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The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing
*A Best Book of 2014 ― Flavorwire , Entropy Magazine , Book Riot "The novel is an attempt to write about film through fiction, engaging both art forms at once with the analytic mind of the academic and the imagination of the storyteller. In the process, Rombes found the freedom of fiction pushing him towards a new type of writing. For the reader, there is little we can know for sure, but this is what makes the book so exciting."
― Irish Times Synopsis
In the mid-'90s a rare-film librarian at a state university in Pennsylvania mysteriously burned his entire stockpile of film canisters and disappeared. Roberto Acestes Laing was highly regarded by acclaimed directors around the globe for his keen eye, appreciation for eccentricity, and creativity in interpretation. Unsure at first whether Laing is a pseudonym or some sort of Hollywood boogeyman, a journalist manages to track the forgotten man down to a motel on the fringe of the Wisconsin wilds. Laing agrees to speak with the journalist, but only through the lens of the cinema. What ensues is an atmospheric, cryptic extrapolation of movies and how they intertwine with life, and the forgotten films that curse the lost librarian still.
― Irish Times Synopsis
In the mid-'90s a rare-film librarian at a state university in Pennsylvania mysteriously burned his entire stockpile of film canisters and disappeared. Roberto Acestes Laing was highly regarded by acclaimed directors around the globe for his keen eye, appreciation for eccentricity, and creativity in interpretation. Unsure at first whether Laing is a pseudonym or some sort of Hollywood boogeyman, a journalist manages to track the forgotten man down to a motel on the fringe of the Wisconsin wilds. Laing agrees to speak with the journalist, but only through the lens of the cinema. What ensues is an atmospheric, cryptic extrapolation of movies and how they intertwine with life, and the forgotten films that curse the lost librarian still.
176 pages, Paperback
First published October 20, 2014
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About the author
Nicholas Rombes
29 books31 followersNicholas Rombes works in Detroit. His novels include The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing (Two Dollar Radio), The Rachel Condition (CLASH Books), and Lisa 2, v 1.0 (Calamari Archives). He's written for The Believer, The Oxford American, n+1 online, & Filmmaker Magazine and is author of Ramones, from Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 series and 10/40/70 from Zer0 Books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
December 13, 2017
I adored this weird and remarkable little book about lost films, unreliable histories and the uncanny in the everyday. It consists of a series of descriptions of films, related to the journalist narrator by R.A. Laing, a librarian and historian notorious for having (supposedly) destroyed the only copies of numerous rare films. Many of them are purported to have been the work of legendary directors, but that could just be rumour. In this story, very little is certain, including the veracity of Laing's recollections, for which there is no surviving evidence other than his word. The films, as Laing portrays them, are starkly isolated scenes or fragmented sequences, filled with uncomfortably imprecise dialogue and actions, dripping dread and unease. They taunt the viewer with deliberate glitches and techniques that seem to move beyond the physical possibilities of cinema. The description is extraordinarily vivid – Rombes knows exactly how to bring these films to life so that you see and hear them play out as you read.
There are a few digressions, during which we learn that the narrator has lost his young daughter, Emily, to cancer. Grief is what motivates the narrator; it causes him to see himself in the characters Laing describes, the restless seekers and solitary vigilantes. In this way (and in others) the films appear to bleed into the real world. A local surge in missing children – which the narrator, or maybe the author, seems, at one point, to briefly, uncertainly connect with Laing's presence – gets mixed up with Emily's death. It adds to the disquiet that we know so little of the world outside the motel room in which the narrator listens to Laing's recollections. But all this is acknowledged within the text itself. Speaking of why he had to destroy the films, Laing says: 'there was something there, in between the frames, something that wasn't quite an image and wasn't quite a sound.' Similarly, there is something nameless and strange in between the lines, the scenes, the chapters in this book.
When I read Tomas Tomaszewski's The Eleventh Letter, which was my favourite book of last year, I felt it was near-unique, hard to pin down – a book that made me see and feel the story rather than simply imagine a scene. This is the closest I have yet come to recapturing that surreal cinematic ambience. The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing also reminded me of Things We Lost in the Fire, the film Southbound, and some other things I can't quite put a name to. It has that unheimlich effect of tugging at just-out-of-reach ghosts of memories in ways you can't quite comprehend.
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There are a few digressions, during which we learn that the narrator has lost his young daughter, Emily, to cancer. Grief is what motivates the narrator; it causes him to see himself in the characters Laing describes, the restless seekers and solitary vigilantes. In this way (and in others) the films appear to bleed into the real world. A local surge in missing children – which the narrator, or maybe the author, seems, at one point, to briefly, uncertainly connect with Laing's presence – gets mixed up with Emily's death. It adds to the disquiet that we know so little of the world outside the motel room in which the narrator listens to Laing's recollections. But all this is acknowledged within the text itself. Speaking of why he had to destroy the films, Laing says: 'there was something there, in between the frames, something that wasn't quite an image and wasn't quite a sound.' Similarly, there is something nameless and strange in between the lines, the scenes, the chapters in this book.
