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Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts
Dopo "Ritorna, dottor Caligari", un'altra raccolta di short stories di Donald Barthelme. Lo stile di Barthelme è quello sperimentale e pirotecnico che i lettori già conoscono; nei suoi racconti è facile trovare una metropoli contemporanea invasa dai pellerossa, un pallone aerostatico che si espande fino a coprire il cielo di Manhattan, un Esame Nazionale per gli Scrittori...more
Mass Market Paperback, 173 pages
Published
September 17th 1976
by Pocket Books
(first published 1968)
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The Balloon is now my very favorite short story of all time.
It's only simple on the surface.
My second favorite story in the book is Can We Talk.
Best narrative use of artichokes ever.
There is so much to love in this collection of stories. The author uses common colors as adjectives so skillfully that they lend substance to the story, making it almost tangible. This use of colors may sound obvious, but I've very rarely read a book where this was done so well.
When asked how i decided to purchase a...more
It's only simple on the surface.
My second favorite story in the book is Can We Talk.
Best narrative use of artichokes ever.
There is so much to love in this collection of stories. The author uses common colors as adjectives so skillfully that they lend substance to the story, making it almost tangible. This use of colors may sound obvious, but I've very rarely read a book where this was done so well.
When asked how i decided to purchase a...more
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"I wrote poppycock, sometimes cockypap," says the narrator of "See the Moon?" And that explains a lot. But the cockypap is great, though if you don't like it, don't bother.
I loved the story "Robert Kennedy Saved From Drowning," which is made up of sections whose subjects are ways of looking at Kennedy. In the section called, "Attitude towards his work," the narrator says, "Sometimes I can't seem to do anything. The work is there, piled up, it seems to me an insurmountable obstacle....Then, in a...more
I loved the story "Robert Kennedy Saved From Drowning," which is made up of sections whose subjects are ways of looking at Kennedy. In the section called, "Attitude towards his work," the narrator says, "Sometimes I can't seem to do anything. The work is there, piled up, it seems to me an insurmountable obstacle....Then, in a...more
Sono 15 brevi racconti assurdi, privi di una struttura narrativa, che colgono attimi di vita e la reinterpretano secondo l’occhio visionario dello scrittore, considerato il padre della letteratura post moderna americana. Faccio degli esempi, per far capire: nel racconto “Robert Kennedy salvato dalle acque”, il senatore americano è rappresentato con “berretto nero, mantellina nera e spada”, uno Zorro moderno. Nel primo racconto della raccolta, “la rivolta degli indiani”, troviamo una città americ...more
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From "This Newspaper Here": "Again today the little girl come along come along dancing doggedly with her knitting needle steel-blue knitting needle. She knows I can't get up out of this chair theoretically and sticks me, here and there, just to make me yell, nice little girl from down the block somewhere. Once I corrected her sharply saying 'don't for God's sake what pleasure is there hearing me scream like this?' She was wearing a blue Death of Beethoven printed dress and white shoes which mama...more
Jan 09, 2008
Zalman
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
fans/students of postmodern/experimental fiction
Quintessential Barthelme, this is his second collection of short fictions, which includes the classic "Robert Kennedy Saved from Drowning". That story appeared in the April 1968 issue (#3) of the New American Review, only a couple of months before Kennedy's assassination. I happened on a used copy of NAR #3 about a year later, and this little "story" of Barthelme's simply blew me away. I hadn't yet become acquainted with other experimentalists of the time, so "Robert Kennedy" was like nothing el...more
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Terzo tentativo di leggere Barthelme decisamente fallito, nonostante lui sia uno degli scrittori che ha ispirato DFW e DWF decisamente mi piace. Evidentemente il sillogismo non sempre funziona. Brevi sprazzi che ogni tanto mi hanno incoraggiato a continuare la lettura, ma niente di più. Cosa ci sia tra noi che non faccia funzionare a dovere il rapporto ancora non me lo spiego, ma non riesco a vedere la genialità in quel che leggo, mi lascia fredda, spesso trovo i racconti inconcludenti.
The story, "The Balloon" was a life changer for me when I first read it. Even more than I suspect Barthelme realized, it points the way toward a postmodern culture. Anyone on Goodreads or Facebook should be able to see the connection between the balloon and social networking.
The rest of the collection is more experimentally postmodern, not that there's anything wrong with that. It just didn't do it for me as much.
