How to Outthink a Wall: An Anthology

by Marvin Cohen

Who is Marvin Cohen? Brooklyn-born New Yorker Marvin Cohen published numerous surreal and whimsical fictions in books and magazines from 1967 to 1982. This anthology showcases the two modes of Cohen’s writing: short ‘dialogues’ operating in the manner of an Ionesco or Beckett script by inverting language with an eschatological hopelessness while revelling, rather than despairing, in life’s absurdity, and longer stories displaying Cohen’s unique style and knack for shaping language in novel ways: his repetitions, random exclamations, and bestowing on abstract nouns abstract qualities. Cohen has an ear for the music of the absurd on a par with Donald Barthelme, mixing the flip whimsy, astute and wry observation, and verbal heft, with a fondness for paradoxes and intellectual riddles. His incessant probing of the weird crevices of existence makes reading Cohen a perpetual pleasure. This anthology collects Cohen’s four volumes of short fiction.

“His stories are bursting with inventiveness, and have a way of posing awkward questions—this, when most of the world’s story writers are content with dry observation, or mere character assassination.” — The Times Literary Supplement

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

480 pages, Paperback

Published July 18, 2016

About the author

Marvin Cohen was born in New York in 1931 and has had about 150 miscellaneous jobs.

Reviews

[Daniela Gioseffi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an inimitable pleasure to read. Marvin Cohen's book is a joyful trip through various vignettes. It demonstrate our foibles as humans while making us laugh at absurdity. The reviewer on the back of the book, is exactly correct in saying: "Cohen has an ear for the music of the absurd....mixing flip whimsy, astute and wry observation, and verbal heft, with a fondness for paradoxes and intellectual riddles." Cohen's book is "a perpetual pleasure" to enjoy and one can dip in and out of the various witty vignettes at will. As the Times Literary Supplement said: His stories are busting with inventiveness, and have a way of posing awkward questions--- this, when most of the world's story writers are content with dry observation, or mere character assassination." I highly recommend this enjoyable book!

[Geoffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really cool. I give it five stars not because it's perfect (though it's pretty darned good!), but in recognition of how great it is that all this stuff is reprinted in one volume. Not really all that similar to Barthelme, but it's the closest comparison I can think of, and if you like Don B, you'll likely like this too.

[Colin Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

this splendid anthology collects all the pieces from:

Dialogues, 1967
The Monday Rhetoric of the Love Club & Other Parables, 1973
Fables at Life's Expense, 1975
The Inconvenience of Living, 1977
How the Snake Emerged from the Bamboo Pole but Man Emerged from Both, 1978,
Aesthetics in Life and Art, 1982

and adds over twenty more recent pieces.