When I read Tomas Tomaszewski's The Eleventh Letter, which was my favourite book of last year, I felt it was near-unique, hard to pin down – a book that made me see and feel the story rather than simply imagine a scene. This is the closest I have yet come to recapturing that surreal cinematic ambience. The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing also reminded me of Things We Lost in the Fire, the film Southbound, and some other things I can't quite put a name to. It has that unheimlich effect of tugging at just-out-of-reach ghosts of memories in ways you can't quite comprehend.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
November 27, 2022
"Could Laing possibly understand that the stories he was telling me about the films he destroyed weren't about the films at all, but something else, a deep code, and that I hoped to find in one of his phrases some black magic, a curse or a prayer or a spell or an incantation that would crack it?"
En esta novela tan atmosférica y hechizante hay solo dos personajes, por una parte Roberto Acestes Laing un oscuro bibliotecario que trabaja para una universidad de Pensilvania, especializado en películas raras y casi perdidas que en un momento dado quema las únicas copias que había de una serie películas que parecían haber sido dirigidas por directores de cine de culto, Antonioni, Lynch, Maya Deren, y desaparece misteriosamente casi al instante; y por otra parte el otro personaje es el periodista que le sigue la pista hasta un perdido motel en las afueras de Winsconsin, lo encuentra y Laing accede a ser entrevistado por él.
“...and I expected blood or something worse to fill the screen but instead it gradually voided out, the creeping blackness filling everything and that's how it ended, in a consuming blackness that plunged the room itself into the night."
Realmente cuando el periodista accede a seguirle la pista a Laing no sabe casi absolutamente nada de él, solo que R.A. Laing habia sido un cinéfilo muy apreciado por ciertos directores de vanguardia por su ojo a la hora de captar la esencia de ciertas obras que se salían de lo habitual, por este motivo su misteriosa desaparición causa una atracción en el medio cinéfilo en el sentido de que ¿como un tipo que ama el cine es capaz de quemar y destruir las únicas copias que había de películas que estaban bajo su protección y cuidado???
"One thing that's always bothered me about that scene, it was silent except for what appeared to be a gunshot, At least that's what I remember from that night, watching the film that no one else wanted to see because it wasn't by David Lynch. The gunshot. But no corresponding action in the scene. Neither the horse or the horsemen react to the sound, as if it was meant only for the audiencie, some sort of secret signal from the filmmakers to us."
Desde el momento en que el periodista se pone frente a Laing para entrevistarle queda claro cual es el motivo principal de que Laing haya aceptado a esta entrevista y es básicamente revivir estas películas destruidas a través de su memoria. Estas películas no existieron realmente pero si en la ficción de Nicholas Rombes, así que es interesante el hecho de que desde el momento en que Laing en su entrevista le narra el metraje perdido y destruido, esta película resucita para nosotros, y lo hace de tal manera que nos resulta muy fácil imaginarnos este metraje porque cada una de estas narraciones se corresponden perfectamente con la atmósfera y el estilo de estos directores de cine, incluso imitando el ritmo dependiendo de los planos secuencia. Así que Nicholas Rombes construye una novela formada a través de pequeñas historias que provienen de una serie de películas que ya no existen, Laing las revive en su memoria y las cuenta, pero...¿hasta qué punto lo que está contando R.A. Laing es real o producto de su invención???
"I also came to understand that Laing didn't think of the destroyed films as lost treasures at all, but instead as something more dangerous, as expressions of pure nothingness. A nothingness that goes beyond nihilsm, beyond philosophy, a sort of absence, that's so seductive and so powerful that to look upon it is to corrupt a part of your soul."
Quizá lo que de verdad interese al autor sea el hecho de que estas películas ya no se puedan ver, de la misma forma que antes de la llegada del cine primero en las cintas de vhs, y más tarde en dvd, y finalmente en streaming a través de las plataformas digitales, grabaciones, copias sucesivas, antes de esto, las películas solo se podían ver en el cine, o incluso en televisión y solo perduraban en la memoria, y cada uno de nosotros quizás las recordara de una forma distinta porque solo conservábamos el recuerdo de ellas una vez visionada. Ahora es muy diferente tal como cuenta el mismo autor:
“La maldición de nuestro tiempo puede ser que ahora es imposible olvidar. Encontramos rastros de nosotros mismos en todas partes, huellas digitales que no se erosionan con el tiempo. Y los libros, las películas y los programas de televisión que amamos permanecen, al parecer, para siempre, negándonos el nebuloso placer de no recordarlos. Memoria de alta definición. La tiranía del pasado, colapsando en el presente.” (Nicholas Rombes, articulo del Filmmaker Magazine sobre Solo Dios Perdona, de NWR)
Asi que Nicholas Rombes ha construido una novela sobre la memoria porque a medida que Roberto Acestes Laing recuerda con detalle estas películas que ya no existen, de alguna forma les da vida y al mismo tiempo está creando una obra nueva, lo que me remite a una cita de Charlie Kaufman de su Mundo Hormiga que reflexionaba una y otra vez sobre la misma idea: "¿La película fue creación de Ingo? ¿O estoy a punto de crear la película al recrearla? ¿Es el acto de recreación el verdadero acto de creación?, y, de ser así, ¿demostraría de una vez por todas que la recreación antecede a la creación?"
