Miss Doll, Go Home

by David Markson

157 pages, paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

David Markson was an American novelist, born David Merrill Markson in Albany, New York. He is the author of several postmodern novels, including This is Not a Novel, Springer's Progress, and Wittgenstein's Mistress. His most recent work, The Last Novel, was published in 2007 and received a positive review in the New York Times, which called it "a real tour de force."

Markson's work is characterized by an unconventional approach to narration and plot. While his early works may draw on the modernist tradition of William Faulkner and Malcolm Lowry, Markson says his later novels are "literally crammed with literary and artistic anecdotes" and "nonlinear, discontinuous, collage-like, an assemblage."

Dalkey Archive Press has published several of his novels. In December 2006, publishers Shoemaker & Hoard republished two of Markson's early crime novels Epitaph for a Tramp and Epitaph for a Dead Beat in one volume.

In addition to his novels, he has published a book of poetry and a critical study of Malcolm Lowry.

The movie Dirty Dingus Magee, starring Frank Sinatra, is based on Markson's first novel, The Ballad of Dingus Magee, an anti-Western. He wrote three crime novels early in his career.

Educated at Union College and Columbia University, Markson began his writing career as a journalist and book editor, periodically taking up work as a college professor at Columbia University, Long Island University, and The New School.

Markson died in his New York City, West Village apartment.

Reviews

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me help you out: the whole thing is a riff on As I Lay Dying that just never stops with the allusions both insular and without. Essential Markson.

[Маx Nestelieiev · Rating 4 out of 5]

третя "розвага" Марксона після двох "епітафій". кіносценарій, перероблений під Фолкнера. групка невдах у Мексиці надумує по-ленінськи "пограбувати награбоване", але все складається не так, як гадається. персонажі одноманітні, але міс Долл прекрасна, хоч і "йде додому" (а насправді - в лімбо).

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miss Doll, Go Home (1965) was David Markson's third novel. It's a comic crime story about expat American beatnik artists living in Mexico who begin to suspect that newly-arrived American neighbors are actually gangsters on the lamb after having pulled a big heist back in the States. The hilarious plot revolves around the schemes of the starving artists to liberate the hoods from their $400,000 in cash from the heist.

Each chapter is narrated by a different character and alternates among a dozen characters, but as complicated as the form might seem, Markson pulls it off quite effortlessly and manages to keep the narrative flowing.

Because this book is so rare, it has been the subject of a lot of speculation. Although it's a crime novel and noir, it doesn't feature Harry Fannin, but like those novels it features beatnik characters.

[Jayden McComiskie · Rating 3 out of 5]

super rare. and fun.