Frenzy

by Percival Everett

Among the gods, Dionysos is the wildest and darkest, the most given to excess, eroticism, and frenzy. In this wickedly funny novel, Percival Everett revisits the age-old myth, and takes a closer look at this eccentric half-man, half-god.
Frenzy tells the story of Dionysos through his "mortal bookmark," an assistant called Vlepo. It is Vlepo's job to witness and experience on behalf of his curious master. Together they collapse the boundaries of space and time, piecing together a fantastic narrative out of familiar legend. Yet Dionysos in his "god-haze" can never be satisfied. Ironically, this most erotic of gods is prevented by his very divinity from experiencing full sensation - while the faithful Vlepo is sent on ever more bizarre quests for satiation.
By exploring the nature of immortality and divinity, Frenzy exposes some of the overlooked truths of our own, all too temporal life.

Genres: Fiction, Retellings, Mythology

162 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1996

About the author

Percival L. Everett (born 1956) is an American writer and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.

There might not be a more fertile mind in American fiction today than Everett’s. In 22 years, he has written 19 books, including a farcical Western, a savage satire of the publishing industry, a children’s story spoofing counting books, retellings of the Greek myths of Medea and Dionysus, and a philosophical tract narrated by a four-year-old.

The Washington Post has called Everett “one of the most adventurously experimental of modern American novelists.” And according to The Boston Globe, “He’s literature’s NASCAR champion, going flat out, narrowly avoiding one seemingly inevitable crash only to steer straight for the next.”

Everett, who teaches courses in creative writing, American studies and critical theory, says he writes about what interests him, which explains his prolific output and the range of subjects he has tackled. He also describes himself as a demanding teacher who learns from his students as much as they learn from him.

Everett’s writing has earned him the PEN USA 2006 Literary Award (for his 2005 novel, Wounded), the Academy Award for Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (for his 2001 novel, Erasure), the PEN/Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature (for his 1996 story collection, Big Picture) and the New American Writing Award (for his 1990 novel, Zulus). He has served as a judge for, among others, the 1997 National Book Award for fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1991.

Reviews

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read biographies or critical surveys of authors because I am fine with my opinion or interpretation of meaning (if that is even necessary). Real life has proven to me that you usually don't want to meet your heroes because, well, they're just as fucked up as you are (if not more). I say this only because I believe that I passingly saw that Everett rooted around in Greek, maths, and philosophy as an undergrad. This would edify a lot of the preoccupations that pop up throughout his collected work, and further contextualize why there's so much fucking Grecian Formula in his formulae.

I have no idea how many variations on the Bacchae and Dionysus I have read at this point in my well-more-than-half-to-two-thirds-at-best-near-over lifetime. Let's say more than a few. This one is, here's a surprise, one that stands out. It has little to do with those woodland nymphets, their shaggy androgyne half-god, and everything to do with the framing device of one Vlepo.

Vlepo, servant to Dionysus, is his god's only vehicle for gaining perspective on human emotion as felt rather than simply observed. Dionysus cannot feel either way about human affairs as he is the spawn of Zeus. Thus, Vlepo, his man on the street (or, literally, tiny louse looking into someone's brain through a lens; as a carpet being walked upon; as a river, an especially beautiful passage; etc.) is the proxy to the life Dionysus inspires in others but is himself denied. Once the story shifts out of the Fuck Forest (literally; a forest wherein a whole lot of fucking takes place) and into Dionysus seeing Semele, his human mother, suffer Hera's revenge for playing footsie with her husband, Zeus, and, thusly, shifts to the underworld, we're in a completely different boat of bananas. The best bunch, yikes, being the concomitant incorporation of the Orpheus-Eurydice myth. That sonofabitch, no matter how well trod, is told so guilelessly (by virtue of Vlepo-as-medium to an otherwise innocent-by-default Dionysus) that even I, man of steel and glass, was rooting for Orpheus to just keep a-walking.

So, in many ways, I guess this has pretty much the same thematic super-plot as Pretty Woman; heartless boy (Richard Gere/Dionysus) comes for the fucking (Julia Roberts/the Bacchae), but learns about love instead (Vlepo/Héctor Elizondo).

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I nailed that tuck into double-twist with virtually no splash to speak of.

[Stephan Benzkofer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frenzy is an engrossing, haunting retelling of Euripides' tragedy The Bacchae, in which the god Dionysus takes out his vengeance on King Pentheus and the Thebes by luring all of the city's women out into the countryside for orgies and raw meat eating. But Everett injects (I think) an entirely new character, a servant-spirit named Vlepo who acts as Dionysus' eyes and ears, peering into characters' heads to read their thoughts or taking up residence in birds or candles or rivers in order to witness. Everett also, so far as I can tell from a quick bit of research, messes with Euripedes' plot even as he weaves in the complicated Greek and Roman backstories of Dionysus/Bacchus and also some time– and space-bending for good measure. To be honest, as I re-read what I just wrote, it sounds like a god-awful mess (pun intended?), but Everett makes it work.

[Nina AS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a class on Percival Everett (whom I had never heard of before seeing his name on my schedule) with this as an introduction to his work. Read the Bacchae immediately before this -- which I profoundly hated -- and this blew my mind. I don't have sufficient words to describe my feelings about it, but I will say that the fact that this book is no longer in print is a real loss to readers everywhere. Everett is characteristically witty, thoughtful, and mind-bending in this piece, and he performs the great service of turning the Bacchae (in my opinion) into something more truly human and more bracingly complex than anything that can be found in the original play.

[Jeff Wait · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is very different from anything else I’ve read by Everett. In Erasure, he talks about writing these satirical retelling of Greek mythology. And here it is. As told through the eyes of his assistant, Dionysus’s story is told. It’s a fascinating exploration of what it means to be a god. Do they really care about the people who worship them? This one doesn’t. It’s a lot of hedonism. Cool story. Glad I branched out and tried it.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although based on the ancient myth, this is a wildly original retelling of the story of Orpheus. It is very interestingly structured and beautifully written. Percival Everett has blown away the cobwebs and gives us a refreshingly fresh take on this very old story.

[Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very strange, like the god it honors.

[Timur Markowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always love Everett's writing. Something about this book, however, felt less pointed than his other works to me for some reason.

[Wes Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

a bit too ambitious, not surprisingly though. this is his second foray into mythology and it falls as flat as his first. the only props Everett gets is for attempting to rewrite ancient mythology in a contemporary style.

[Carly Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an interesting read. Author made up a non-interesting character and stuck him in the middle of the classic tale of Dionysus. If you already read the tale of Dionysus and his Bacchae - don't waste your time with this novel. B-O-R-I-N-G

[Miranda · Rating 1 out of 5]

When you read an author who writes a different kind of novel almost every time you run the risk of running into one that doesn't really grab you, oh well, at least it was short enough to muddle through

[Billy · Rating 5 out of 5]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kismet!

[Justin Howe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Baccus as experienced by his assistant Vlepo. It meanders at times, but it's short and the language is what carries the reader along. Parts reminded me of John Gardner's Grendel.