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Wallomsac: A Week on the River
An absurdist journey that on the surface appears to travel in one direction yet actually meanders in many. The mysterious itinerary contains one surprise after another as Slavitt’s dazzling river ripples with eddies and undercurrents.
88 pages, ebook
First published August 9, 2014
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About the author
David R. Slavitt
159 books11 followersDavid Rytman Slavitt was an American writer, poet, and translator, the author of more than 100 books.
Slavitt has written a number of novels and numerous translations from Greek, Latin, and other languages. Slavitt wrote a number of popular novels under the pseudonym Henry Sutton, starting in the late 1960s. The Exhibitionist (1967) was a bestseller and sold over four million copies. He has also published popular novels under the names of David Benjamin, Lynn Meyer, and Henry Lazarus. His first work, a book of poems titled Suits for the Dead, was published in 1961. He worked as a writer and film critic for Newsweek from 1958 to 1965.
According to Henry S. Taylor, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, "David Slavitt is among the most accomplished living practitioners" of writing, "in both prose and verse; his poems give us a pleasurable, beautiful way of meditating on a bad time. We can't ask much more of literature, and usually we get far less." Novelist and poet James Dickey wrote, "Slavitt has such an easy, tolerant, believable relationship with the ancient world and its authors that making the change-over from that world to ours is less a leap than an enjoyable stroll. The reader feels a continual sense of gratitude."
Slavitt has written a number of novels and numerous translations from Greek, Latin, and other languages. Slavitt wrote a number of popular novels under the pseudonym Henry Sutton, starting in the late 1960s. The Exhibitionist (1967) was a bestseller and sold over four million copies. He has also published popular novels under the names of David Benjamin, Lynn Meyer, and Henry Lazarus. His first work, a book of poems titled Suits for the Dead, was published in 1961. He worked as a writer and film critic for Newsweek from 1958 to 1965.
According to Henry S. Taylor, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, "David Slavitt is among the most accomplished living practitioners" of writing, "in both prose and verse; his poems give us a pleasurable, beautiful way of meditating on a bad time. We can't ask much more of literature, and usually we get far less." Novelist and poet James Dickey wrote, "Slavitt has such an easy, tolerant, believable relationship with the ancient world and its authors that making the change-over from that world to ours is less a leap than an enjoyable stroll. The reader feels a continual sense of gratitude."
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 20, 2014
The third in David Slavitt’s series of free association novellas (my house published the first,
Aspects of the Novel: A Novel
in 2003) is the most free of all.
To use Slavitt’s own playful words, it is a volume of linked persiflage and dreckerai. “The mood of the entire work is more or less the subjonctif, in which it is permissible to woolgather but impossible to assert a falsity — because it does not deign to assert anything.” The novella proves, as Slavitt says, that “It is the authorial voice you retain longest.”
It is this voice, and the intelligence and humor of the author’s mind, that makes this novel. There are playful anecdotes, dialogues, and set-pieces, as well as bits of wisdom, but it is the play of Slavitt’s mind and the quality of his prose that provides the most delight.
Here, for a very short example, is a comment on conventional fiction: “Even the simplest slice of life betrays what it pretends to serve up on the plate, raw and bloody.” And here is a link to the publisher's page, since this book does not appear to be available yet elsewhere.
To use Slavitt’s own playful words, it is a volume of linked persiflage and dreckerai. “The mood of the entire work is more or less the subjonctif, in which it is permissible to woolgather but impossible to assert a falsity — because it does not deign to assert anything.” The novella proves, as Slavitt says, that “It is the authorial voice you retain longest.”
It is this voice, and the intelligence and humor of the author’s mind, that makes this novel. There are playful anecdotes, dialogues, and set-pieces, as well as bits of wisdom, but it is the play of Slavitt’s mind and the quality of his prose that provides the most delight.
Here, for a very short example, is a comment on conventional fiction: “Even the simplest slice of life betrays what it pretends to serve up on the plate, raw and bloody.” And here is a link to the publisher's page, since this book does not appear to be available yet elsewhere.
Displaying 1 of 1 review