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David Markson

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This is Not a Novel and Other Novels Kindle Edition

by David Markson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 87 ratings

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David Markson was a writer like no other. In his novels, which have been called "hypnotic," "stunning," and "exhilarating" and earned him praise from the likes of Kurt Vonnegut and David Foster Wallace, Ann Beattie and Zadie Smith. Markson created his own personal genre. With crackling wit distilled into incantatory streams of thought on art, life, and death, Markson's work has delighted and astonished readers for decades.

Now for the first time, three of Markson's masterpieces are compiled into one page–turning volume: This Is Not a Novel, Vanishing Point, and The Last Novel. In This Is Not a Novel, readers meet an author, called only "Writer," who is weary unto death of making up stories, and yet is determined to seduce the reader into turning pages and getting somewhere. Vanishing Point introduces us to "Author," who sets out to transform shoeboxes crammed with note cards into a novel. In The Last Novel, we find an elderly author (referred to only as "Novelist") who announces that, since this will be his final effort, he possesses "carte blanche to do anything he damn well pleases."

United by their focus on the trials, calamities, absurdities and even tragedies of the creative life, these novels demonstrate David Markson's extraordinary intellectual richness—leaving readers, time after time, with the most indisputably original of reading experiences.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Over the course of his career, Markson (Wittgenstein's Mistress; Reader's Block; etc.) has garnered high praise for his erudite, complex texts that challenge notions of genre. He continues to push against the boundaries of fiction with his latest, which echoes the titles of both Magritte's well-known painting of a pipe and a story by Diderot. Lacking plot or characters, this darkly humorous assemblage resembles a commonplace book or a notebook, such as Coleridge's or Emerson's, with entries noting odd facts, quotes and ideas. These entries averaging around 10 per page have the air of memoranda pointing to some future, more fully realized passage that might never materialize. Occasional appearances by someone called Writer ("Not being a character but the author, here") add a note of self-consciousness, reminding us of the performative nature of any work of art. Themes soon emerge: illness, art, fame and hygiene are obvious preoccupations. The entries lead us down the page, maintaining a brisk momentum. There are deaths (Pound of a blocked intestine, Manet of tertiary syphilis), quotations and seemingly out-of-context questions although it is apparent that context is rather beside the point. These references imply some ad hoc, interior encyclopedia: "The legend that as a young man Leonardo was so strong he could straighten a horseshoe with his bare hands." It is best to take Markson at his word and read this not as a novel but as some jester cousin to Pound's Cantos notations that gradually cohere in an underlying progress, a drift toward the momentary reconciliation of art, intellect and mortality. (Apr. 1)Forecast: Markson is at once unpredictable and reliable, to which the inclusion of blurbs from Ann Beattie and David Foster Wallace attests. This book won't appeal for most general fiction readers, but admirers of the author will seek out and savor his latest.

From Booklist

Of course novelist Markson's latest book is a novel. What else could this rueful combination of fact and fictionalized self-portraiture, this book-length list of odd bits of trivia about artists' lives, most of which perversely focuses on their deaths, be called? The "Writer," as the compulsive, hypochondriac narrator refers to himself, has amassed this quirky collection of seemingly random yet wittily connected data in lieu of writing, an activity he's finding difficult, if not repugnant, what with all his headaches and general malaise. Terse and stoic, he's all over the map, tossing off bulletins about Sappho, Fitzgerald, Blake, Picasso, Flaubert, Emerson, and Mahler; relishing snide remarks artists make about each other; and periodically alluding to his desire to write a novel with no characters, plot, or setting, a mission he slyly accomplishes. Mischievous, funny, and smart, Markson will greatly amuse readers who share his fascination with art and the clash between the sublime and the ridiculous that fractures every artist's life. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01CO9U3HE
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Counterpoint (March 1, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 1, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1002 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 203 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1582431337

Best Sellers Rank: #977,124 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #920 in American Literature Anthologies
- #1,145 in Literary Short Stories
- #1,852 in American Fiction Anthologies

Customer Reviews:
4.5 87 ratings

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CEShue

David Markson Deserves More Readers!

