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白雪公主后传
An inventive, satiric modern retelling of the classic fairy tale provides an incisive and biting commentary on the absurdities and complexities of modern life. Reprint. 12,500 first printing.
186 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
86 people are currently reading
2534 people want to read
About the author
Donald Barthelme
158 books765 followers
Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts
(1968) apparently collects sometimes surrealistic stories of modern life of American writer Donald Barthelme.
A student at the University of Pennsylvania bore Donald Barthelme. Two years later, in 1933, the family moved to Texas, where father of Barthelme served as a professor of architecture at the University of Houston, where Barthelme later majored in journalism.
In 1951, this still student composed his first articles for the Houston Post. The Army drafted Barthelme, who arrived in Korea on 27 July 1953, the very day, when parties signed the ceasefire, ending the war. He served briefly as the editor of a newspaper of Army before returning to the United States and his job at the Houston Post. Once back, he continued his studies of philosophy at the University of Houston. He continued to take classes until 1957 but never received a degree. He spent much of his free time in “black” jazz clubs of Houston and listened to musical innovators, such as Lionel Hampton and Peck Kelly; this experience influenced him later.
Barthelme, a rebellious son, struggled in his relationship with his demanding father. In later years, they tremendously argued about the kinds of literature that interested Barthelme. His avant-garde father in art and aesthetics in many ways approved not the postmodern and deconstruction schools. The Dead Father and The King , the novels, delineate attitude of Barthelme toward his father as King Arthur and Lancelot, the characters, picture him. From the Roman Catholicism of his especially devout mother, Barthelme independently moved away, but this separation as the distance with his father troubled Barthelme. He ably agreed to strictures of his seemingly much closer mother.
Barthelme went to teach for brief periods at Boston University and at University at Buffalo, and he at the college of the City of New York served as distinguished visiting professor from 1974-1975. He married four times. Helen Barthelme, his second wife, later entitled a biography Donald Barthelme: The Genesis of a Cool Sound , published in 2001. With Birgit Barthelme, his third wife and a Dane, he fathered Anne Barthelme, his first child, a daughter. He married Marion Barthelme near the end and fathered Kate Barthelme, his second daughter. Marion and Donald wed until his death from throat cancer. People respect fiction of Frederick Barthelme and Steven Barthelme, brothers of Donald Barthelme and also teachers at The University of Southern Mississippi.
A student at the University of Pennsylvania bore Donald Barthelme. Two years later, in 1933, the family moved to Texas, where father of Barthelme served as a professor of architecture at the University of Houston, where Barthelme later majored in journalism.
In 1951, this still student composed his first articles for the Houston Post. The Army drafted Barthelme, who arrived in Korea on 27 July 1953, the very day, when parties signed the ceasefire, ending the war. He served briefly as the editor of a newspaper of Army before returning to the United States and his job at the Houston Post. Once back, he continued his studies of philosophy at the University of Houston. He continued to take classes until 1957 but never received a degree. He spent much of his free time in “black” jazz clubs of Houston and listened to musical innovators, such as Lionel Hampton and Peck Kelly; this experience influenced him later.
Barthelme, a rebellious son, struggled in his relationship with his demanding father. In later years, they tremendously argued about the kinds of literature that interested Barthelme. His avant-garde father in art and aesthetics in many ways approved not the postmodern and deconstruction schools. The Dead Father and The King , the novels, delineate attitude of Barthelme toward his father as King Arthur and Lancelot, the characters, picture him. From the Roman Catholicism of his especially devout mother, Barthelme independently moved away, but this separation as the distance with his father troubled Barthelme. He ably agreed to strictures of his seemingly much closer mother.
Barthelme went to teach for brief periods at Boston University and at University at Buffalo, and he at the college of the City of New York served as distinguished visiting professor from 1974-1975. He married four times. Helen Barthelme, his second wife, later entitled a biography Donald Barthelme: The Genesis of a Cool Sound , published in 2001. With Birgit Barthelme, his third wife and a Dane, he fathered Anne Barthelme, his first child, a daughter. He married Marion Barthelme near the end and fathered Kate Barthelme, his second daughter. Marion and Donald wed until his death from throat cancer. People respect fiction of Frederick Barthelme and Steven Barthelme, brothers of Donald Barthelme and also teachers at The University of Southern Mississippi.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 291 reviews
May 30, 2015
This was published in 1967, around the time of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and was considered to be the literary acme of hip swingingness. Dig the crazy Life review – Life magazine, that citadel of the avant-garde, right?
Snow White has everything, including William Burroughs cut-ups, words posing as paintings, ribald social commentary, crazy aesthetic experiments, and comedy that smashes.
The cover of the Bantan paperback (it came out around the time of the White Album) is flat-out brilliant:
and the book roared off the shelves in that psychedelical year. It was DB’s only genuine hit. But yet I imagine a disappointment afflicted many of its readers, similar to that suffered by eager Lolita buyers ten years previously – instead of porn they got deluged with high-end literary brilliance. They’d been hoping for something like this:
We should probably call this novel a “novel”. Because it’s, well, not like other novels. When DB uses character names, they’re not meant to be taken seriously. It’s all fun with language, or what DB in 1966 brought himself to consider fun.
But alas for my career as a Barthelme fan, once the fun of this lunatic version of Snow White wears off (she’s a modern 22 year old in a modern American city living with 7 guys who have ordinary boring names, Kevin, Edward, Hubert, and as far as I could make out, they never have communal sex in the shower because the shower just wasn’t big enough, the guys had to take it in turn one by one, nothing pervy about that) the lack of any forward movement (given that plot is something Donald Barthelme would scrape off his shoe muttering) means that Snow White becomes a herkyjerky series of one page riffs and mocking semidemiparodies and finally deliquesces into intellectual elevator music. By around page 120 we find that we are only half-listening. This problem never arises with the short stories, they don’t hang around long enough to wear out their welcome.
