"It's no overstatement to say that Lish is to the second half of the 20th century what Gertrude Stein was to the first. . . . Lish has produced a wealth of avant-garde prose, worthy of the pioneers of literary modernism. His writing represents the US's answer to Samuel Beckett and Thomas Bernhard." —The Guardian
A list. What could be more basic than a list? And a list by Lish is sure to intrigue. In this, Lish's latest work, he delivers a characteristic exhibition of his peculiar deformities of candor, obsession, and wit, via two extended "notes" to the reader, including a pages-long list of essential but perplexing words. Amidst this stream of apparent incongruities, the alert reader will discover an accruing narrative involving the narrator's late, beloved Aunt Adele-a medal-bedecked spy for the National Reconnaissance Office-and cryptography, love, poetry, and of course: the nature of language.
A list. What could be more basic than a list? And a list by Lish is sure to intrigue. In this, Lish's latest work, he delivers a characteristic exhibition of his peculiar deformities of candor, obsession, and wit, via two extended "notes" to the reader, including a pages-long list of essential but perplexing words. Amidst this stream of apparent incongruities, the alert reader will discover an accruing narrative involving the narrator's late, beloved Aunt Adele-a medal-bedecked spy for the National Reconnaissance Office-and cryptography, love, poetry, and of course: the nature of language.
Used availability for Gordon Lish's Cess