The rest of the collection is more experimentally postmodern, not that there's anything wrong with that. It just didn't do it for me as much.
Barthelme dances on the fine line between reality and absurdity with such finesse that every one of his stories is like going on a magical ride inside the mind of someone who is always three steps ahead of the rest of us.
Alcuni racconti sono troppo sperimentali, altri mi lasciano indifferente. Quelli che valgono: Il pallone, Robert Kennedy salvate dalle acque, la banda della polizia, Partita. La rivolta degli Indiani è affascinante, ma grazie forse un po' troppo
Just a book I picked up at a book swap, seemed interesting and it was.
My favorite story was Alice, fragmented sentences and wild punctuation…
My favorite story was Alice, fragmented sentences and wild punctuation…
I loved this book. It really turned my head around, or, as we said back in the old days, blew my mind.
I love Donald Barthelme. His writing has a big influence on mine. His story "The Balloon" is remarkable and shows why writing is fun and gorgeous and inspiring.
Early short stories by Barthelme about different subjects including the Vietnam War, contemporary art, politics, love and fatherhood. Included is the frequently anthologized “Robert Kennedy Saved from Drowning,” a great pastiche of the “profile” articles that appear in glossy magazines like Life and Time. In some of the fictions, the narrative techniques are experimental (“A Picture History of the War,” “Edward and Pia,” “Alice); in others, while the narrative techniques are more conventional, t...more
"The School", "Robert Kennedy Saved from Drowning", and "Game" are the best stories in this collection. Everything else is a miss.
I dunno, man. Barthelme is one of those writers I should love, in theory. In this collection I did love "The Balloon" and thought a few other stories were interesting or funny—"Report," "The Police Band," and "Game." But the others...I don't know. Too inscrutable for me. I've read a few other scattered Barthelme stories and really liked them, so this won't be the last collection of his that I read. But half of these stories were uphill battles, and kind of not worth the struggle. Everyone should...more
Not quite as good as Come Back, Dr. Caligari, though I liked the story about the balloon a lot.
Feb 02, 2008
Jonathan McNamara
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
freaky-psychedelia
This book tumbles the words out of it. A strange prose style makes it sometimes a little difficult to follow the image projection. This writer is phenomenal at cutting close; flawed contradictions sung with unflailing emotive power. Another, on the other hand, might view the stories as being almost unnecessary for the telling. Neither mawkish or sentimental, of almost crude powerful construction. It is a little book of unanticipated rewards that follow on and onwards.
edward e pia, cazzo. scusate, edward e pia.
"Partita", "Questo giornale qui", "Il pallone" (ovviamente)... tralasciando il gusto personale (puro piacere, per la cronaca), mi pare impossibile fare a meno di un libro così. Tutta o quasi la migliore letteratura degli anni successivi gli è debitrice. E, in molti casi, questa raccolta di racconti è ancora abbondantemente in credito.
I can't recommend this as a whole, but several of the stories were excellent. In particular I liked Game (full text: http://www.latexnet.org/~burnt/Game.html ) and Report.
Onirico. Seguirà recensione più approfondita.
Feb 18, 2008
Jeffrey Ottem
marked it as to-read
shorts stories i actually give a shit about.
Great stuff. Read it!
May 23, 2013
Jean
is currently reading it
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Donald Barthelme was born to two students at the University of Pennsylvania. The family moved to Texas two years later, where Barthelme's father would become a professor of architecture at the University of Houston, where Barthelme would later major in journalism. In 1951, still a student, he wrote his first articles for the Houston Post. Barthelme was drafted into the Korean War in 1953, arriving...more
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“I spoke to Sylvia. "Do you think this is a good life?”
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“I wanted to say a certain thing to a certain man, a certain true thing that had crept into my head. I opened my head, at the place provided, and proceeded to pronounce the true thing that lay languishing there—that is, proceeded to propel that trueness, that felicitous trularity, from its place inside my head out into world life. The certain man stood waiting to receive it. His face reflected an eager accepting-ness. Everything was right. I propelled, using my mind, my mouth, all my muscles. I propelled. I propelled and propelled. I felt trularity inside my head moving slowly through the passage provided (stained like the caves of Lascaux with garlic, antihistamines, Berloiz, a history, a history) toward its debut on the world stage. Past my teeth, with their little brown sweaters knitted of gin and cigar smoke, toward its leap to critical scrutiny. Past my lips, with their tendency to flake away in cold weather—”
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