// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did reader's block say? It's drawn a blank.
Reader's Block is a 1996 novel written by David Markson and published by Dalkey Archive Press.[1][2][3][4][5] [6] With this work Markson has begun a tetralogy consisting of this book, followed by This Is Not a Novel (2001), Vanishing Point (2004), and The Last Novel (2007). [3][4]
Synopsis
[edit]Reader's Block employs an experimental collage writing technique and does not have a traditional narrative structure. Also, the narrator, who is called The Reader, questions the book's genre, asking if it functions as a novel, an autobiography, or a poem. Instead of a standard plot, the text is composed of literary fragments, i.e., 333 unannotated quotations and anecdotes connected to Western literature and historical authors. The fragments are wide-ranging covering literary trivia, dark topics such as author suicides and lists of writers with anti-Semitic views. The tone that is perceived as both playful and highly serious.[7] According to Publishers Weekly, within non-traditional format, the book explores the concept of novel-writing, and critiques the standard narratives of novels.[7] This work has been recognized as being similarly styled to James Joyce's notebooks for Joyce's novels.[8]
Reception
[edit]Anne Beattie writing for Ploughshares says, "Markson's novel advances by allusion and cumulative effect, like a big snowball going downhill... This is really a work of genius: real flotsam and jetsam, recycled as philosophy. It's hypnotic and unique; of course, that would guarantee that the mainstream press wouldn't give a damn."[9] Joanna Scott writing for The Nation says, "...Markson's narrator weighs life against death and death against art, testing the effects of time and the resilience of the human imagination.[5] Kirkus Reviews says, "A novel, in all, for the ultra-readerly only, though in its own way often deeply melancholy, suggestive, and moving. [In this book] Nabokov speaks for Markson's aesthetic aims, while Shakespeare synopsizes the personal wistfulness and deep sorrow permeating this remarkable book.[10] Michael Boylan reviewing this work for the Library Journal of New York says, "[The book] is intensely personal, with nothing really universal presented about the human condition, and as such has a very limited appeal.[11]
References
[edit]- ↑ Drag, Wojciech (2015). "A Novel Against the Novel": David Markson's Antinovelistic Tetralogy. Polish Journal of English Studies, 1(1), 11–25. Free PDF download.
- ↑ Tabbi, Joseph (1997). "Solitary Inventions: David Markson at the End of the Line". Modern Fiction Studies. 43 (3): 745–772. doi:10.1353/mfs.1997.0066. JSTOR 26285658.
- 1 2 Sims, Laura (2008). "David Markson and the Problem of the Novel". New England Review vol.29 iss.3. Retrieved June 16, 2026.
- 1 2 Ferguson, William (January 12, 1997). "Reader's Block". The New York Times. Retrieved June 19, 2026.
- 1 2 Scott, Joanna (November 1, 2010). "A Passionate Reader". The Nation. Retrieved June 20, 2026.
- ↑ Watterson, Carrie.(2006) "The Politics of Pastiche in the Postmodern Novel." Brown University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses # 3227964, pp. 25-45 ProQuest 305356138
- 1 2 Magazine, Staff (November 4, 1996). "Review: Reader's Block". Publishers Weekly.
- ↑ Schork, JOE (1998). ""This Strangely Neglected Topic..."". James Joyce Literary Supplement. 12 (1): 17. JSTOR 26634678.
- ↑ Beattie, Ann (Spring 1997). "Reader's Block by David Markson". Ploughshares. Retrieved June 20, 2026.
- ↑ Kirkus Reviews. October 31, 1996.
- ↑ Boylan, Michael. Reader's Block. Library Journal 121.17 (1996): p. 91. ProQuest 196757779. Retrieved 20 June 2026.
External links
[edit]- Official website
- ISBN 9781564781321
- Video review: Reader's Block by David Markson, YouTube, 2024.
- Directory
Further reading
[edit]- Clemens, Paul (March 9, 2008). "Review: Reader's Block". New Haven Review. Retrieved June 20, 2026.
- Drag, Wojciech (2022). "Collage autothanatographies". Orbis Litterarum. 77: 19–36. doi:10.1111/oli.12296.