No doubt, though, this “novel” inspired some great covers which I cannot resist reproducing here:
BRITISH POLITICAL ANECDOTE
Serendipity struck as I put this novel down, switched on the radio and listened to a programme about British politics. There was a most delicious anecdote told by a Member of Parliament – this was in a speech made in the House of Commons. You need to know that the chairman, as it were, of the debates is called the Speaker, and the present speaker, Mr John Bercow, is known for the smallness of his stature (five feet five inches). The MP said that he had recently accidentally reversed his car into Speaker Bercow’s car in full view of Mr Bercow’s office, and the Speaker had observed this, and had stormed out of his office towards the MP shouting “I’m not happy” to which the MP had allegedly said “Oh, then which one are you?”
All the MPs laughed heartily at this, and the MP then said “I would like to place on record that I never said those words” and they all laughed again.
I take Snow White a little like I take The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette, a 1968 album by The Four Seasons. They were a great, great singles band but that is a terrible mess of a would-be concept album. Two or three songs can be salvaged but mostly it’s a wreck. In 1968 though, you thought you had to do a concept album. Even Frankie Valli thought this! And Donald Barthelme, lunatic short story writer nonpareil, thought he had to write a novel.
Snow White has everything, including William Burroughs cut-ups, words posing as paintings, ribald social commentary, crazy aesthetic experiments, and comedy that smashes.
The cover of the Bantan paperback (it came out around the time of the White Album) is flat-out brilliant:
and the book roared off the shelves in that psychedelical year. It was DB’s only genuine hit. But yet I imagine a disappointment afflicted many of its readers, similar to that suffered by eager Lolita buyers ten years previously – instead of porn they got deluged with high-end literary brilliance. They’d been hoping for something like this:
We should probably call this novel a “novel”. Because it’s, well, not like other novels. When DB uses character names, they’re not meant to be taken seriously. It’s all fun with language, or what DB in 1966 brought himself to consider fun.
But alas for my career as a Barthelme fan, once the fun of this lunatic version of Snow White wears off (she’s a modern 22 year old in a modern American city living with 7 guys who have ordinary boring names, Kevin, Edward, Hubert, and as far as I could make out, they never have communal sex in the shower because the shower just wasn’t big enough, the guys had to take it in turn one by one, nothing pervy about that) the lack of any forward movement (given that plot is something Donald Barthelme would scrape off his shoe muttering) means that Snow White becomes a herkyjerky series of one page riffs and mocking semidemiparodies and finally deliquesces into intellectual elevator music. By around page 120 we find that we are only half-listening. This problem never arises with the short stories, they don’t hang around long enough to wear out their welcome.
No doubt, though, this “novel” inspired some great covers which I cannot resist reproducing here:
BRITISH POLITICAL ANECDOTE
Serendipity struck as I put this novel down, switched on the radio and listened to a programme about British politics. There was a most delicious anecdote told by a Member of Parliament – this was in a speech made in the House of Commons. You need to know that the chairman, as it were, of the debates is called the Speaker, and the present speaker, Mr John Bercow, is known for the smallness of his stature (five feet five inches). The MP said that he had recently accidentally reversed his car into Speaker Bercow’s car in full view of Mr Bercow’s office, and the Speaker had observed this, and had stormed out of his office towards the MP shouting “I’m not happy” to which the MP had allegedly said “Oh, then which one are you?”
All the MPs laughed heartily at this, and the MP then said “I would like to place on record that I never said those words” and they all laughed again.
I take Snow White a little like I take The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette, a 1968 album by The Four Seasons. They were a great, great singles band but that is a terrible mess of a would-be concept album. Two or three songs can be salvaged but mostly it’s a wreck. In 1968 though, you thought you had to do a concept album. Even Frankie Valli thought this! And Donald Barthelme, lunatic short story writer nonpareil, thought he had to write a novel.
March 24, 2022
UPDATED REVIEW 3/2022
So this book literally fell off of my bookshelf the other day when I was moving things around. I thought to myself That cover! It had been a while since I first read this, circa 1990, I'm old. Then I remembered a non-review I posted here, circa 2011, basically copy-and-pasting a conversation I had with the infamous karen, probably from one of her own review threads. So I took a look at that un-review. I laughed. So I decided to reread the book itself after all those years. I laughed again, maybe not so much as when I read anti-review, but a laugh is a laugh. So I decided to write another review. So this is that review. But it's not really a review. The book is not really a book anyway. So I guess that's only fair. So So, So So.
I must ask mark of 2011 a few questions:
(1) Were you drunk when you posted your thoughts on this?
(2) If not, what went wrong with your memory back in 2011?
(3) Did you maybe confuse this with another book?
(4) Because why in the fucking world would you say that this book is about the loneliness of the human condition? Only sorta-kinda about that. You were right about this book being concerned with (meta)text and about the (meta)history of the (meta)story it was telling, good job. But also why did you say that this book has sex scenes? For chrissakes? There's some spicy language and some *hints* and the last page mentions Snow White's "arse" and her "revirginization" but there's like zero-0-zero sex scenes. Which lemme tell ya mark of 2011, that was a real disappointment here in 2022.
Although I did like your phrase "reverse boner" - good one!
Anyway, this book is about modern life and gender dynamics through a postmodern lens. It certainly riffs on the Snow White fairytale which was semi-amusing. Its take on women is definitely liberated, but in that cringey 1960s/70s way that has some truth but also a lot of weird chauvinism. But at least through a postmodern lens, lol. This seems like it was a lot of fun to write. A bit less fun to read, though I did smile a few times and laughed once. Nice loud laugh though, scared the birds off of my patio. Pussy birds. (<-----dated chauvinist joke, would fit right in with this novel).
