| Vacation in the Endless Mountains |
[Jun. 13th, 2008|09:30 am] |
http://snurl.com/2hmoz[www_amazon_com]
I got an e-mail the other day from one of the editors at New Directions Press, saying they were in the process of bringing out a trade paperback reprint of John Gardner’s Mickelsson’s Ghosts. They’ve already published editions of The Sunlight Dialogues and October Light. I’ve seen these books and they’re sturdy and good looking. I don’t know how widely Mickelsson’s Ghosts is known by readers, but if you’re interested in the literature of the dark fantastic, you should give this book a try. It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing – hallucinogenic, apocalyptic, complex, paranoid and powerful, written in a style consciously borrowed, as Gardner attests to in his intro, from contemporary realist writers like John Updike. It takes place in The Endless Mountains in Pennsylvania and New York. Down on his luck philosophy professor Peter Mickelsson buys an old farm house he can little afford out in the mountains, away from the university, in a desperate attempt to change his life for the better. The character of Mickelsson is one of the most intensely rendered I’ve ever read, deep and deeply comical. There are long passages about philosophy, primarily Nietzsche, Mickelsson’s specialty. Ghosts and witches, evil Mormons, UFOs, murder, and somehow effective flash backs through the professor’s life where other kinds of ghosts lurk. A good portion of it was based on Gardner’s life at SUNY Binghamton, but heavily fictionalized, of course. Honestly, I don’t believe there’s another novel quite like it. The end’s a mind blower. The Sunlight Dialogues and October Light were never favorites of mine, but they are of a large portion of Gardner’s readers and also definitely worth a look. Their structures are very angular and, a word Gardner used to describe them, “architectonic.” MG seems much more fluid to me, more organic. Hats off to New Directions for publishing this edition. Now, if only somebody would bring out The King’s Indian (a fantastical story collection whose title novella riffs on the fiction of early American writers – Poe, Hawthorne, Melville), Freddy’s Book (the story of a contemporary, troubled teenage giant who has written a novel about a medieval Swedish knight and his personal battle with the devil), and Jason and Medeia (an epic poem based on the Argonautica by Apollonius).
Here's a link for the New Directions website: http://www.ndpublishing.com/ |
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| Comments: |
I've read Freddy's Book and Grendel, but not Mickelsson's Ghosts. I should put it on my list.
Aye, you should.
Grendel, for all it's got going for it, is possible my least favorite of Gardner's novels. This may or may not have something to do with having had to read it for school rather than leisure.
I'm so grateful to New Dimensions -- it was a shame how long some of Gardner's great works had been out of print.
From: (Anonymous)
2008-06-13 05:52 pm (UTC)
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I must admit this sound very intriguing. I've read Grendel earlier this year (with the excellent foreword by Mr. Ford himself) and I was very impressed. To familiarize myself with the Beowulf myth, I had read Seamus Heaney's Beowulf: A New Verse translation before picking up Gardner's effort. I can say it only made me appreciate the 'twist' John Gardner had put on the myth even more. It heightened the reading experience. It got me thinking I should do myself a favour and pick up his other books. This might be a start.
Thanks for the heads-up, Mr. Ford
-- Lawrence
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/34253875/8133735) | From: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) zitman
2008-06-13 06:49 pm (UTC)
The Constant Gardner | (Link)
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Thanks to you, I have a reasonably decent Gardner collection. I have yet to read my copy of Mickelsson's Ghosts, but this post will probably get me to do so. My favorite so far is Freddy's Book (illustrated by Daniel Biamonte) which I look forward to re-reading annually. How about the prophecy in this line which appears early on (page 6 in my '93 Random House/Vintage edition): "...in a thousand years we'll all be suppressed events in a Chinese history book." Even deducting the 28 years from its initial publication, I doubt we'll have to wait that long.
Dummies! http://www.yesbutnobutyes.com/archives/2008/06/lunch_hour_veg_270.html(p.s. Achmed the Terrorist bears a great resemblence in attitude to my wife.) Speaking of the little lady, I ganked her copy of Locus and read the article/interview they did with you. How cool was all of that? The cover to boot! Congratulations. I don't know how you write all in your head. For me, usually my first ideas are inspired but slightly misguided ---- I find notes for better ideas as they come up Must. Be. Kept. *hahaha* Otherwise, I'd have to give up the largest portion of my brain for memory, and that's my popstarlets section, so that just isn't happening! ;-) Congratulations again. You've given us some truly marvelous and beautiful works and I am sure you have so very much more in you as you hit your stride. Bravo! :-) | |
