Repetition

by James Tadd Adcox

In Repetition, Soren Kierkegaard asks the question, Is repetition possible? Attempting to find an answer, he explores a love affair that ends in tragedy. In Repetition, James Tadd Adcox asks the question, Is repetition possible? Attempting to find an answer, he explores a love affair that ends in tragedy. In this short novel, at once a meditation on Kierkegaard’s work as well as a rewriting of it, the unnamed former president of the Constantin Constantius Society tells the story of an academic conference that ends in betrayal, crime, and a moment of pure and terrifying freedom.

80 pages, Paperback

Published October 4, 2016

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Tadd Adcox really has created something Nabokovian with this delightful and compact novella. It has a very strong ending. I appreciated likewise the very layered dislike I was able to maintain for the narrator while simultaneously not wishing him any real harm. He's the kind of pompous person many of us cross paths with in our lives, impressive in some ways but deeply disappointing in his comportment. I suppose the only relish I can take to someone like that's downfall is more or less on display in the novella, although "downfall" might not be quite the right word for it. Regardless, this story was quite a feat on the part of Adcox.

[Meghan Lamb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious burlesque of academic culture, beautifully articulated through a miss en abyme of speakers and simulacra.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nabokovian. An oddly moving conversation with one of Western philosophy's oddest books, but also a confession, an academic comedy, a whodunit, and a story of unrequited love. Also it's exquisitely funny, which I would never say about Kierkegaard.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clever, darkly funny, and fascinatingly intertextual novella that pokes fun at the egoism and self-importance of academia. I only wish that it was a bit longer, as I think it could've benefitted from more of a build-up before getting to the absurd climax.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

A funny, odd novella about fussy and self-important academics gathering for a conference. The invented academic papers/theories/stances/reactions hold several moments that radiate outside their spot in the book's invented area of study. 65 pages of utterly specific and wonderfully small squabbles.