Laing después de haber desaparecido misteriosamente accede a hablar con el periodista precisamente y quizás para preservar estas películas que él mismo hizo desaparecer porque mientras hable y continue recreándolas, las está no solo rememorando sino amando.
"...where he says something like, maybe cinema will be able to step in and do what literature is no longer able to do: tell the truth about life.
- Is that what you think. That films can do that?
-If they did, tell the truth about life, who would want to watch them? They'd have to be destroyed, because who can look at truth and survive, or at least survive all in one piece?”
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2022...
En esta novela tan atmosférica y hechizante hay solo dos personajes, por una parte Roberto Acestes Laing un oscuro bibliotecario que trabaja para una universidad de Pensilvania, especializado en películas raras y casi perdidas que en un momento dado quema las únicas copias que había de una serie películas que parecían haber sido dirigidas por directores de cine de culto, Antonioni, Lynch, Maya Deren, y desaparece misteriosamente casi al instante; y por otra parte el otro personaje es el periodista que le sigue la pista hasta un perdido motel en las afueras de Winsconsin, lo encuentra y Laing accede a ser entrevistado por él.
“...and I expected blood or something worse to fill the screen but instead it gradually voided out, the creeping blackness filling everything and that's how it ended, in a consuming blackness that plunged the room itself into the night."
Realmente cuando el periodista accede a seguirle la pista a Laing no sabe casi absolutamente nada de él, solo que R.A. Laing habia sido un cinéfilo muy apreciado por ciertos directores de vanguardia por su ojo a la hora de captar la esencia de ciertas obras que se salían de lo habitual, por este motivo su misteriosa desaparición causa una atracción en el medio cinéfilo en el sentido de que ¿como un tipo que ama el cine es capaz de quemar y destruir las únicas copias que había de películas que estaban bajo su protección y cuidado???
"One thing that's always bothered me about that scene, it was silent except for what appeared to be a gunshot, At least that's what I remember from that night, watching the film that no one else wanted to see because it wasn't by David Lynch. The gunshot. But no corresponding action in the scene. Neither the horse or the horsemen react to the sound, as if it was meant only for the audiencie, some sort of secret signal from the filmmakers to us."
Desde el momento en que el periodista se pone frente a Laing para entrevistarle queda claro cual es el motivo principal de que Laing haya aceptado a esta entrevista y es básicamente revivir estas películas destruidas a través de su memoria. Estas películas no existieron realmente pero si en la ficción de Nicholas Rombes, así que es interesante el hecho de que desde el momento en que Laing en su entrevista le narra el metraje perdido y destruido, esta película resucita para nosotros, y lo hace de tal manera que nos resulta muy fácil imaginarnos este metraje porque cada una de estas narraciones se corresponden perfectamente con la atmósfera y el estilo de estos directores de cine, incluso imitando el ritmo dependiendo de los planos secuencia. Así que Nicholas Rombes construye una novela formada a través de pequeñas historias que provienen de una serie de películas que ya no existen, Laing las revive en su memoria y las cuenta, pero...¿hasta qué punto lo que está contando R.A. Laing es real o producto de su invención???
"I also came to understand that Laing didn't think of the destroyed films as lost treasures at all, but instead as something more dangerous, as expressions of pure nothingness. A nothingness that goes beyond nihilsm, beyond philosophy, a sort of absence, that's so seductive and so powerful that to look upon it is to corrupt a part of your soul."
Quizá lo que de verdad interese al autor sea el hecho de que estas películas ya no se puedan ver, de la misma forma que antes de la llegada del cine primero en las cintas de vhs, y más tarde en dvd, y finalmente en streaming a través de las plataformas digitales, grabaciones, copias sucesivas, antes de esto, las películas solo se podían ver en el cine, o incluso en televisión y solo perduraban en la memoria, y cada uno de nosotros quizás las recordara de una forma distinta porque solo conservábamos el recuerdo de ellas una vez visionada. Ahora es muy diferente tal como cuenta el mismo autor:
“La maldición de nuestro tiempo puede ser que ahora es imposible olvidar. Encontramos rastros de nosotros mismos en todas partes, huellas digitales que no se erosionan con el tiempo. Y los libros, las películas y los programas de televisión que amamos permanecen, al parecer, para siempre, negándonos el nebuloso placer de no recordarlos. Memoria de alta definición. La tiranía del pasado, colapsando en el presente.” (Nicholas Rombes, articulo del Filmmaker Magazine sobre Solo Dios Perdona, de NWR)
Asi que Nicholas Rombes ha construido una novela sobre la memoria porque a medida que Roberto Acestes Laing recuerda con detalle estas películas que ya no existen, de alguna forma les da vida y al mismo tiempo está creando una obra nueva, lo que me remite a una cita de Charlie Kaufman de su Mundo Hormiga que reflexionaba una y otra vez sobre la misma idea: "¿La película fue creación de Ingo? ¿O estoy a punto de crear la película al recrearla? ¿Es el acto de recreación el verdadero acto de creación?, y, de ser así, ¿demostraría de una vez por todas que la recreación antecede a la creación?"