For some reason, in 1990 I underlined this sentence:
"Try to be a man about whom nothing is known..."
Huh. I wonder why. Did mark 1990 at the ripe age of 20 think that would be a laudable goal to achieve? Well if so he certainly failed! But maybe he just thought it was a kinda interesting line? Who knows, I can't read his mind just like I can't read mark 2011's mind. I mean who wants to read minds anyway, that sounds super boring.
Anyway, congratulations are due to mark 2022 for completing his first reread of the year!
ORIGINAL SO-CALLED REVIEW 3/2011
and here's a po-mo review of a po-mo novel! or is it just a copy-and-pasted comment thread? does "art assume an aura of authority that controls the observer"? or does it simply equal blah blah blah? is that po-mo on the bottom of my sho-mo?
message 29: by karen/me
yeah. i also loved Briar Rose, which was one of robert coover's fairy tales, since we are talking po-mo
message 30: by mark
and then there's Snow White.
but i didn't love it. maybe too po-mo, and i love that genre. well, i like that genre. love is a strong word!
message 31: by karen/me
i own that, but i never read it. it is all erotic, right?
message 32: by mark
not all, but a lot of Capital-E Erotic! if po-mo could ever truly be considered erotic. a person could theoretically get a reverse-boner reading this novel.
but it is more than just sex scenes, for sure. lots of typical po-mo concerns. what is reality? what is identity? what is the text you are reading? what is the history this story is creating? it also has its fair share of 'is human existence essentially a lonely one, because of its very nature?' type concerns.
message 33: by karen/me
oh, that sounds better than what i thought it was.
message 34: by mark
karen, its not
message 35: by karen/me
haahha oh no!!
but it sounds better than "one lady, seven men" bwam bwam!!
no?
message 36: by mark
well, that is true. it is much more than 7-on-1 action!
message 37: by karen/me
okay, well then i won't rush to read this one.
it has been sitting on my shelf for about seven years, so i will just continue to let it sit...
message 38: by mark
depending on the edition & cover art, it may serve as a delightfully sensuous drink coaster! much more useful that way. my edition has a nude lady on the cover, looking naughty yet thoughtful, as she carefully considers 7 hands reaching towards her from behind a screen. oy vey, how erotic!
message 39: by karen/me
hahaah direct from the seventies, i expect?
message 40: by mark
yep, it is super seventies. now that i'm looking at the cover again, it is not a screen. it is a shower curtain! a kind of 70s-style, floral-pattern shower curtain. gosh, so extremely sensual yet mellow & digable!
message 41: by karen/me
can you slap a picture of it in here?
message 42: by mark
BONUS DATED CHAUVINIST JOKE
her expression says it all. really, who wouldn't want to be the featured model in this inspiring ad.
So this book literally fell off of my bookshelf the other day when I was moving things around. I thought to myself That cover! It had been a while since I first read this, circa 1990, I'm old. Then I remembered a non-review I posted here, circa 2011, basically copy-and-pasting a conversation I had with the infamous karen, probably from one of her own review threads. So I took a look at that un-review. I laughed. So I decided to reread the book itself after all those years. I laughed again, maybe not so much as when I read anti-review, but a laugh is a laugh. So I decided to write another review. So this is that review. But it's not really a review. The book is not really a book anyway. So I guess that's only fair. So So, So So.
I must ask mark of 2011 a few questions:
(1) Were you drunk when you posted your thoughts on this?
(2) If not, what went wrong with your memory back in 2011?
(3) Did you maybe confuse this with another book?
(4) Because why in the fucking world would you say that this book is about the loneliness of the human condition? Only sorta-kinda about that. You were right about this book being concerned with (meta)text and about the (meta)history of the (meta)story it was telling, good job. But also why did you say that this book has sex scenes? For chrissakes? There's some spicy language and some *hints* and the last page mentions Snow White's "arse" and her "revirginization" but there's like zero-0-zero sex scenes. Which lemme tell ya mark of 2011, that was a real disappointment here in 2022.
Although I did like your phrase "reverse boner" - good one!
Anyway, this book is about modern life and gender dynamics through a postmodern lens. It certainly riffs on the Snow White fairytale which was semi-amusing. Its take on women is definitely liberated, but in that cringey 1960s/70s way that has some truth but also a lot of weird chauvinism. But at least through a postmodern lens, lol. This seems like it was a lot of fun to write. A bit less fun to read, though I did smile a few times and laughed once. Nice loud laugh though, scared the birds off of my patio. Pussy birds. (<-----dated chauvinist joke, would fit right in with this novel).
For some reason, in 1990 I underlined this sentence:
"Try to be a man about whom nothing is known..."
Huh. I wonder why. Did mark 1990 at the ripe age of 20 think that would be a laudable goal to achieve? Well if so he certainly failed! But maybe he just thought it was a kinda interesting line? Who knows, I can't read his mind just like I can't read mark 2011's mind. I mean who wants to read minds anyway, that sounds super boring.
Anyway, congratulations are due to mark 2022 for completing his first reread of the year!
