In Quest of Candlelighters

by Kenneth Patchen

A collection of abstracted prose stories with illustrations.

Genres: Poetry, Short Stories, Fiction

142 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Kenneth Patchen was an American poet and novelist. He experimented with different forms of writing and incorporated painting, drawing, and jazz music into his works, which have been compared with those of William Blake and Walt Whitman. Patchen's biographer wrote that he "developed in his fabulous fables, love poems, and picture poems a deep yet modern mythology that conveys a sense of compassionate wonder amidst the world's violence." Along with his friend and peer Kenneth Rexroth, he was a central influence on the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beat Generation.

Reviews

[S̶e̶a̶n̶]

Never oppose what seems strange in yourself. That is the only part which is aware.

Published in 1972, this is a collection of early rarities and previously out-of-print books.

'Panels for the Walls of Heaven' - a unique assemblage of drawings, paintings, picture poems, and prose pieces drenched in world weariness, lamenting the plight of humanity, the evils of capitalism and war, the soullessness of cities, the struggles of the working class. Haunting and devastating and beautiful in all its darkness. A reprint from the original plates.

'Angel-Carver Blues' - an excerpt from an early version of Sleepers Awake, which I haven't read yet so can't comment on its relevance to that work. If I had to categorize this I'd call it absurdist bohemian noir, but even that nonsensical descriptor doesn't capture Patchen's strange genius. The ending transitions into a clever and tragic metafictional flourish.

'Bury Them in God' - Patchen's only short story, which is weird to consider given how prolific he was and how his writing often seems to defy genre constraints. One wonders if he even considered this a short story? Regardless, this is a harsh slice of working-class realism with a metafictional twist. There is also a possible autobiographical influence, as Patchen went through a similar experience as a teenager. For some reason this story made me recall John Fante, although I haven't read his work in probably two decades so can't verify the validity of any comparison beyond the general working-class family concerns. The title of this story is amusingly misprinted as 'Bury Them in Cod' on the New Directions page for this collection, an error which I suspect Patchen would enjoy.

'They Keep Riding Down All the Time' – a sort of travelogue describing a summer spent at the seashore, told with all the pleasures of Patchen's idiosyncratic style and touching on many of his common themes such as individuality, equality, freedom, and anti-authoritarianism.

We are all in this together. Heroes and thieves skulking through a ruined garden being left at the last as vague ghosts to stand among the overturned statues that once were our lives; and oh my poor gentlemen and ladies, the pain and the terror and the loss shall stand there too. Gone is the noise of the legends of youth and of joy; we are not so much awaiting death as dying now—and here, late at night in this stillness, I can hear what that sweet business sounds like.

[Max Nemtsov]

Высокоабстрагированная лирика в прозе. Удивительного диапазона он все-таки был автор и работал в тех регистрах слова, когда становится уже все равно, как это называть, прозой ли, поэзией: это просто поток звуков и поток смыслов. Его единственный рассказ, опубликованный здесь, кстати сказать, великолепен. Это такой суровый реализм в духе Фанте и Хэнка, классика.

[Andrew Bourne]

Click me.

[R.K. Cowles]

3 1/2 stars

[The Gnome’S]

“How deep in peace tonight are trees, sea and sky. Gone may be the dreams of men from this place, but something else surely has not gone- perhaps it is waiting for the dreams to come back. The sad fists of the water close and unclose on the sand, as though they had lost something to. Step of words over the dead…Lie down! lie down! O lie down all you fair ones! You’ve got lots of time to get used to forever.” It was nice to revisit Patchen. While the criticism that he receives for bending “naive” may be true to a certain extent, it doesn’t make what he believes in, and the world he advocates for, wrong. He has a sincerity in his writing that is incredibly endearing and inspiring. While there were a few moments that were a little too “avant-garde” for me, the moments that made me smile or stop to admire the beauty of a passage or line far exceeded them. I definitely recommend that any lovers of poetry give this a read and engage with Patchen’s work.

[Jim]

You know that scene in Breakfast of Champions where Dwayne Hoover becomes convinced that Kilgore Trout’s novel directly addresses him? That’s how I feel when I read Kenneth Patchen. That’s he’s crawled inside my consciousness and is trying to awaken me to the world’s suffering.

[M]

Panels for the Walls of Heaven was amazing.

[Rena Sherwood]

I couldn't make it past the first page.

No stars for this bollocks.

[Grant Johnson]

The universe is in desperate need of more souls like Kenneth Patchen

[Oana-Maria Uliu]

What is this man conflicted about? 🙄

A shallow individual pretending to be deep.