, DIY-4-Life approach to making art, and these poems illuminate that impish spirit. ...more
In the first of the Barsetshire chronicles, a mild-mannered church warden learns that he might not be entitled to the £800 per annum in which he luxurIn the first of the Barsetshire chronicles, a mild-mannered church warden learns that he might not be entitled to the £800 per annum in which he luxuriates. The lawsuit that follows causes minor upheaval and moral conniptions, and a thorough reckoning for the poor sods in his care that had the temerity to think they were entitled to anything less than a bowl of gruel and the Gospel According to Luke. Minor Trollope. ...more
Eva S. was the partner of Jan Švankmajer, creator of sensationally surreal stop-motion classics Alice and Little Otik, whose illustrations accompany tEva S. was the partner of Jan Švankmajer, creator of sensationally surreal stop-motion classics Alice and Little Otik, whose illustrations accompany this volume. Described by the translator as a “babbling brook arising from the depths of the Austro-Hungarian Empire”, whose “nuances are best appreciated by Czech readers only”, Bardala Cave is an alienating, rampantly surreal experimental novel that pulls the English reader through a series of scenes and sentences whose connections mainly elude and bemuse, sometimes charmingly and startlingly, sometimes frustratingly and hair-pullingly. As the translator points out, perhaps the novel was untranslatable, and this messy soup is the result of an heroic yet doomed attempt to English magic from the Czech magic....more
Mordant sketches from the author’s sick bed, Man + Doctor is a tremendous comedy of terrors, spoofing the frailty of our meagre human bodies and the pMordant sketches from the author’s sick bed, Man + Doctor is a tremendous comedy of terrors, spoofing the frailty of our meagre human bodies and the persistent fear we have at the impending loss of our terribly unimportant lives....more
In an attempt to rescue this one from the doldrums of hated student reads, I picked up the illustrated Canongate edition with an introduction from AlaIn an attempt to rescue this one from the doldrums of hated student reads, I picked up the illustrated Canongate edition with an introduction from Alasdair Gray. Alas, a sudden conversion to the genius of this novel never came. I was more open to the humorous passages of ludicrous atiloquence on the apparel of dandies and churchmen, less open to the remainder of the novel, a rambling Greatest Hits package from the fictitious German screed, written in pore-clogging prose that wavers between hyperreferential and erudite and incomprehensible, interrupted every paragraph or so by a Kimbote-esque narrator who fogs the flow. Alas, the very definition of a syllabus chore whose charms still elude with age....more
Remember that summer M.C. Escher came to town? That pioneering Dutch maverick who brought us the most stunning tessellations and optical peelers knownRemember that summer M.C. Escher came to town? That pioneering Dutch maverick who brought us the most stunning tessellations and optical peelers known to woman, each constructed with a mathematical precision that turned on Sir Roger Penrose? No? In that case, pick up this informative catalogue of classic images and accompanying essays posthaste....more
In 1915, the prolific H.G. Wells, a man who purported to write 7000 words PER DAY, elected to publish an excoriating patchwork of rants, cartoons, andIn 1915, the prolific H.G. Wells, a man who purported to write 7000 words PER DAY, elected to publish an excoriating patchwork of rants, cartoons, and rambles under the nom de plume Reginald Bliss. This allowed him the illusion of distance as he ripped into old friend Henry James, taking apart the author’s style in a series of brutal pastiches and forensic attacks (the spat between the two followed HJ’s refusal to review Rebecca West’s book on Wells), alongside German philosophers, Nietzsche in particular. If viewed as an alter ego of Wells, the titular author Boon is a vehicle for self-mockery, with Wells’ notions of a collective consciousness (the World Brain) parodied here as an unfinished excerpt from The Mind of the Race. There are attacks on the “greatness” school of authorship, with pokes at Ford Madox Ford and George Bernard Shaw, and two short stories of a religious/satirical bent, ‘The Last Trump’, (prescient, we hope, about 2020), and ‘The Wild Asses of the Devil’. As a novel, Boon holds together well, with the narrator’s conversational set-up of these fragments and dialogues making the novel feel less like a series of table scraps pieced together, which I suspect this is....more
Peripatet, the latest from stellar underground press Inside the Castle, is a work of “ambient” nonfiction, i.e. a book that appropriates samples from Peripatet, the latest from stellar underground press Inside the Castle, is a work of “ambient” nonfiction, i.e. a book that appropriates samples from popular culture, other literary sources, and the ephemera of our online lives. Maierhofer, inspired by pioneer in this niche field Tan Lin, splices snippets of memoir, freewheeling thought processes, ruminations on artists ranging from Ian Curtis to Herman Melville to Kurt Cobain, lines from Georges Bataille, strings of code from Amazon, and B&W photographs. Shunning page numbers, each sprawls over two pages, either exploding into enormous 60pt+ quotations, shrinking into almost unreadably teensy intellectual wambles (collapsing sometimes into the spine), or remaining at a readable size for a brief moment. Federman, who is referenced in the opening pages, is a keen influence on the ambitious exactitude of the typography, and Paul Morley (also referenced), in the splicing of riveting and navelgazing confessional memoir with incisive artistic criticism. The “ambient” components—the inserted photos and excessive pastings of passages from Melville’s Pierre—are less compelling. Maierhofer is a strong non-fiction writer, and the most striking elements of this unconventional work are the thoughtful excavations of his own depression and the futility of making art....more
Another scabrously droll satire from one of America’s funniest novelists, this one cocks a snook at the rise of far-right fascism from the perspectiveAnother scabrously droll satire from one of America’s funniest novelists, this one cocks a snook at the rise of far-right fascism from the perspective of a celebrity Indian academic whose seminars on ‘Was Slavery All That Bad?’ are taking conservative audiences by storm. Locking antlers with this mayhem is Peter Bowman, an increasingly insolvent academic wheeled out to counter the popularity of not apologising for slavery. As with Reed’s other comic rambles, this novel veers off happily into other tangents, including a strange story of the well-endowed Bowman pleasuring as succession of wang-keen sirens intent on sapping his strength, with frequent forays into the Hindi language and how the horrory legacy of the British occupation of India remains a lesson unlearned among comfy 2010s fascists. Reed also writes a withering portrait of his doddery self whenever he appears in the novel’s pages. Riotous. ...more
A wondrous retrospective of Faber’s innovative cover art, spanning 1929 to 2009. German artist Berthold Wolpe arrived at Faber in the thirties, and deA wondrous retrospective of Faber’s innovative cover art, spanning 1929 to 2009. German artist Berthold Wolpe arrived at Faber in the thirties, and devised the famous Albertus typeface that is his most enduring legacy, appearing with minimal accoutrement in large fontsize on the most memorable works. This volume is also a fascinating look at changing trends in cover art across the decades, from the austere block letters of the war years, the exuberant colours, lines, and typefaces of the fifties and sixties, to the painterly flourishes epitomised in the Lawrence Durrell covers, and the emphasis on Wolpe’s work into the seventies (most striking on the work of Ted Hughes). In the 1980s, Faber contracted Pentagram to design their books, resulting in the consistent use of the Faber colophon and top-page boxes with the author name and title. Fewer pages are devoted to these, seeing them as less innovative as the earlier art, although these designs made Faber titles of the eighties and nineties as identifiable as Wolpe’s work and are nothing at which to be sniffed. Having loosened their use of the colophon, Faber’s present-day covers tend to blend into the same amorphous large-press blandness (with some exceptions, i.e. the poetry titles still use Wolpe’s classic designs) and today’s innovative work is coming from the smaller presses, such as Open Letter, Galley Beggar, and And Other Stories....more
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