ORIGINAL SO-CALLED REVIEW 3/2011
and here's a po-mo review of a po-mo novel! or is it just a copy-and-pasted comment thread? does "art assume an aura of authority that controls the observer"? or does it simply equal blah blah blah? is that po-mo on the bottom of my sho-mo?
message 29: by karen/me
yeah. i also loved Briar Rose, which was one of robert coover's fairy tales, since we are talking po-mo
message 30: by mark
and then there's Snow White.
but i didn't love it. maybe too po-mo, and i love that genre. well, i like that genre. love is a strong word!
message 31: by karen/me
i own that, but i never read it. it is all erotic, right?
message 32: by mark
not all, but a lot of Capital-E Erotic! if po-mo could ever truly be considered erotic. a person could theoretically get a reverse-boner reading this novel.
but it is more than just sex scenes, for sure. lots of typical po-mo concerns. what is reality? what is identity? what is the text you are reading? what is the history this story is creating? it also has its fair share of 'is human existence essentially a lonely one, because of its very nature?' type concerns.
message 33: by karen/me
oh, that sounds better than what i thought it was.
message 34: by mark
karen, its not
message 35: by karen/me
haahha oh no!!
but it sounds better than "one lady, seven men" bwam bwam!!
no?
message 36: by mark
well, that is true. it is much more than 7-on-1 action!
message 37: by karen/me
okay, well then i won't rush to read this one.
it has been sitting on my shelf for about seven years, so i will just continue to let it sit...
message 38: by mark
depending on the edition & cover art, it may serve as a delightfully sensuous drink coaster! much more useful that way. my edition has a nude lady on the cover, looking naughty yet thoughtful, as she carefully considers 7 hands reaching towards her from behind a screen. oy vey, how erotic!
message 39: by karen/me
hahaah direct from the seventies, i expect?
message 40: by mark
yep, it is super seventies. now that i'm looking at the cover again, it is not a screen. it is a shower curtain! a kind of 70s-style, floral-pattern shower curtain. gosh, so extremely sensual yet mellow & digable!
message 41: by karen/me
can you slap a picture of it in here?
message 42: by mark
BONUS DATED CHAUVINIST JOKE
her expression says it all. really, who wouldn't want to be the featured model in this inspiring ad.
May 4, 2025
bunny здорової людини
July 9, 2022
Retailing s of fairytales are very much hit and miss and unfortunately this one was a miss for me. Didn't find anything that hooked me to the short story and didn't find it very memorable. Not my cup of tea
December 4, 2013
Caveat before the review: I am not sure that I "get" this book.
Amazon has this seemingly simple explanation for the book: "An inventive, satiric modern retelling of the classic fairy tale provides an incisive and biting commentary on the absurdities and complexities of modern life."
I agree, sort of.
You see, SNOW WHITE is most certainly a postmodern novel. The hi-jinks Barthelme includes within the novel are sometimes maddening, playful, and inventive for sure...but...there is always a but...I'm not sure if they all worked. Again, this may be that my mind is too small, underdeveloped, to understand it completely.
What I can say is: SNOW WHITE is a hilarious romp, sexually charged, disjointed, stilted work of perfection. Perfection? Yes, perfection. Besides being a retelling of a classic tale, this novel is a great commentary on the current status of American culture. And even though the book left me scratching my head, I did walk away with a feeling of being sated. If you are a fan of Ann Sexton's work with fairy tales, SNOW WHITE will not disappoint.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Amazon has this seemingly simple explanation for the book: "An inventive, satiric modern retelling of the classic fairy tale provides an incisive and biting commentary on the absurdities and complexities of modern life."
I agree, sort of.
You see, SNOW WHITE is most certainly a postmodern novel. The hi-jinks Barthelme includes within the novel are sometimes maddening, playful, and inventive for sure...but...there is always a but...I'm not sure if they all worked. Again, this may be that my mind is too small, underdeveloped, to understand it completely.
What I can say is: SNOW WHITE is a hilarious romp, sexually charged, disjointed, stilted work of perfection. Perfection? Yes, perfection. Besides being a retelling of a classic tale, this novel is a great commentary on the current status of American culture. And even though the book left me scratching my head, I did walk away with a feeling of being sated. If you are a fan of Ann Sexton's work with fairy tales, SNOW WHITE will not disappoint.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Read
May 20, 2017I recently watched the movie Mirror, Mirror. [Don’t do it.] I did it because I had recently re-dipped my toe into the river Coover, Briar Rose being the immediate shallows, and all his messing around with our treasured fables and fairytales. I was tempted to check in with the worlds of Disney and Hollywood and ETC to see how much of this stuff they still get wrong. Let me tell you. It’s still wrong. And now it’s worse because they’ve learned all the wrong lessons about irony which have been beaten to death these past six decades of postmodernism. In Mirror, Mirror you will witness in action the manner in which irony has been turned back against those who first thought they might use it to dismantle certain ideologies. My god, that patriarchal shit is even worse now.
So in order to cleanse my heart of hearts I turned to Donald Barthelme in order to get the real low-down on the real story about what actually happened with Snow White and those Seven several men. There it is. All laid out in truth. Probably not fit for children or dreamers of a saving prince, etc.
On a personal note, it would seem that I have recently fallen into a trap of sorts wherein I find myself reading many a book severely decorated with white space and drawings and photographs and all kinds of things which the paper is doing other than carrying words. Julián Ríos, Federman, Brossard, Coover, Katz, Ken Miller’s picture book, Gass’s Willie book, Dahlberg, Sarki, Dara, dumb stuff in Latin, Theroux’s poetry book. Now this thing again from Barthelme and even as we speak yet another silly book by Federman. Odd, that.
___________________
A short survey, should you find the time.
1) Was this “review” helpful? Yes (__) No (__)
2) Was this “review” at all informative about the book Snow White by Donald Barthelme? Yes (__) No (__)
3) Did you enjoy reading this “review”? Yes (__) No (__)
4) Having read the above piece of writing, this survey inclusive, are you likely ever to pick up and read Snow White by Donald Barthelme? Yes (__) No (__)
5) Did you read this “review” and/or complete this survey? Yes (__) No (__)
6) If you did not read this “review” and/or survey, skip to number 7;; If “Yes” to question 5, please explain as to why. _____________________________________________________________
7) If you did not read this “review” and /or survey, please explain yourself. _____________________________________________________________
So in order to cleanse my heart of hearts I turned to Donald Barthelme in order to get the real low-down on the real story about what actually happened with Snow White and those Seven several men. There it is. All laid out in truth. Probably not fit for children or dreamers of a saving prince, etc.
