The Museum Of Eterna's Novel: The First Good Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

An anti-novel.' It opens with more than fifty prologues-including ones addressed 'To My Authorial Persona,' 'To the Critics,' and 'To Readers Who Will Perish If They Don't Know What the Novel Is About'-that are by turns philosophical, outrageous, ponderous, and cryptic. These pieces cover a range of topics from how the upcoming novel will be received to how to thwart 'skip-around readers' (by writing a book that's defies linearity!). The novel itself, is about a group of characters (some borrowed from other texts) who live on an estancia called 'la novella"

Reviews

"This is an approach to storytelling that can leave the first-time reader feeling mired in its self-attentions. But that should be expected given that the novel wants to inculcate a sense of metaphysical entanglement as it explores two of the most rudimentary concerns of human life: love and death ... As a work of devout humanism, this novel is conceived around the best sorts of frustrations."Christopher Byrd, Barnes and Noble Review "One gets the sense that Fernndez would be disappointed in the "progress" of the contemporary novel. Ours is a culture that values orderly stories, but "skip around" readers will enjoy meandering about Fernndez's cabinet of wonders."Jim Ruland, "

Author Bio

Macedonio Fernndez was one of the most influentialand strangestArgentine authors ever. He was Borges's mentor; he campaigned for president by leaving notecards with the word "Macedonio" in cafes; he started a utopian society. He also wrote the "Last Bad Novel" (Adriana Buenos Aires) and the "First Good One" (The Museum of Eterna's Novel). Margaret Schwartz is an assistant professor at Fordham University. She was a Fulbright fellow to Argentina in 2004, during which time she researched the life and works of Macedonio Fernndez. Adam Thirlwell is the author of the novels Politics and The Escape. His book about literature and translation, The Delighted States, won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2008. He has twice been named as one of Granta's "Best Young British Novelists."