Issue 72 |

Reader's Block by David Markson

by

Ann Beattie recommends
Reader's Block, a novel by David Markson: "Finally: a fictional sequel to Eliot's 'The Wasteland.' Markson's novel advances by allusion and cumulative effect, like a big snowball going downhill (and it's impossible to read without realizing that the twentieth century has gone the same way). 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." (Dalkey Archive)