On a personal note, it would seem that I have recently fallen into a trap of sorts wherein I find myself reading many a book severely decorated with white space and drawings and photographs and all kinds of things which the paper is doing other than carrying words. Julián Ríos, Federman, Brossard, Coover, Katz, Ken Miller’s picture book, Gass’s Willie book, Dahlberg, Sarki, Dara, dumb stuff in Latin, Theroux’s poetry book. Now this thing again from Barthelme and even as we speak yet another silly book by Federman. Odd, that.
___________________
A short survey, should you find the time.
1) Was this “review” helpful? Yes (__) No (__)
2) Was this “review” at all informative about the book Snow White by Donald Barthelme? Yes (__) No (__)
3) Did you enjoy reading this “review”? Yes (__) No (__)
4) Having read the above piece of writing, this survey inclusive, are you likely ever to pick up and read Snow White by Donald Barthelme? Yes (__) No (__)
5) Did you read this “review” and/or complete this survey? Yes (__) No (__)
6) If you did not read this “review” and/or survey, skip to number 7;; If “Yes” to question 5, please explain as to why. _____________________________________________________________
7) If you did not read this “review” and /or survey, please explain yourself. _____________________________________________________________
June 7, 2024
Американський постмодернізм для мене, на цьому етапі, це як в дитинстві — коли є хтось, з ким ти хочеш дружити, але не розумієш чому. Певно, питання в харизмі. Ти хочеш більше дізнатись про цю людину, більше спілкуватись з нею, але разом з тим вона поводиться так, що тобі важко усвідомити мотиви чи логіку (і тут важливо — мова не про токсичність, а про здорову та природну загадковість чи унікальність людини).
Я повільно, але методично лупаю скалу американського постмодерну. Прочитав другий том “Лабіринтів американського постмодернізму”, після цього читав Дона Делілло, купив Томаса Пінчона, мовчу про Донну Тартт (але по ній питання, наскільки вона постмодерна, хоча у Нестелєєва вона є в другому томі), і ось був в book.ua перед Книжковим Арсеналом, і прикупив там “Білосніжку” Дональда Бартелмі. Прекрасна обкладинка, невеличка, стильна, з чудернацькою анотацією — я проковтнув її за один вечір по дорозі до Івано-Франківська 😎
Нью-Йорк, середина 20 століття. Сім чоловіків живуть під одним дахом з дівчиною, яку знайшли в лісі. Десь вештається казковий герой, який не знає, що він герой, відьма, інші персонажі. Сюжет казки, який засунутий у максимально антиказковий час, і разом з тим йде гра в очікування від автора — Бартелмі вивертає історію, заплутує її, наповнює подвійними або й потрійними сенсами, нагромаджує історичними та культурними референсами. Читаєш не тому, що сюжет цікавий, а тому, що цікавим стає сам процес читання, тебе ніби “професійно опрацьовує постмодерніст”, а вся історія — це про відсилки, натяки, двозначності, здогадки, бурлеск. Змішування героїчного та побутового. І це тримає твою увагу. Це ніби водночас їжа для розуму, але і guilty pleasure, і чудернацький роман, але разом з тим глибоко інтелектуальний. Текст, з яким можна і потрібно працювати в межах книжкових клубів.
Було круто. Не для всіх.
Ще більше відгуків та окололітературного шукайте в моєму книжковому блозі в Телеграмі
Я повільно, але методично лупаю скалу американського постмодерну. Прочитав другий том “Лабіринтів американського постмодернізму”, після цього читав Дона Делілло, купив Томаса Пінчона, мовчу про Донну Тартт (але по ній питання, наскільки вона постмодерна, хоча у Нестелєєва вона є в другому томі), і ось був в book.ua перед Книжковим Арсеналом, і прикупив там “Білосніжку” Дональда Бартелмі. Прекрасна обкладинка, невеличка, стильна, з чудернацькою анотацією — я проковтнув її за один вечір по дорозі до Івано-Франківська 😎
Нью-Йорк, середина 20 століття. Сім чоловіків живуть під одним дахом з дівчиною, яку знайшли в лісі. Десь вештається казковий герой, який не знає, що він герой, відьма, інші персонажі. Сюжет казки, який засунутий у максимально антиказковий час, і разом з тим йде гра в очікування від автора — Бартелмі вивертає історію, заплутує її, наповнює подвійними або й потрійними сенсами, нагромаджує історичними та культурними референсами. Читаєш не тому, що сюжет цікавий, а тому, що цікавим стає сам процес читання, тебе ніби “професійно опрацьовує постмодерніст”, а вся історія — це про відсилки, натяки, двозначності, здогадки, бурлеск. Змішування героїчного та побутового. І це тримає твою увагу. Це ніби водночас їжа для розуму, але і guilty pleasure, і чудернацький роман, але разом з тим глибоко інтелектуальний. Текст, з яким можна і потрібно працювати в межах книжкових клубів.
Було круто. Не для всіх.
Ще більше відгуків та окололітературного шукайте в моєму книжковому блозі в Телеграмі
December 1, 2022
Секс. Бокс. Джаз.