Laing después de haber desaparecido misteriosamente accede a hablar con el periodista precisamente y quizás para preservar estas películas que él mismo hizo desaparecer porque mientras hable y continue recreándolas, las está no solo rememorando sino amando.
"...where he says something like, maybe cinema will be able to step in and do what literature is no longer able to do: tell the truth about life.
- Is that what you think. That films can do that?
-If they did, tell the truth about life, who would want to watch them? They'd have to be destroyed, because who can look at truth and survive, or at least survive all in one piece?”
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2022...
December 7, 2014
Unsettling, deeply strange. Descriptions of films destroyed for their dark mesmeric power. An odd, innovative metatext, with nightmarish implications subliminally cut in.
April 4, 2019
lucid, slipstream, Ballardian, surreal, Kafkaesque, new weird
November 20, 2014
I thought I wouldn't be able to give "The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing" an impartial read, as I studied under Rombes at the University of Detroit Mercy and know him now as a friend and mentor. I was slightly worried that I'd end up finishing the novel only because I look up to Rombes -- I can be pretty picky about books I read for enjoyment.
This book is -- objectively -- fantastic.
Rombes effortlessly shifts between an eerie retelling of atmospheric, unsettling, violent films that should have never existed in the first place and expositions on life, existence and loss all told through the lens of a conflicted journalist interviewing a man who might be something other.
There's so much more than the story going on here, though. Text is manipulated on the page, not to the same degree as "House of Leaves" or "S", but in the same spirit. Rombes, a film junkie, not only writes about films he wishes existed -- essentially writing in over eight different styles, all while keeping his voice -- but he incorporates film-like techniques into the written word. The most impressive part of the novel, stylistically, came in the middle the book where, after reading, I realized Rombes hadn't used a period in over a page and a half...a "long take", if you will.
Rombes intended this book to be something for film lovers, and that's absolutely what it is. The aura of "The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing" emanates effortlessly from the page from the very beginning, and almost everything in the novel (except for the films that might never have existed) is just abstract and ambiguous enough to leave you feeling unsettled at the end of it all.
"The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing" would be great with or without Rombes' name stamped on the spine, but I'm oh, so glad it is.
A quick, smooth read, Rombes shakes you up enough at the end to prompt second and third readings, much like the greatest films that require multiple viewings for one to "get it."
I'll be starting in on "The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing" again soon.
This book is -- objectively -- fantastic.
Rombes effortlessly shifts between an eerie retelling of atmospheric, unsettling, violent films that should have never existed in the first place and expositions on life, existence and loss all told through the lens of a conflicted journalist interviewing a man who might be something other.
There's so much more than the story going on here, though. Text is manipulated on the page, not to the same degree as "House of Leaves" or "S", but in the same spirit. Rombes, a film junkie, not only writes about films he wishes existed -- essentially writing in over eight different styles, all while keeping his voice -- but he incorporates film-like techniques into the written word. The most impressive part of the novel, stylistically, came in the middle the book where, after reading, I realized Rombes hadn't used a period in over a page and a half...a "long take", if you will.
Rombes intended this book to be something for film lovers, and that's absolutely what it is. The aura of "The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing" emanates effortlessly from the page from the very beginning, and almost everything in the novel (except for the films that might never have existed) is just abstract and ambiguous enough to leave you feeling unsettled at the end of it all.
"The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing" would be great with or without Rombes' name stamped on the spine, but I'm oh, so glad it is.
A quick, smooth read, Rombes shakes you up enough at the end to prompt second and third readings, much like the greatest films that require multiple viewings for one to "get it."
I'll be starting in on "The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing" again soon.
January 5, 2015
Nicholas Rombes writes:
As she sleeps in the dark, Evie cannot have known that the black sky has filled with silent drones so completely autonomous that even to their ground controllers their purpose is obscure, or that the forest ferns produce haploid spores that travel impossible distances, or that her lost sister Kate is sleeping also on some other patch of earth, or that she has not yet even arrived at the deepest part of the forest, or that the animals that have followed her and Farris earlier are still nearby and that they aren’t animals at all but, like the drones, machines in the guise of animals, created by the State for the simple reason that they could be created and once created set loose to explore, as if the State, having already discovered and mapped itself, created these things to experience itself anew, not through the eyes of humans but machines, and not to collect information but to forget information so that it could be discovered again as if for the first time, or that one theory of the well – being debated at this very moment by functionaries of the State – was that the well existed only insofar as it receded from view, a perpetually vanishing vanishing point, and that Evie’s useless, carefully tended tools are already antiques aged beyond use and that she had been on this journey for a very, very long time, not days but months. Or years.
