My amputations : a novel

by Clarence Major

My Amputations follows well-read parolee Mason Ellis as he impersonates an African-American novelist named Clarence McKay, whom he has taken hostage. McKay's literary agent plays along, and almost no one who meets the imposter on his worldwide lecture tour can tell the difference between Mason and the author whose identity he has usurped. (from Poetry Foundation page)

Genres: The United States Of America, Fiction

205 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Currently a professor of twentieth century American literature at the University of California at Davis, Clarence Major is a poet, painter and novelist who was born in Atlanta and grew up in Chicago.
Clarence Major was a finalist for the National Book Awards (1999). He is recipient of many awards, among them, a National Council on The Arts Award (1970), a Fulbright (1981-1983), a Western States Book Award (1986) and two Pushcart prizes--one for poetry, one for fiction. Major is a contributor to many periodicals and anthologies in the USA, Europe, South America and Africa. He has served as judge for The National Book Awards, the PEN-Faulkner Award and twice for the National Endowment for The Arts. Major has traveled extensively and lived in various parts of the United States and for extended periods in France and Italy. He has lectured and read his work in dozens of U. S. universities as well as in England, France, Liberia, West Germany, Ghana, and Italy.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for fans of Ishmael Reed and Thomas Pynchon. Funny, fragmented, allusive, dense in its philosophical consideration of identity's relationship to art. A picaresque romp. Jazzy and cubist at once.

[Matthew Berg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like an especially rich dessert, this book demanded to be taken in small bites. It is dense, with multiple layers of narrative and meaning, full of metaphor and poetry. It is satisfying because it is unsatisfying; ambiguous and bordering on ineffable in spots, it fuels not just speculation about the story and its central character, but on the very concept of being and identity.

The lines are between Charles Major and Mason Ellis and Charles McKay are blurred. Who is author? Who is character? Who is imposter? Who is a projection, a template, or an idealization of or for the next?

Are we defined by our actions? Our intentions? Our aspirations? Or perhaps self-identity is a mere contrivance of the ego, and our identity lies in how we are perceived.

As with any worthwhile book, my thoughts were shaped not only by the book in front of me, but by the library behind me. The power of the ideas lying in their continuity and resonance. I found myself thinking of, among others, Percival Everett's "Erasure", Russel Hoban's "Medusa Frequency", Kurt Vonnegut's "Mother Night".

The writing style was both jarring and immersive; stream of a fractured and nebulous consciousness. Whether a given passage was reality, dream, hallucination, or some combination there of, it was laden with unforced but often obscure references to a given time, place or culture. I found I would read some passages multiple times; once, perhaps, for the uninterrupted experience of it, again to pick out the unfamiliar (e.g. the name of a painter, or regional style of wine), and still again for the informed experience. To be clear, this is not a complaint.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Gorging on words!!