The Last Novel: novel

✍ Scribed by David Markson

• Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
• Year: 2010;1995,
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 88 KB
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

"Is there one major Dostoevsky novel in which no one commits suicide?" "Lenin played tennis." These trivia bits and much more fill the pages of Markson's latest experimental work, a hybrid novel and fun-fact compendium that will have many rushing for theirBartlett'sand others clutching their skulls in despair. There is an aged protagonist named Novelist who periodically pops up among the anecdotes and quotations, often to comment wearily on his depression, and Markson uses this sort-of character to create a sort of tension--who is Novelist, and why is he or she obsessed with gossip, coincidences, facetiae, and death? Literary sleuths might find satisfaction in Markson's sporadic clues, but some will find that the book too closely resembles a cleverly sequenced quote-a-day desk calendar. Most intriguing (and problematic) is Markson/Novelist's tendency to anticipate reader complaints, a tactic that could engage fans of meta-lit but aggravate those tired of blog-style self-consciousness. There's a lulling beauty here--and a crackling wit, too--but readers will have to ask themselves: Does the end of this "seminonfictional semifiction" justify the means?