As she sleeps in the dark, Evie cannot have known that the black sky has filled with silent drones so completely autonomous that even to their ground controllers their purpose is obscure, or that the forest ferns produce haploid spores that travel impossible distances, or that her lost sister Kate is sleeping also on some other patch of earth, or that she has not yet even arrived at the deepest part of the forest, or that the animals that have followed her and Farris earlier are still nearby and that they aren’t animals at all but, like the drones, machines in the guise of animals, created by the State for the simple reason that they could be created and once created set loose to explore, as if the State, having already discovered and mapped itself, created these things to experience itself anew, not through the eyes of humans but machines, and not to collect information but to forget information so that it could be discovered again as if for the first time, or that one theory of the well – being debated at this very moment by functionaries of the State – was that the well existed only insofar as it receded from view, a perpetually vanishing vanishing point, and that Evie’s useless, carefully tended tools are already antiques aged beyond use and that she had been on this journey for a very, very long time, not days but months. Or years.
June 2, 2017
Spotted this on Marie-Therese's feed. Really enjoyed its sheer obsessiveness, play with framing devices, and the general creeping unease in the open narratives.
December 26, 2015
A fitful and strange book that chases down rabbit holes of film to explore some HUGE questions about the nature of texts, art, and trauma that I wanted to work maybe more expertly than it did. So, our narrator, grieving the loss of a daughter, interviews a reclusive film critic about a collection of movies the critic destroyed. And along the way, tying it all together, is this meta story about grieving. But also this meta story about the influence of literary criticism in the American academy, maybe. And then, some of the films described didn't seem quite right--so, an early film attributed to Lynch doesn't seem like a film made by Lynch, which feels odd. And so it goes-- there are ideas thrown out that need to be absolutely right in their details to sustain the stories, and as much as I wanted to go with the broader themes of the book, I felt like the parts of it tripped me up, kept me from totally accepting what I was reading.
I like the ambition of it, a lot, and I like the way there are all these smaller narratives interpellated in the larger work, and how, toward the end, especially, the variety of media and ways in which those narratives are presented. It's clever and fun, and the way those stories are told really does flatter Rombes' strengths-- broad, sweeping ideas, without the need for consistent and patient development. So I think this is the work of someone who's found his voice. But this book didn't totally work for me. And I still want to know WTF the orange cone was all about.
I like the ambition of it, a lot, and I like the way there are all these smaller narratives interpellated in the larger work, and how, toward the end, especially, the variety of media and ways in which those narratives are presented. It's clever and fun, and the way those stories are told really does flatter Rombes' strengths-- broad, sweeping ideas, without the need for consistent and patient development. So I think this is the work of someone who's found his voice. But this book didn't totally work for me. And I still want to know WTF the orange cone was all about.
January 1, 2015
Probably closer to a 4.5.
I really liked this book, although the word I'd prefer to use for it is "unsettling" rather than strange or weird. It's unsettling in the way Night Film stuck to me, but without some of the elements in that book. It's structured like a story of an interview of a filmmaker, Laing, but there are some dark undertones both to the work and to the results.
I say it's unsettling because you never fully get the whole idea, but the scenes painted and the concepts discussed just leave you with that weird sense of dread and negativity that doesn't quite want to shake off. The payoff? Who am I to say, really, except that closing the book felt both stress-relieving and unfortunate, as I didn't have to experience what I was experiencing, but still wanted to know and experience more.
If there are flaws here, I could quibble about the execution a bit. The book feels much longer than its under-200 pages, and the literary undertones don't exactly work, resulting in a narrative that feels a little heavier than it needs to (even if it works well within the basic concept).
Overall, I wouldn't have found this without a recommendation from Jeff VanderMeer, and it's a book that really encapsulated a lot of things I was looking for. This won't be for everyone, but you'll know pretty quickly if it's for you.
I really liked this book, although the word I'd prefer to use for it is "unsettling" rather than strange or weird. It's unsettling in the way Night Film stuck to me, but without some of the elements in that book. It's structured like a story of an interview of a filmmaker, Laing, but there are some dark undertones both to the work and to the results.
I say it's unsettling because you never fully get the whole idea, but the scenes painted and the concepts discussed just leave you with that weird sense of dread and negativity that doesn't quite want to shake off. The payoff? Who am I to say, really, except that closing the book felt both stress-relieving and unfortunate, as I didn't have to experience what I was experiencing, but still wanted to know and experience more.
If there are flaws here, I could quibble about the execution a bit. The book feels much longer than its under-200 pages, and the literary undertones don't exactly work, resulting in a narrative that feels a little heavier than it needs to (even if it works well within the basic concept).
Overall, I wouldn't have found this without a recommendation from Jeff VanderMeer, and it's a book that really encapsulated a lot of things I was looking for. This won't be for everyone, but you'll know pretty quickly if it's for you.
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April 14, 2022“In college I had a physics professor who wrote the date and time in red marker on a sheet of white paper and then lit the paper on fire and placed it on a metallic mesh basket on the lab table where it burned to ashes. He asked us whether or not the information on the paper was destroyed and not recoverable, and of course we were wrong, because physics tells us that information is never lost, not even in a black hole, and that what is seemingly destroyed is, in fact, retrievable. In that burning paper the markings of ink on the page are preserved in the way the flame flickers and the smoke curls. Wildly distorted to the point of chaos, the information is nonetheless not dead. Nothing, really, dies. Nothing dies. Nothing dies.”
