The Annotated Nose: An Annotated Edition of William Hundwasser's Cult Classic The Nose

by Marc Estrin

The most unlikely life of a most unsightly man. Marc Estrin discovers that another writer's novel-THE NOSE- not only has spawned a bizarre cult among the nation's youth but also is based on the extraordinary life of a real person-an outcast named Alexei Pigov. Estrin searches Alexei out and ask him to provide annotations to THE NOSE. Alexei says that-although the events of the novel might, for the most part, be real-the purported reasons for them are all damnable lies. On the left-hand page of The Annotated Nose we read THE NOSE itself, and take in its beautifully unsettling illustrations by Delia Robinson. On the right-hand page we follow Alexei's complaints-always surprising and often farreaching. The layers in Estrin's remarkable comic book are as multiple, eclectric, and outrageous as the sequence of mask Alexei wears to hide his face from the world over the caroming trajectory of hie most unlikely life. The Annotated Nose is at once Marc Estrin's most playful and most ambitious work to date.

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published October 30, 2008

About the author

Marc Estrin is an author, cellist, and political activist living in Burlington, Vermont. He has published four novels, and a memoir of his thirty-five years of working with the Bread & Puppet Theater."

Reviews

[Sam Henoch · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is like a fevered dream to which the only remedy is a shockingly cold bath in hopes the sharp immediacy of the chilling cold will knock some sense into your brain for the next time you buy a book based purely on a cover and, one can only hope, to remove the memory of having read it.

The entire time I felt as though I had fallen into a Malkovichian wormhole and was forced to stare, unblinking at the goings-on of a madman as he scrawls his rebuttals towards his autobiography along the walls of his basement dwellings, inked in his own blood.

The left/right page annotative reading method required to consume these pages is an exercise in mental stability and, by the end, I questioned whether or not I was reading the authors annotations or my own maddened driveling.

Will keep on my bookshelf to make people think I’m smart, edgy, and an island of such great complexity.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was amazingly funny, amazingly intriguing and amazingly strangely written. The right-hand side of the book is Alexei Pigov's annotations to The Nose, written on the left side of the book by William Hundwasser. The Nose tells the story of Alexei who was born with a very large nose that made him the victim of ridicule from day one. He decides to hide his nose, first under a Groucho type nose piece and eyeglasses while in school and progresses to different masks and names as he grows to manhood, all the while trying to find a lady love. Marc Estrin draws on a wealth of knowledge about music and philosophy which he imbues Alexei with and the monosyllabic use of vocabulary is brilliant. As Alexie's story is told, the story of one of his loves (or not), Delia, is also told. She happens to be a dwarf whose story of rejection growing up is as painful as Alexei's. Depending on which side of the book you read, the ending is happy or not happy. For people who are 'different' getting out of life what we desire is harder than it is for most other people. This book certainly makes you think about that and how that need not be the case if individuality was something the world celebrated rather than conformity.

[Leah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book and purchased it based on the interesting format and artwork. I'm a sucker for footnotes and books within books. I was bored to tears by the story though. Each paragraph of the book contains some quote from or reference to different iconic pop culture artworks and then the "different" authors proceed to explain what each quote or reference meant to the main character. The book reminded me of terrible essays by students who use quotes as filler in order to meet the length requirements for a term paper.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hereby present the Proboscis Award to The Annotated Nose!

I wish I could nominate for all kinds of more prestigious awards, but there you have it. The Proboscis Award, despite the fact that it is in its first year, is a time-honored badge of distinction, and highly coveted. Over 10,000 reviewers read through over 50,000 submissions, and have arrived at their decision entirely unanimously, without the aid of drugs or coercion. Really, the most brilliant catastrophe (and design) that I've seen published in my lifetime. Do read it.