My rating:
add to my books
FENCES
by
Ben Brooks
Deeply Russian in its sense of life, bitter, very funny, and shattered in its love of beauty, Fences by Ben Brooks shows what happens when the art of poetry and the art of the novel get in a head-on collision. Told in flashes and fragments of compressed emotion, this novel tells its story through glimmers of an intense personal narration: about a Russian girl, a librarian ...more
Paperback, 82 pages
Published
January 15th 2010
by Fugue State Press
(first published 2010)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
44)
"We are a wild misconstruction of thoughts and feelings."
And so is this book.
It's a depressive beautiful explosion 80 mph down siberian-desert highways.
It also repeats itself, refitting a jumble of words that seem selected for rawness, until they lose all meaning. But still, meaning shows in the cracks.
It might be trying too hard. It might be impossible to try hard enough to capture this.
Words repeat, scenes repeat. Slightly changed. Mo...more
And so is this book.
It's a depressive beautiful explosion 80 mph down siberian-desert highways.
It also repeats itself, refitting a jumble of words that seem selected for rawness, until they lose all meaning. But still, meaning shows in the cracks.
It might be trying too hard. It might be impossible to try hard enough to capture this.
Words repeat, scenes repeat. Slightly changed. Mo...more
While Fences could be called "prosetry", and even touched by the Beatnik ethic of madness, the Russian setting gives it a Dostoyevskian edge found especially in the way of expressing emotionally tortured peaks released by love; apparently - channeled through Ben Brooks - the end-product is fairly exalting and downright fun.
Thanks to Valerie for sending me a copy!
Thanks to Valerie for sending me a copy!
I am glad this book exists.
I appreciate that this book has a strong emotional and / or philosophical appeal to a good many readers.
This book does not contain the kind of "experimental writing" which I find to be particularly experimental. Risky. In fact, its rather cozy, this book, its boy-girl-a-broken-heart-is-a-shattered-gone-mad-world discontentment.
This book feels very young, full of discoveries and the mingled ecstasy and loathing that co...more
I appreciate that this book has a strong emotional and / or philosophical appeal to a good many readers.
This book does not contain the kind of "experimental writing" which I find to be particularly experimental. Risky. In fact, its rather cozy, this book, its boy-girl-a-broken-heart-is-a-shattered-gone-mad-world discontentment.
This book feels very young, full of discoveries and the mingled ecstasy and loathing that co...more
view 1 comment
I am overjoyed that I got to read this book early.
I will be writing an in-depth review of it shortly, for some place or another.
It was painful, starkly lonely and more than a bit fucked-up. Ben Brooks' voice is that of you on one-too-little vicodins (y'know, that "barely aware" feeling), sitting on your mother's couch seemingly-comatose and wishing you still had a body to cling to. Instead you have THIS.
Hi, Ben Brooks. Nice to meet you.
I will be writing an in-depth review of it shortly, for some place or another.
It was painful, starkly lonely and more than a bit fucked-up. Ben Brooks' voice is that of you on one-too-little vicodins (y'know, that "barely aware" feeling), sitting on your mother's couch seemingly-comatose and wishing you still had a body to cling to. Instead you have THIS.
Hi, Ben Brooks. Nice to meet you.
This book absolutely slays. The language completely destroyed me in the best way possible, and I considering immediately starting the book over upon finishing it. The narrative that moves through here is terrifying, but there is abject humor that serves to heighten the intensity of narrative even more. yes yes yes.
in this summer of shit this book gave me two hours of happiness
best read of 2009.
dark. profane. filled with hopelessness and the end of the world. i like how brooks is able to move so effortlessly from fucked moment to fucked moment in a world where counting signifies dying.
Sophia Casas
marked it as to-read
Charlie Flannelly
marked it as to-read
Shaun Gannon
marked it as to-read
Frances Dinger
marked it as to-read
Genevieve Brown
marked it as to-read
nicole
marked it as ur-fat
Richard Chiem
marked it as to-read
maraluce addams
marked it as to-read
anonymous
marked it as to-read
Sam Gerhard
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