April 7, 2025
Five and a half years this book sat on my to-read list as I tried to locate an affordable copy. Published by Two Dollar Radio, it has long been out of print (published in the distant year 2014) and the copies I found were priced at over $100, way more than I am willing to spend for a non-reference book. Finally I tracked down one in my price range but after five and a half years of waiting, could it possibly meet expectations?
Yes. It had a lot of things I like in novels when I can find them: unreliable narrators (two, really), histories of fictional objects (movies, in this case), an unsettling tone. Just all around good stuff. Cover blurbs by Brian Evenson even, a surefire indicator of a lack of ordinariness.
The only thing that kept me from liking it more was that nothing really happened. A film scholar/journalist is assigned to interview the rare-film librarian Roberto Laing, who is holed up in an Ohio hotel. Laing destroyed a number of films, films that few if any other than Laing have seen. The novel is pretty much Laing talking about his memories of these films, or in a couple cases, sharing his notes or treatments of the films.
Did the films exist? Did Laing see them? How well did he remember them? The journalist interviewing him casts doubt on both Laing and himself. Can a book of fiction be told wrongly? What is the point of any of it?
On one hand, you can view this book as over 150 pages of movie reviews of imaginary movies. If that sounds horrible or stupid or in some other way unappealing, avoid reading this (assuming you can find an affordable copy to read in the first place).
If you're into slipstream fiction (which this very much is and I would love to find more books like it), or you want to indulge in a book that is unlike any other you'll read (the only thing I can think of I have read that comes close would be Danielewski's House of Leaves but that is a distant cousin of this), it's worth taking a chunk of your life looking for a copy.
Yes. It had a lot of things I like in novels when I can find them: unreliable narrators (two, really), histories of fictional objects (movies, in this case), an unsettling tone. Just all around good stuff. Cover blurbs by Brian Evenson even, a surefire indicator of a lack of ordinariness.
The only thing that kept me from liking it more was that nothing really happened. A film scholar/journalist is assigned to interview the rare-film librarian Roberto Laing, who is holed up in an Ohio hotel. Laing destroyed a number of films, films that few if any other than Laing have seen. The novel is pretty much Laing talking about his memories of these films, or in a couple cases, sharing his notes or treatments of the films.
Did the films exist? Did Laing see them? How well did he remember them? The journalist interviewing him casts doubt on both Laing and himself. Can a book of fiction be told wrongly? What is the point of any of it?
On one hand, you can view this book as over 150 pages of movie reviews of imaginary movies. If that sounds horrible or stupid or in some other way unappealing, avoid reading this (assuming you can find an affordable copy to read in the first place).
If you're into slipstream fiction (which this very much is and I would love to find more books like it), or you want to indulge in a book that is unlike any other you'll read (the only thing I can think of I have read that comes close would be Danielewski's House of Leaves but that is a distant cousin of this), it's worth taking a chunk of your life looking for a copy.
January 19, 2018
I appreciate the concept and the author's attempt to realize it. Is a love of film and a desire to create a Meshes of the Afternoon type of uneasiness enough to carry a novel? Not in my experience reading this book. Anyways, none of it works for me and this is the type of book I would love to work for me. If these made up films are meant to pass muster (or even entertain) your average liberal arts degree having middle-aged film or lit buff then you'll be let down. Honestly, it's a fool's errand to attempt it (even if you're one of the directors whose work is fictitiously destroyed in this novel). At the end of the day, post modern novel or not you need to empathize with the characters and the characters of this book seemed to be the facet that received the least attention. Foster-Wallace or Bolano seem to be what the author was aspiring to here. In the case of each of those authors tackling film (Infinite Jest and 2666) it worked because even at their most indulgent esoteric film or video moments, Wallace and Bolano ground the reader in the characters that these samizdat pieces of media are impacting.
April 29, 2020
I usually love Two Dollar Radio books, but this one had no pull. After giving it more than a fighting chance, I'm choosing not to finish it. Some of the images from within the films were intriguing, in an abstract sense. But the book provides no reason to care about this man describing the content of the films he has destroyed, or really about the narrator who is interviewing him. What does either character want out of this interaction, and why? Who knows. I really wanted to finish the book, but every time I picked it up I would read a few paragraphs and then feel an active aversion to continuing. If nothing else, this is a singular achievement, because I've never experienced anything quite like it. I'm a big fan of books in which idea or concept takes a prominent role. I like Auster, Borges, Calvino. But even "idea" books need compelling characters. This feels like an exercise in how to affirmatively avoid or even sabotage characterization.
July 21, 2017
Probably a very good book for a very different reader than me.
July 19, 2019
I don't think I was the intended audience for this book.
July 5, 2020
I am confused and feel disjointed from reality.