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2021

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I read This Is Not A Novel several years ago and loved it. The accumulation of details adds up to a whole world view. There is something refreshing about poking fun at the Great Artists and the book made me laugh, which I didn't expect. I'm reading Wittgenstein's Mistress now, but when I'm finished I'm looking forward reading Vanishing Point and The Last Novel.

Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2017

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Each of the three novels/non-novels within this don't really contain a story, but they do contain a tone and a theme. They're like a monologue about the dark or strange or silly parts of humanity from some voice of God commenting on the history of mankind. They actually kinda read like a series of tweets, almost. The way each little paragraph is presented creates this eerie tone that makes you want to hear all about the things Markson has to say. It's led me to look up some of the facts/people/works he mentions because of the the way he presents them.

5 people found this helpful

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Guttersnipe Das

Rereading Markson, after his death.

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2010

Reading David Markson gives me the blessed illusion, for a few hours, that I possess a mind capable of thinking only interesting thoughts. Suffering and mortality abound -- the average must be about five deaths a page -- but it is imbued with coolness and space, like wandering through a marvelous but unpopular museum on a rainy Tuesday morning.

Markson creates a mosaic of tragic facts. Anecdotes, almost, except that most are only a sentence long. (Looking at a page will be more useful to the prospective reader than any review.)

A friend said, "Looks like a book I'd keep beside the toilet." Well. Certainly you could, and Mr. Markson would be well-pleased I imagine -- but you might find yourself spending all day in the john. The facts, and the way they are all woven together, is entirely transfixing.

Now that David Markson is dead, it is impossible not to think of his death, in a list with all the other deaths he mentions: David Markson was found dead in his Greenwich Village apartment. Like most of the artists and writers he mentions, he deserved vastly more honor and notice than the world ever provided.

Markson wrote several books in this format and he tried not to repeat event or quote. One place he tripped up was a quote of Emerson's, which he gives in both Reader's Block and This Is Not A Novel. It's worth repeating though, and it's an excellent reason to read Markson: "Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day."

4 people found this helpful

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Frederick McDermott

Not really a novel

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2020

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This is not really a novel but a series of very interesting facts about artists of every type. Very hard to put down. The "humanity" exhibited by the historical /literary figures is just amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed the style and have relished all his books. Sorry they, and he, had to end. Remarkable scholarship.

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Domenick Capobianco

A tough read by a great writer. Markson's

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2017

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A tough read by a great writer. Markson's . Marks's last four book are cutting edge post-modern, perhaps post-post oder with 'Wittgenstein's Mistress' the jewel of the four-Wittgenstein Mistress, Reader's Block, Vanishing Point and The Last Novel.
Reader's Block is the more poignant of the four with it''s devastating final two words.

One person found this helpful

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James C. Todd

David markson is considered avant guard or experimental, keep that in mind if you are not sure.

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2019

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This is 3 on 1. I also bought vanishing point which I didn't need to do because it is 1 of the 3 here. Great writer, I heartily recommend wittgenstein's nephew, as well as this volume.

One person found this helpful

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jafrank

Not as strong as 'Reader's Block' but the ideas and style its told in are still powerful and haunting.

Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2015

I loved Reader's Block, with its skeletal narrative and the sad, melancholy little fragments from literary history. Markson managed to evoke these gorgeous, eerie resonances about art, death and the utterly fleeting nature of human experience.

I feel I should have liked "This is Not a Novel," a book which is very much a continuation of those ideas and styles. But...somehow...I really didn't care for this particular Markson. Maybe it's because this one is so death-obssessed (almost every literary anecdote here focuses monotonously on famous writers' causes of death), and the gorgeous reflections on mortality in his other work here become kind of stiff and tediously self-referential.

Writing fiction this delicate seems like a hugely challenging balancing act to pull off. Readers Block made it work to utterly gorgeous effect. This book, for me, just fell flat. That being said, I will still gladly read everything else he wrote like this, the idea behind these books is still hugely powerful and original, even if it doesn't work in every single iteration.

One person found this helpful

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JB

A unique approach to narrative.

Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2018

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An amazing narrative strip-tease that addresses identity, taste, autobiography and culture with inventive, concise citations. There's nothing else like Markson's writing.

One person found this helpful

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