The Village on Horseback: Prose and Verse, 2003-2008

by Jesse Ball

From the author of A Cure for Suicide and Census comes a philosophical recasting of myth and legend, folklore and popular a fabulist’s compendium of poetry and prose. Jesse Ball—long-listed for the National Book Award, a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award, and named one of Granta ’s best young American novelists—is one of the most interesting, lyrical, fanciful, and “disturbingly original” ( Chicago Tribune ) writers working today. And The Village on Horseback is one of his most dazzling and varied works. These experimental pieces—including the Paris Review ’s Plimpton Prize–winning novella “The Early Deaths of Lubeck, Brennan, Harp & Carr”—ask the reader not to imagine the world for what it is, but for what it could a blank tableau on which a spirited imagination can conjure tales out of, seemingly, nothing. The Village on Horseback is an unmissable treat, a book of voyages to be taken on journeys far and wide.

Genres: Poetry, Short Stories, Fiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

Jesse Ball (1978-) Born in New York. The author of fourteen books, most recently, the novel How To Set a Fire and Why. His prizewinning works of absurdity have been published to acclaim in many parts of the world and translated into more than a dozen languages. The recipient of the Paris Review's Plimpton Prize, as well as fellowships from the NEA, the Heinz foundation, and others, he is on the faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Reviews

[J.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Pieter Emily" and "The Early Deaths of Lubeck, Brennan, Harp, and Carr" are true works of art: bold, smart, slick, & beautiful.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Village on Horseback is a collection of little moments, which is sort of the opposite of Ball's novels, in which the reader is swept up in the universe he creates and the smaller scale is less important than the feeling of being carried away. There are still the trademarks of Ball's writing here: the crispness of the prose, the almost unintentional humor, the uniqueness of the vision. But these elements are discovered more on the level of the phrase and of the sentence, and with the exception of the two novellas, each section, whether poetry or fiction, is very short and self-contained. Despite this brevity, Ball allows his language greater density. The gauze-like prose of his novels is allowed to fill out. The result is beautiful, though it keeps the reader from sinking as deeply into the fictive world. It's like an intense flavor that has to be savored a little at a time.

[Nick Today · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the prose was very intense in large doses. Some seemed extremely stream of consciousness, maybe even a little bit of the nonsensical and large amounts of the absurd. The thing is, Jesse Ball is the only author I know who can turn those elements into a masterpiece. Though I still think Samedi is his best bit of writing by far, reading the village on horseback feels a bit like peering into mind of a genius. It feels raw and powerful, though sometimes hard to grasp. I'm sure I will read it again.

[David Glines · Rating 4 out of 5]

When it hits, it hits like Kafka and Borges and Calvino. When it misses, I'm falling asleep or daydreaming and it's a stone crawling into my pockets and dragging me into a shallow puddle. Still gets 4/5 overall, because its good much more often than its not. Fairy tales for a new era. A tour guide of dreams in cities built by myth and madness.

[Catie Markesich · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems, thoughts, and short stories. I didn’t understand a lot of it, but I wonder if understanding is the point of absurdist writing? My mind definitely opened a lot, and I was surprised a lot, which is praise in my mind. Worth reading for sure, if you are attracted to this kind of writing! The cadence was also comforting, so that when a section didn’t make any sense to me or the meaning of the words didn’t impact me, it still felt nice to read.

“This is the tunnel through which the water flows
And I will bear you as water is borne: in a bucket in a pan,
Or loose throughout the drowning sea.”

“A slightly pale tinge to the day
as if even now it were being remembered.”

“ - What can you do to be of use? Asked the Inspector.
- I can make a noise like a bee and I can run fast around corners, said Jana politely.”

“Defeating the world’s strongest man in a fight does not make you the world’s strongest man.”

“ The world is old, and wherever there is room for a body to sleep, there something has died.”

“Cleverness is no salve. It wants too much. It expects that it has won, or will.”

“We see animals and want what’s theirs, but are afraid to give up even one thing our own.”

“Are you one of those who feels north is north? Or do you suppose we orbit nothing in a void? Is meaning itself a cancer - a lesion - a symptom?”

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting compendium of ephemera and juvenalia from Ball's early career. I wasn't wild about his verse and his early prose collections are more scattershot than anything: pieces are interesting, but never cohering into a whole. That said, the two novellas included here are fantastic and worth the price of admission. And there are definitely moments in the rest of the work that sparkle, too -- but it's not quite the collection I'd hoped it would be. Worth it for the completists, though.

[Dana Jerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed a bit and read around a lot in this book. The Skin Feat was my favorite. The most pure poetry in the volume.
The title of the collection evokes the ‘double-ing’ that seems to happen throughout. A kind of record-skipping, coupling and pairing. Two of everything and repetitive actions and words appear everywhere. Everything and everyone has a twin. A kind of companionship is accomplished this way, as you read the book, and the book allows itself to be opened and held and read by you.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best things I've read. This book is a mammoth. Full of delightful parables and verse. The two novellas near the end ('Pieter Emily' and 'The Early Deaths of Lubeck, Brennan, Harp, and Carr') are unstoppable. Like if Cormac McCarthy read more fables. Or if Daniil Kharms read Cormac McCarthy.

[Dominic De Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

SOOsoo good!! I've read it 3 times. Kinda surreal, fantastical, light, good. Perfect for picking up and putting down, taking with you on adventures and trains and boats. Each time it feels like there are new morsels to be discovered. Just good reading. Pieter Emily is one of my favorite stories ever. i LOVEEE

[D.]

abandoned

[uena · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world is old, and wherever there is room for a body to sleep, there something has died.
___

The sadness of colored glass bottles stands in rows
in the disused pharmacy.

I went there once thinking to play a trick. Oh what a trick.
___

And that there is

at the core of all the great artists, all the great thinkers, some severe misunderstanding, arrived at in childhood and never disclosed, never brought to light. Such a generative force propels imagination, skews thought, forces realization. And since it is, at heart, a mistaken conception, buried deep in the artist's past, one cannot hope to emulate that mind's growth, nor even to find out what it was about which that child was wrong.
___

If, in a crowd of thousands there is preserved
one who knows me, then I go free.

[Elizabeth Gambeski · Rating 4 out of 5]

this work put words to a lot of feelings deep down inside. often when i did not know where the words were headed, i was still fascinated just by the way they were put together. i would find myself saying "that was a beautiful combination of words!" there was so much beauty in the details, in the description, and in the deep emotion expressed. i loved being able to feel the power of the words through their simplicity, vulnerability, and honesty. i look forward to reading more of Ball's work.

[Natalie]

Two new Jesse Ball books in one summer?!!

[Les · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5+ Least favorite JB so far and yet I still want to read it again.

[Robert Morgan Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've ever read in my life. Ball has changed the way I approach writing. Affected me so profoundly there's not enough space here for me to properly address it.