Секс. Білосніжка опублікована у 1967 році. Без сексу тоді ніяк, оскільки у цивілізованому світі вирує сексуальна революція. Тоді с**су не було хіба у радянському союзі. Секс (чи sexus - як стать) відчувається на кожній сторінці. Адже Білосніжка - висока чорнява красуня, як вказує (хоча це очевидно й так) Автор у першому ж реченні. І сім (доволі закомплексованих) чоловіків. І вони ганяються за Білосніжкою (і її комплексами). А Білосніжка виглядає Принца. Тут без Ероса ніяк. Червоний рушник на обкладинці (думаю, Дональд Бартелмі був би не проти) - теж додає пікантності. Словом, ґендер в деталях - і це прекрасно.
Бокс.
1) Бокс - як вид спорту. І це вже на любителя. Як на мене, то я не проти бути відправленим у нокдаун (і нокаут) текстом. Краса тексту заціджує у голову одразу. Це аби легше сприймати його, тексту, фрагментарність. І (роз-)склеїти його докупи. Текст-колаж. Текст-колізія. І треба певний час, аби від нього схаменутися. І це прекрасно.
2) Бокс (як box - коробка). Чим не текст-коробка. Герметично (але із шпаринами) запаковані фрагменти. Коробка в/на коробці. (Прямо перед собою бачу, як Дональд Бартелмі стоїть на плечах Волта Діснея, який стоїть на плечах братів Ґрімм, а ті ще десь там (ні-ні, Пушкіна тут не видно) стоять.) Це ж постмодернізм - тут по-іншому ніяк. І це прекрасно.
Джаз. Бо текст-музика. Бо безліч стилів. Бо безліч інтенсивності і пауз. Бо безліч настроїв/лейтмотивів. Бо безліч гумору - видимого і не дуже, смішного і не дуже, доброго і не дуже. Це ж Америка 1960-70-их - зародження (чи вже пік? а може, занепад?) строкатості - як кому. І це теж певною мірою прекрасно.
А прекрасного забагато не буває.
Секс. Білосніжка опублікована у 1967 році. Без сексу тоді ніяк, оскільки у цивілізованому світі вирує сексуальна революція. Тоді с**су не було хіба у радянському союзі. Секс (чи sexus - як стать) відчувається на кожній сторінці. Адже Білосніжка - висока чорнява красуня, як вказує (хоча це очевидно й так) Автор у першому ж реченні. І сім (доволі закомплексованих) чоловіків. І вони ганяються за Білосніжкою (і її комплексами). А Білосніжка виглядає Принца. Тут без Ероса ніяк. Червоний рушник на обкладинці (думаю, Дональд Бартелмі був би не проти) - теж додає пікантності. Словом, ґендер в деталях - і це прекрасно.
Бокс.
1) Бокс - як вид спорту. І це вже на любителя. Як на мене, то я не проти бути відправленим у нокдаун (і нокаут) текстом. Краса тексту заціджує у голову одразу. Це аби легше сприймати його, тексту, фрагментарність. І (роз-)склеїти його докупи. Текст-колаж. Текст-колізія. І треба певний час, аби від нього схаменутися. І це прекрасно.
2) Бокс (як box - коробка). Чим не текст-коробка. Герметично (але із шпаринами) запаковані фрагменти. Коробка в/на коробці. (Прямо перед собою бачу, як Дональд Бартелмі стоїть на плечах Волта Діснея, який стоїть на плечах братів Ґрімм, а ті ще десь там (ні-ні, Пушкіна тут не видно) стоять.) Це ж постмодернізм - тут по-іншому ніяк. І це прекрасно.
Джаз. Бо текст-музика. Бо безліч стилів. Бо безліч інтенсивності і пауз. Бо безліч настроїв/лейтмотивів. Бо безліч гумору - видимого і не дуже, смішного і не дуже, доброго і не дуже. Це ж Америка 1960-70-их - зародження (чи вже пік? а може, занепад?) строкатості - як кому. І це теж певною мірою прекрасно.
А прекрасного забагато не буває.
March 19, 2025
My copy is a Bantam paperback from 1971 featuring on its cover Snow White's naked arse and seven arms reaching out from behind a shower curtain. The blurb on the back mentions "the crisis in literature." This read in a lot of ways like a period piece in form and content. Deconstruction of the fables, or a fable of the deconstruction, ye olde feminist paradigm subversion, with syntax obviously influenced in Borgesian fashion by George Saunders and early McSweeneys.net. It is always lacking in contractions, the language, and what the language lacks in contractions, it makes up for in individuated imagination and choice. Hard to follow, this reader found it. Characters mostly reduced to first names. Amusing, too, if never receving from me more than a respectful, almost fake LOL (like I wanted to like it more than I did and therefore respected it with polite laughter in recognition of my love for some of his stories?). Funniest part for me: questions for the reader at the end of part I (metafiction is FUNNY!). All and all I found this one sort of blague. Vonnegut for lit snobs? And yet I sort of completely love it and yet think I'm maybe becoming too much of a staid literary codger these days to really dig this sort of playful cess ditch? Something that's cool, though, is that stylistially, everything's so particularly Barthelme, it's like its own island: a really virulent formal virus in quarantine.
October 17, 2019
/second reading in translation/
нерівний, але геніальний роман. експериментальний і не такий постмодерністський, як "Мертвий Батько". тавтологічний і грайливий, жартівлий у діапазоні від тонкої іронії до сюра Арто і абсурда Беккета. сатирична мозаїка про американців, які готують китайське дитяче харчування і хочуть кохання, гинучи в 100% смітті побутових відходів, цитат і проблем. саркастичний присуд сучасному світу, який таки не досить цивілізований, щоб забезпечити кожній білосніжці її принца...
