From the Book to the Book: An Edmond Jabès Reader

by Edmond Jabès

The first anthology to span the oeuvre of the late writer Edmond Jabs, including pieces previously unpublished in English. It is translated from the French and includes an introductory essay. "It is as if we had lost nothing, so near does this book of the book seem to the voice and presence of Edmond Jabs. All his rethinking and refeeling of the word and world are here. His massive and knowing melancholy, somehow radiant, is a shared one, as Jabs knew how to share: 'Our book is for tomorrow.' For today too"-Mary Ann Caws.

Genres: Poetry, Philosophy, Judaism, Fiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Edmond Jabes was a major voice in French poetry in the latter half of this century. An Egyptian Jew, he was haunted by the question of place and the loss of place in relation to writing, and he was one of the most significant thinkers of what one might call poetical alienation. He focused on the space of the book, seeing it as the true space in which exile and the promised land meet in poetry and in question. (This is summarized from the reader's description in A New History of French Literature, ed. Denis Hollier.) Very many of Jabes's books of prose and poetry have been translated into English, including The Book of Dialogue ( Wesleyan, 1987) and The Book of Margins (Chicago, 1993), both translated by Rosmarie Waldrop.

Reviews

[Edita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Making a book could mean exchanging the void of writing for writing the void.

( Nothing is alike any more. Remains what is to be remembered, that is, what is still standing between what was and what is no more: simulacrum of object, of language, of light.
Writing is the dawning solitude of the letter.)

[James Grinwis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like I am committing sacrilege here, being a fan of French prose poetry tradition since Rimbaud, but this book befuddled me with its heaviness, heavy in the sense of the wrenching going on between Jabes' meditations on the relationship between the ever elusive 'book' and his conceptions of the nature of God.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I dislike having just a reader of Edmond Jabes. I'd really like to read one of his complete books from beginning to end.
I first read Jabes while I was in college. I underrated him, unfortunately. I thought the whole "Book" bit went into gimmick territory, let's say. I was as wrong as it is possible to be wrong.
Jabes should not be a "difficult" writer. He should be appreciated much more than he is, and he should be sold in cheap paperbacks in airports.
Why isn't this holy scripture? The whole Holocaust framing of Jabes I feel, while important, certainly "undeniable", does distract somewhat from the essential timelessness of his project.

[Dan Kugler · Rating 5 out of 5]

hmm... havent read this for years, but you know what i remember? it knocked me out and i wanted to write like it always. read it in a class by loyola's great jeffery librett with a reading list that made all the tuition and b.s. worth it.

[Don LaVange]

What I read of this in my "Genre of Poetry" class, really put me off. I have been advised to look again. Never finished it, just read several chapters.