March 25, 2022
unsettling and quick
March 26, 2023
surreal and creeping, it's a fascinating exploration of film and memory and loss
June 6, 2024
engaged w/ here (w/ an eye toward reissuing): https://5cense.com/24/1154.htm
September 9, 2015
Not an easy book to rate. Our nameless narrator is a writer working for a small film journal. He has managed to get an interview with a film historian, Roberto Acestes Laing, who is famous, or infamous, for having allegedly burned the sole extant copies of various experimental and/or cult films not completely lost to us. The interview, such as it is, largely consists of Laing relating his recollection (perhaps) of the plots of the various lost/destroyed films to the journalist. The whole novel is suffused with a feeling of impending, though unspecified dread, and weirdness. Rombes story is obviously within (or in the interstices between) the plots related by Laing to our narrator. Is the end of the World near? Is Laing a multiple murderer? Is there a secret conspiracy, government controlled or otherwise? Are Laing's recitations of the plots of these films reliable (do the films even exist at all) or has Laing's observation of the films infected with his own warped viewpoint (conversely has observing the films infected Laing with the films' warped viewpoints)? All of this and more is open to the reader's interpretation. Rombe does an excellent job outlining the various films (some perhaps (or perhaps not) by Lynch and/or Antonioni) and creating an all encompassing atmosphere of dread and decay (both in the frame story and in the descriptions of the films themselves). The whole story has an air of the lost libraries of Borges and Eco. Definitely not a novel for those who like their plots clean and clear with a definite resolution, but if you like to work a bit for your story and are open the opaque and the unusual this might be the one for you. I think I might have to reread it to sort my final thoughts on the novel but that's a testament to books power and Rombes' skill.
February 11, 2017
One of my favorite books published in the last few years. Smart and dark and strange and mysterious, it does so many different things and leaves so many questions unanswered that it's kind of perfect.
January 12, 2015
Okay well that was weird.
I don't know quite what to make of this one. And I'm sure that's what Rombes intended. It's unsettling; the story focuses in part on some eerie short films, and the book as a whole gives off the same vibes. You're disconcerted, and can't quite tell why. There are things you can point to as the cause, but you can't shake the feeling that something else is causing the discomfort. So I ended up feeling about the book the same way the narrator seems to feel about the movies. Intentional? I don't know. I don't particularly care. And, though whatever it is does legitimately cause a reaction, it's not quite enough to pull the book through.
I found the writing really frustrating- I felt really distanced from what went on. Which probably contributes to giving the novel its special weirdness. But still just wanted it to end about halfway through.
I want to say that its strangeness makes it memorable, but I'm equally tempted to say that its more like a vaguely nightmarish dream that sticks around your consciousness for a bit then fades away without making much of an impact.
I don't know quite what to make of this one. And I'm sure that's what Rombes intended. It's unsettling; the story focuses in part on some eerie short films, and the book as a whole gives off the same vibes. You're disconcerted, and can't quite tell why. There are things you can point to as the cause, but you can't shake the feeling that something else is causing the discomfort. So I ended up feeling about the book the same way the narrator seems to feel about the movies. Intentional? I don't know. I don't particularly care. And, though whatever it is does legitimately cause a reaction, it's not quite enough to pull the book through.
I found the writing really frustrating- I felt really distanced from what went on. Which probably contributes to giving the novel its special weirdness. But still just wanted it to end about halfway through.
I want to say that its strangeness makes it memorable, but I'm equally tempted to say that its more like a vaguely nightmarish dream that sticks around your consciousness for a bit then fades away without making much of an impact.
September 23, 2015
A far weirder book than Night Film but a sibling to it in a wonderful way. I looked at the world differently after reading The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing, not in the sense of understanding it differently but in the sense of having briefly slid across into a neighboring universe and seen a glimpse of a place that is just slightly not the one we’re currently inhabiting. At its core, this is a novel about the power of film – but it achieves so much more than that with an ease and skill that bely the author’s debut status. And if you’re lucky and you reach out to Mr. Rombes, you might even end up, as I did, with more sense of the blurring line between fiction and reality – for in my mailbox the other day came a note with a filmstrip and some ephemera from Laing’s own archive…
More at TNBBC: http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.c...
and at RB: http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2015/08...
More at TNBBC: http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.c...
and at RB: http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2015/08...
November 2, 2017
IS THERE A RATING HIGHER THAN 5 STARS?? THIS BOOK IS SO CRAZY!!
To begin, the sheer volume of imagination filling these pages is astronomical. In addition to the main narrative, Nicholas Rombes has written 10 (11?) short films which make up the bulk of the story. The writing is so mystic, it feels like stepping into bizzaro film world and walking around not knowing who you are or why you came, but unable to leave or look away because you are caught in a trance watching or living these varied manifestations of Laing's retellings. And the ending is so great, drawing the reader into the full meta narrative of the work, insisting that instead of watching, you have to play along.
I did not want this to end and so it didn't. It just kept
To begin, the sheer volume of imagination filling these pages is astronomical. In addition to the main narrative, Nicholas Rombes has written 10 (11?) short films which make up the bulk of the story. The writing is so mystic, it feels like stepping into bizzaro film world and walking around not knowing who you are or why you came, but unable to leave or look away because you are caught in a trance watching or living these varied manifestations of Laing's retellings. And the ending is so great, drawing the reader into the full meta narrative of the work, insisting that instead of watching, you have to play along.
