AUTHOR: Patrik Ouředník
READ: December
THOUGHTS: Have never read a book quite like this! I guess I would call it a kind of deconstructive narrative history of the 20th century, as much as that might make some (me) cringe. Despite its consistent deadpan tone and syntactic clarity there is no creedence given to historical linearity or even really any conventional idea of history. Dalkey calls it a novel, and I like that. It is much more a novel than a non-fiction text; it just so happens to be a novel written entirely with 'factual' elements, which I really like and I find exciting. Reading this made me tremendously curious about Patrik Ouředník, whom I have never really heard of before reading about this I think. I might have seen his name on some websites but no ideas or titles attached itself to the name. I would recommend this book to pretty much everyone. The structuring element along with the the tone really make it work for me. Because the tone feels so distant it, at times, almost felt like I was reading a story about a foreign world, that perhaps has nothing to do with the one I inhabit, which I take to be part of the conceit of the book. It almost felt like reading a 120 page version of the "Findings" section in Harper's. Great great yes. 20th century was a mistake and the 21st century will be weirder probably !!!
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