Matthew McEver<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As part of its French Literature Series, Dalkey Archive Press has translated and published two works of black humor. The first is from Antoine Volodine, the primary pseudonym of an author who–due to the politically subversive nature of much of his work–has published over twenty titles under three different names. Writers<\/i>, published in its original language in 2010, is a collection of seven stories, each focused on an author struggling with the sickness of writing. Yet Volodine\u2019s author-characters are not the hackneyed, tortured geniuses, alcoholics, romantics, or socialites. Among these authors are the dying or dead, the insane, the prisoner, the published and unpublished.<\/p>\n
The opening story, \u201cMathias Olbane,\u201d concerns a failed novelist and poet, wrongly convicted of being an assassin. In his twenty-six years of imprisonment, Olbane invents thousands of new words, thousands of names for imaginary places and people. But he writes no stories or poems. \u201cBegin-ing\u201d features an author institutionalized and barely literate, tormented by insanely murderous inmates into confessing that he has conspired with Martians. \u201cThe Strategy of Silence in the Works of Bogdan Tarassiev,\u201d concerns a crime novelist who possesses no flair for suspense. Following a decade of silence, Tarassiev reemerges as a science-fiction writer and publishes a string of works populated with characters whose names are all variations on Wolff.<\/p>\n
The comedic highlight of Volodine\u2019s story collection is \u201cAcknowledgments,\u201d a writer\u2019s twelve page litany of appreciation. Among those deserving of thanks: an unnamed woman from a party who \u201callowed me to touch and kiss her delicious breasts.\u201d (She inspired the closing chapter of his novel). The fictitious author also acknowledges those he does not wish to thank: those whose \u201cmalicious critiques, mean-spirited little reviews, and unpardonable silences\u201d led to his reputation as a difficult writer.<\/p>\n
Also from Dalkey\u2019s French Literature Series, originally published in 2002, is Edouard Lev\u00e9\u2019s Works<\/i>, a lampoon of conceptual art or artistic installations. To some degree, the book also lampoons our expectation that a work of fiction must have a story. This one doesn\u2019t. Works<\/i> consists solely of proposals for 533 works of conceptual art.<\/p>\n
One proposal is for a \u201cMuseum of Nobodies\u201d–a wax museum not of historical figures or movie stars, but of persons chosen at random from the telephone book. The proposal is to open the museum with thirty statues and add two each year; an ever-evolving \u201chyperrealist memory of society\u201d (7).<\/p>\n
Reflecting the author\u2019s penchant for photography, one proposed project is a series of photographs of small towns in America, the caveat being that these towns bear the names of foreign cities. Titles in this photographic collection might include Supermarket in Rome<\/i>, Hair Salon in Paris<\/i>, Cuba\u2019s Town Hall<\/i>.\u00a0 Other projects include dubbing a silent movie with dialogue that relates neither to the images or titles as well as a proposed documentary giving a profile of a painter without any of his paintings being shown.<\/p>\n
While Lev\u00e9\u2019s Works<\/i> is overtly humorous and accessible, many readers may find that some selections from Volodine\u2019s Writers<\/i> require a second read. The value of Volodine\u2019s stories is how they introduce us to characters who don\u2019t know which is worse–speech or silence. Ultimately both translations from Dalkey expand our notions of what fiction can do and may appeal to readers and writers interested in experimental fiction.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Volodine, Antoine, and Katina L. Rogers. Writers<\/i>. London: Dalkey Archive Press, 2014.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lev\u00e9, Edouard, and Jan Steyn. Works<\/i>. London: Dalkey Archive Press, 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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