нерівний, але геніальний роман. експериментальний і не такий постмодерністський, як "Мертвий Батько". тавтологічний і грайливий, жартівлий у діапазоні від тонкої іронії до сюра Арто і абсурда Беккета. сатирична мозаїка про американців, які готують китайське дитяче харчування і хочуть кохання, гинучи в 100% смітті побутових відходів, цитат і проблем. саркастичний присуд сучасному світу, який таки не досить цивілізований, щоб забезпечити кожній білосніжці її принца...
April 9, 2021
Surreale e fuori da ogni schema (sicuramente per l'epoca, oggi magari si può trovare altro di simile), ma troppo "fuori" per i miei standard.... Ci sono spunti davvero brillanti, ma l'estrema non linearità della trama ne penalizza il risultato finale per quanto mi riguarda, divenendo così un prodotto a tratti divertente, ma non del tutto godibile per i miei gusti.
Ciascuno di noi è come un piccolissimo capello, scagliato nel mondo in mezzo a miliardi di altri capelli di varie dimensioni e colore. E se Dio non esiste, allora siamo messi ancora peggio di quanto pensavamo. In tal caso, ciascuno di noi è come una minutissima festuca di insulsaggine, che turbina in mezzo a una più grande insulsaggine spaventosamente libera, a meno che non esista una vita intelligente sugli altri pianeti, vale a dire una vita ancora più intelligente della nostra, una vita che abbia escogitato uno scopo a questa grande impresa che è la vita. È possibile. Ma noi, grazie a Dio, non possiamo saperlo. Nel frattempo ci sono i capelli, con i loro molteplici significati. Che fare?
Ora voi sarete probabilmente a conoscenza del fatto che la produzione pro capite di spazzatura in questo paese è aumentato da 1,2 chilogrammi al giorno nel 1920 a 2 chilogrammi al giorno nel 1965, l'ultimo anno per il quale abbiamo delle cifre, e aumenta a una media di circa il 4 per cento l'anno. Ebbene, la media continuerà probabilmente a salire, dato che finora è sempre in salita, e si può prevedere che ben presto raggiungerà una percentuale del 100 per cento. A questo punto sarete d'accordo che il problema cambia: non si tratta più di smaltire la spazzatura ma piuttosto di valorizzarne le qualità, dato che ormai essa rappresenta il 100 per cento, esatto? E non potrà più esserci un problema di "smaltimento" della spazzatura, dato che non ci sarà altro che quella, e quindi dovremo semplicemente imparare a farcela piacere.
Ciascuno di noi è come un piccolissimo capello, scagliato nel mondo in mezzo a miliardi di altri capelli di varie dimensioni e colore. E se Dio non esiste, allora siamo messi ancora peggio di quanto pensavamo. In tal caso, ciascuno di noi è come una minutissima festuca di insulsaggine, che turbina in mezzo a una più grande insulsaggine spaventosamente libera, a meno che non esista una vita intelligente sugli altri pianeti, vale a dire una vita ancora più intelligente della nostra, una vita che abbia escogitato uno scopo a questa grande impresa che è la vita. È possibile. Ma noi, grazie a Dio, non possiamo saperlo. Nel frattempo ci sono i capelli, con i loro molteplici significati. Che fare?
Ora voi sarete probabilmente a conoscenza del fatto che la produzione pro capite di spazzatura in questo paese è aumentato da 1,2 chilogrammi al giorno nel 1920 a 2 chilogrammi al giorno nel 1965, l'ultimo anno per il quale abbiamo delle cifre, e aumenta a una media di circa il 4 per cento l'anno. Ebbene, la media continuerà probabilmente a salire, dato che finora è sempre in salita, e si può prevedere che ben presto raggiungerà una percentuale del 100 per cento. A questo punto sarete d'accordo che il problema cambia: non si tratta più di smaltire la spazzatura ma piuttosto di valorizzarne le qualità, dato che ormai essa rappresenta il 100 per cento, esatto? E non potrà più esserci un problema di "smaltimento" della spazzatura, dato che non ci sarà altro che quella, e quindi dovremo semplicemente imparare a farcela piacere.
October 22, 2025
Складно якось адекватно оцінити цю книгу, адже є вірогідність, що я просто безпросвітно тупа для цього тексту і не роздивилася його геніальності та внеску в постмодерну літературу.
Хай там як, а для мене — це дуже дивний та песимістичний рітелінг Білосніжки. Якщо б не казковість (а в нашому випадку – антиказковість), то я б, напевно, і не стала читати (або дочитувати).
Білосніжка тут гарна жінка з дещо нестабільною (низькою) самооцінкою, яка живе з 7 чоловіками і мріє про принца. Але особливо нічого не робить, аби його знайти: сидить вдома, звісивши волосся з вікна. Звучить як мем, правда?
Фінал невтішний, якщо що.
Хай там як, а для мене — це дуже дивний та песимістичний рітелінг Білосніжки. Якщо б не казковість (а в нашому випадку – антиказковість), то я б, напевно, і не стала читати (або дочитувати).
Білосніжка тут гарна жінка з дещо нестабільною (низькою) самооцінкою, яка живе з 7 чоловіками і мріє про принца. Але особливо нічого не робить, аби його знайти: сидить вдома, звісивши волосся з вікна. Звучить як мем, правда?
Фінал невтішний, якщо що.
Read
November 22, 2020Ще в жодній книзі посередині мене не просили заповнити анкетку з тим, чи подобається мені книга, чи я відчитала там якісь сенси, і чи людям треба мати більше пар плечей. Боюсь, мені читати коментар до постмодерного твору в рази цікавіше (як і критику сучасного мистецтва - ніж оглядати її безпосередньо в музеї). Складно оцінювати щось, що ні з чим не порівняєш.
February 3, 2021
Пообіцяю собі не намагатись зрозум��ти американський постмодернізм, як мінімум пару місяців.
