Too Late

by Stephen Dixon

In the timeless city of Malacia, a place swathed in magic and on the brink of war, lives a young man named Perian de Chirolo – a free-spirit, a fearless lover – who embarks on a harrowing odyssey with dramatic consequences for himself and all Malacians. This is a gripping tale of wonder, lust and destiny.

182 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Stephen Dixon was a novelist and short story author who published hundreds of stories in an incredible list of literary journals. Dixon was nominated for the National Book Award twice--in 1991 for Frog and in 1995 for Interstate--and his writing also earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters Prize for Fiction, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dixon’s second novel is a frustrating sequence of prattling sentences words with order in wrong the, screwball neurotic conversations, and well-observed dialogue that captures the casual mangling of language in everyday speech. The shtick wears thin.

[Vel Veeter]

It’s from 1978 and it really really feels it, in a good way. We begin with our narrator (hilariously being described in the dust jacket as “our hero”) being told by a female voice that she doesn’t want to watch the movie any more and is gonna go home he stays behind and finishes the movie and agrees it’s too violent. As he walks home, the movie, the violence, and his imagination get to him and he worries that he’s being pursued or that something might have happened to his female companion. When he returns home, she’s not there. He’s worried, but this kind of thing happens from time to time so he doesn’t worry too much. Next day, she’s still not there. And the fear and anxiety grows. He’s calls around, he talks to friends, still nothing. Eventually he talks to the police, files a report, they investigate. We slowly through all this come to realize that this is a kind of girlfriend, kind of ex girlfriend. She sleeps with other men, they get into loud fights periodically, and her life has more going on than he realized initially. It all goes from there.

But the point for a lot of this to notice is how tightly focused and latched onto our narrator and his relatively simplistic modes of thought this book is. It’s hyper-focused, and while we’re reading it never strays much beyond his consciousness. Now the other thing that starts to occur to you is: did something happen to her? Or has she run away? Or maybe he’s exaggerating their relationship and they’re just not close? So the mystery of her disappearance is tightly controlled and tightly interwoven with the mystery of the mystery itself, as in, what is the actual shape of all of this. It’s a brilliantly executed novel that refuses to saddle itself with a thriller label or a drama label and instead keeps you focused on the moment.

[Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man, is the book description on this listing wrong. I would love to read an epic fantasy written by Stephen Dixon. It's kind of hilarious to imagine. He's all about wonder, lust, and destiny.

[Edward Champion · Rating 3 out of 5]

A disappointing early volume from my man Stephen. Two tropes here -- a chase for a burglar, the search for a missing girlfriend -- were recycled and better executed in the richer FROG. On the other hand, it is pretty cool to see Dixon write about 1970s New York -- even if this is mainly dialogue. I'm starting to believe that Dixon works best in short chapters (or short stories) rather than long and sustained dialogues.

[Dogra · Rating 4 out of 5]

C'est l'histoire d'une femme qui disparait soudainement et de celui qui la recherche. Situations insensées et tragicomiques, c'est aussi la chronique d'une ville, de ses gens, de la violence, de l' indifférence et de la peur/parano qui suintent sans répit.
Comme dans "Ordures" on peut aussi y voir une allégorie désespérée du monde "moderne". Décidément, Stephen Dixon nous mets les nerfs à rude épreuve une fois de plus!