I did not want this to end and so it didn't. It just kept
January 31, 2016
I received a promotional copy through the First Reads program.
Rating: Soft 4 - more 3 1/2 than 4.
It's definitely original. I got the feeling I was reading something different, something unusual. There's a stripped-down quality that works, in the novel proper as well as in the films described in the novel.
That being said, I never really bought Laing's explanation for why the films had to be destroyed. Also, the ending was a bit of an anti-climax.
It's worth mentioning that a Goodreads reviewer who's more of a cult film buff than I am gave this book a harsh review.
(I don't usually point out proofing overlooks, but Joe Lewis for Joe Louis? Come on, man.)
Rating: Soft 4 - more 3 1/2 than 4.
It's definitely original. I got the feeling I was reading something different, something unusual. There's a stripped-down quality that works, in the novel proper as well as in the films described in the novel.
That being said, I never really bought Laing's explanation for why the films had to be destroyed. Also, the ending was a bit of an anti-climax.
It's worth mentioning that a Goodreads reviewer who's more of a cult film buff than I am gave this book a harsh review.
(I don't usually point out proofing overlooks, but Joe Lewis for Joe Louis? Come on, man.)
December 30, 2014
Probably more like a 3.5, for me.
This fits squarely in the Weird Fiction genre, because the films described in the text all capture moments of the uncanny in unique ways, some more haunting than others. I have a feeling that certain scenes will resonate with me for years, much like those in a Lynch film do.
As if mirroring the destroyed films, the plot wavers in and out of focus, leaving readers to form some of their own conclusions. Ordinarily, I love this tactic, but I'm still struggling to determine whether or not I had enough context to draw those conclusions.
Bizarre and dreamlike - It may not have been fully satisfying, but I'm glad I stumbled across it.
This fits squarely in the Weird Fiction genre, because the films described in the text all capture moments of the uncanny in unique ways, some more haunting than others. I have a feeling that certain scenes will resonate with me for years, much like those in a Lynch film do.
As if mirroring the destroyed films, the plot wavers in and out of focus, leaving readers to form some of their own conclusions. Ordinarily, I love this tactic, but I'm still struggling to determine whether or not I had enough context to draw those conclusions.
Bizarre and dreamlike - It may not have been fully satisfying, but I'm glad I stumbled across it.
July 16, 2015
3.4 stars. An interesting, well-constructed work that feels as though it could have been a much shorter, more concise piece. I don't know that it needed to be a novel, and that the author could have conveyed the different films without indulging so much in the descriptions of each. It's a bit paradoxical to say, but I felt as though the themes were both too heavy-handed and too unclear, primarily due to the disparate episodes, I suppose.
An intense, bleak look at the inability to confront the horrors of real truth, the films-within-the-text would be a lot more compelling if they were a little bit more visual and a little less intent on wallowing in their own misery.
An intense, bleak look at the inability to confront the horrors of real truth, the films-within-the-text would be a lot more compelling if they were a little bit more visual and a little less intent on wallowing in their own misery.
December 27, 2014
Beguiling in some ways, unsatisfying in others. It's irresistible for anyone interested in films, and who is taken by the notion of lost films and the power they exude. But the narrative lacks the kind of pin-sharp precision that is necessary for the book to live up to its full potential. A long digression in the penultimate chapter kills the tempo, and the novel never quite recovers from that blow, even if the denouement is then as haunting as the book at its best.
It's short enough to justify the trip for film enthusiasts though, so I would recommend it to those who are so inclined.
It's short enough to justify the trip for film enthusiasts though, so I would recommend it to those who are so inclined.
August 21, 2015
Very interesting, and there were some truly chilling moments. In fact, I felt unsettled the entire time reading it. The writing is spectacular, but I guess I just couldn't get over the disparate sections, or didn't understand the point. I guess it ultimately mirrors my attitude toward Lynch (a recurring, narrative anchor point in the novel): I like everything on the aesthetic level, but the narrative is purposefully or self-indulgently obtuse. Was this meant to be a collection of short stories? Or am I just not smart to understand the intended purpose?
April 22, 2016
"...and in those lines there's a recognition that 'nothing really for certain' constitutes an entire method of knowing. Or not-knowing." (p. 78)
I had trouble believing that most of these movies could be attributed to their alleged directors. But the stories themselves were fun and unsettling. I'm also slightly miffed that any "inaccuracies" can be blamed on the unreliability of the Laing character because that seems like an easy get-out-of-jail-free card. The narratives and ideas however are definitely worth exploring, especially given the book's brevity.
I had trouble believing that most of these movies could be attributed to their alleged directors. But the stories themselves were fun and unsettling. I'm also slightly miffed that any "inaccuracies" can be blamed on the unreliability of the Laing character because that seems like an easy get-out-of-jail-free card. The narratives and ideas however are definitely worth exploring, especially given the book's brevity.
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