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Editorial Reviews. From Publishers Weekly.
Compellingly whimsical, alienated, pseudo-scientific, bizarre: all these adjectives describe this fiction in the form of a short reference work, the first book by admired Argentinean-Italian novelist Wilcock (1919-1978) to be published in English. Wilcock's early career in Argentina brought him close to the young Borges, and fans of Borges, Italo Calvino or Stanislaw Lem will recognize Wilcock's methods. The book (his best known in Italy) consists of short essays describing the lives of obsessive eccentrics, some real and some imaginary, with each entry giving significant dates, major works and summaries of the relevant obsessions. Some of the real people here seem stranger than fiction: Roger Babson was a rich American pseudoscientist who directed a foundation dedicated to isolating a gravity "atom" and finding a substance that could resist it. Another all-too-real oddball is John Cleves Symmes, whose arguments for a "Hollow Earth" inspired a story by Poe. Wilcock's greatest aesthetic successes come with the characters he makes up from scratch. Catalan director Llorenz Riber believed he was a rabbit, and therefore brought rabbits onstage in his avant-garde interpretations of Europe's classic plays: he also adapted, for the stage, Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, in order to depict the thinker's famous "duck-rabbit." Wilcock's inventions get stranger as he moves on: "At the age of fifty-nine, the Belgian Henry Bucher was only forty-two." The telepathic hypnotist Jos? Vald?s y Prom sabotaged an 1878 congress of theologians and scientists by taking over their minds. So Wilcock proceeds, through 30 other oddly comic entries. Venuti renders Wilcock's Italian into lucid, captivating English, and offers a biographical introduction. Lovers of postmodern mind games should certainly start seeking out Wilcock's work--assuming they can be sure it really exists.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal.
Italian author Wilcock (1919-78) wrote many fascinating works--including poetry, short fiction, novels, literary criticism, drama in verse and prose, and cultural journalism--but this outstanding translation is the first to appear in English. Using short, encyclopedic/biographical entries, Wilcock profiles people who are definitely iconoclasts. They tear down traditional beliefs and scientific notions on many different topics, from utopias to biology, offering a riveting array of ideas. Some real people with iconoclastic bents are included along with some bizarre fictional characters. One chapter is about Jesus Pica Planas, who lists as some of his inventions "an automobile made almost entirely of rubber to withstand accidents" and the very possible "multiple telephone that enables friendly, diverting conversations." The result is enlightening and entertaining reading. Recommended for most larger collections.
-Lisa Rohrbaugh, East Palestine Memorial P.L., OH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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CHIEDI ALLA POLVERE. Dalla polvere grigia e inquieta dei sobborghi di Los Angeles Arturo Bandini, fiero e squattrinato futuro astro della letteratura mondiale, invia i primi racconti all'ineguagliabile Hackmuth, munifico e geniale editore. Unico suo chiodo fisso: Camilla Lopez, altrettanto orgogliosa cameriera chicana, corpo stupendo e testa vuota; ma un'improvvisa fuga d'amore di Arturo e Camilla alla volta dell'oceano si trasfoma in catastrofe erotica, e nel giro di poco tempo Bandini finisce tra le braccia mature e arroganti di una deforme ninfomane, Vera. Il rimorso per l'adulterio scatena un vero e proprio terremoto sotto i piedi dell'ingenuo scrittore, e il suo desiderio di redenzione lo porta a inseguire e proteggere Camilla, rivelatasi grande consumatrice di marijuana e innamorata di Sammy, suo mediocre collega. Gravemente malato, Sammy si ritira a vivere a un passo dal deserto, cimentandosi in romanzetti western di infimo ordine e, incredibilmente, respinge Camilla... Un romanzo comico e romantico, beffardo e straziante, avvolto, come la vita e i luoghi dei suoi protagonisti, da una sorta di 'polvere-del-mondo' fatta di sabbia e di luce, di gioia e di amarezza.
