false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174051957m/356063.jpg 356063 8 At once truly appalling and appallingly funny, Blaise Cendrars's Moravagine bears comparison with Naked Lunch&#8212;except that it's a lot more entertaining to read. Heir to an immense aristocratic fortune, mental and physical mutant Moravagine is a monster, a man in pursuit of a theorem that will justify his every desire. Released from a hospital for the criminally insane by his starstruck psychiatrist (the narrator of the book), who foresees a companionship in crime that will also be an unprecedented scientific collaboration, Moravagine travels from Moscow to San Antonio to deepest Amazonia, engaged in schemes and scams as, among other things, terrorist, speculator, gold prospector, and pilot. He also enjoys a busy sideline in rape and murder. At last, the two friends return to Europe&#8212;just in time for World War I, when "the whole world was doing a Moravagine."<br><br>This new edition of Cendrars's underground classic is the first in English to include the author's afterword, "How I Wrote Moravagine." 1454478 1926 Moravagine (New York Review Books Classics) total:140|5:53|4:34|3:36|2:16|1:1| 140 542 261 25 5 3 false false Wed Nov 07 09:26:28 -0800 2007 Thu Mar 20 07:56:44 -0700 2008
Nevertheless this early 20th Century classic is sort of the door that leads to the ...more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu May 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun May 04 03:01:01 -0700 2008 Sun May 18 10:24:28 -0700 2008 Maldoror or The Torture Garden or Story of the Eye. And partly this is true: it's an episodic account of a madman called Moravagine (his name is an indication of his miso...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Oct 28 14:12:18 -0700 2008 Sat Dec 06 16:18:11 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jan 30 07:46:47 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 08:11:19 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 28 15:09:47 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 28 15:24:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Mar 10 16:21:20 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 10 16:25:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 3 false false Tue Jun 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Feb 18 03:38:59 -0800 2009 Thu Jun 25 19:07:02 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Jul 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 26 10:05:55 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 18 08:09:33 -0700 2008
- it's written by a Frenchman (the French are my favorite writers)

- it's about a criminally insane maniac who disembowels women

- said criminally insane maniac's name which gives the book i...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Dec 06 15:45:35 -0800 2007 Thu Apr 10 08:12:52 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 04 11:11:20 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 16 07:13:46 -0700 2007 Naked Lunch", but more readable. An unbelievable (im)morality tale, the book chronicles the title character and his idolizer, a doctor who freed him from an unconventional insane asylum. Moravagine himsel...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Dec 13 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 13 18:07:10 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 13 18:15:47 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Wed Jan 07 07:18:43 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 07 07:19:42 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sat Mar 07 08:33:51 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 08:34:48 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Nov 10 12:13:26 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 13:04:44 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Feb 18 12:56:51 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 12:56:51 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Sep 10 19:13:16 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 19:13:16 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jan 05 21:16:53 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 06 01:30:24 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Nov 11 13:36:26 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 11 13:45:23 -0800 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Mon Aug 11 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 12:37:50 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 11 08:27:38 -0700 2008
I would have loved to like this book.

I would have appreciated something more than the tedium I felt in the face of its forced exuberance.

I much enjoy Cendrars's poetry, and think I shall be sticking to that in the future.
...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Tue Sep 04 01:07:13 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 04 01:10:15 -0700 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=356063