March 23, 2010
Intellectual masturbation at its finest, big dirty postmodern splurges of absolutely no value altogether.
January 7, 2020
3/7/20: I'm trying to imagine a time when someone might have casually picked up this piece of writing and been moved/inspired/amused. There's nothing to grasp onto here other than an intellectual, jargon-filled exercise. The cover I chose pretty much tells you everything you need to know. And worst is that I feel like a kill-joy for not having been a good sport about it. (I hardly ever give a book one star. But anything else would have been a lie. And there are too many lies going around these days.)
3/5/20: Torturous.
3/3/20: For bookclub. Trying to get centered to follow the unplot.
3/5/20: Torturous.
3/3/20: For bookclub. Trying to get centered to follow the unplot.
February 4, 2022
Il no sense di Barthelme ha molto più sense di quanto si creda.
Biancaneve è una donna annoiata che scrive poesie erotiche. I nani sono i nani e il principe azzurro è un inetto. Decostruire per riproporre in maniera nuova e ironica un archetipo, che poi non è altro che quello che, dagli anni 60, fa la cultura di massa.
“Nessuno è venuto ad arrampicarsi fino alla finestra. Questo dice tutto. Vivo in un’epoca sbagliata, quest’epoca non mi si confà. C’è qualcosa di sbagliato in tutte queste persone che se ne stanno laggiù con la bocca spalancata e l’occhiata balorda. E in tutti coloro che non si sono almeno cimentati ad arrampicarsi fino alla finestra. A coprire il ruolo. E nel mondo in se stesso, che non è in grado di fornire un principe. Che non è in grado perlomeno di essere abbastanza civilizzato da fornire la corretta conclusione della storia.”
Ha molto più sense di tanti libri autoproclamati impegnati ed è proprio qui che si pecca. Biancaneve è un libro che si vede poco e Barthelme è un autore che si legge ancora meno. In realtà avremo più bisogno di scritture così, che sono state fondamentali alla costruzione della moderna letteratura americana, fungendo da cesoia a dettami stilistici precostituiti. Quello che in Italia non è mai avvenuto ed è per questo che a mio parere la letteratura italiana contemporanea è debole. Si vola basso, si scrive sul sicuro, senza spregiudicatezza, facendo perno su sentimenti già navigati e a rischio zero.
E alla fine che palle.
Biancaneve è una donna annoiata che scrive poesie erotiche. I nani sono i nani e il principe azzurro è un inetto. Decostruire per riproporre in maniera nuova e ironica un archetipo, che poi non è altro che quello che, dagli anni 60, fa la cultura di massa.
“Nessuno è venuto ad arrampicarsi fino alla finestra. Questo dice tutto. Vivo in un’epoca sbagliata, quest’epoca non mi si confà. C’è qualcosa di sbagliato in tutte queste persone che se ne stanno laggiù con la bocca spalancata e l’occhiata balorda. E in tutti coloro che non si sono almeno cimentati ad arrampicarsi fino alla finestra. A coprire il ruolo. E nel mondo in se stesso, che non è in grado di fornire un principe. Che non è in grado perlomeno di essere abbastanza civilizzato da fornire la corretta conclusione della storia.”
Ha molto più sense di tanti libri autoproclamati impegnati ed è proprio qui che si pecca. Biancaneve è un libro che si vede poco e Barthelme è un autore che si legge ancora meno. In realtà avremo più bisogno di scritture così, che sono state fondamentali alla costruzione della moderna letteratura americana, fungendo da cesoia a dettami stilistici precostituiti. Quello che in Italia non è mai avvenuto ed è per questo che a mio parere la letteratura italiana contemporanea è debole. Si vola basso, si scrive sul sicuro, senza spregiudicatezza, facendo perno su sentimenti già navigati e a rischio zero.
E alla fine che palle.
March 10, 2009
This is my favorite novella. When I first read this book, in my early 20s, I identified with Snow White, because I felt like the men I was meeting were metaphorically dwarves, lacking in dimension. I adored Donald Barthelme's ironic, collage-like writing style, which was very much like my own. In fact, discovering his writing veered me away from becoming a fiction writer, as I felt that my writing voice had already been taken, by him. He was older than me and had been living and writing for longer, so he had the voice first. It was just a coincidence that it was like mine.
This is a book that you can read at random, as it's not very linear at all. It's wonderfully inventive and, like the best art, brings words and ideas together in new ways. It inspires the reader to see the world through new eyes.
I did contrive to meet Donald Barthelme (through my drawings), and to become an acquaintance. That's a longer story, one I need to write an essay about for a publication.
This is a book that you can read at random, as it's not very linear at all. It's wonderfully inventive and, like the best art, brings words and ideas together in new ways. It inspires the reader to see the world through new eyes.
I did contrive to meet Donald Barthelme (through my drawings), and to become an acquaintance. That's a longer story, one I need to write an essay about for a publication.
December 1, 2024
Barthelme takes a story it is almost impossible to escape from a creates a postmodern literary collage with it that reflect the fairy tales of every day life (especially of his time and place). Lovely, a bit unsettling in a good way. The way Jasper Johns can take the Flag and we know what he's referencing, but he's also bending it, playing with it, playing with us. Lovely.
June 20, 2025
Одна з найкращих книг 25 року для мене. Смакувала її з великою насолодою.
Обовʼязково буду перечитувати.
«Завтра ми збиралися ще раз туди навідатися й забрати ліфтову кабіну, щоб він з усіма своїми претензіями більше ніколи не спускався на вулицю.»
Обовʼязково буду перечитувати.
«Завтра ми збиралися ще раз туди навідатися й забрати ліфтову кабіну, щоб він з усіма своїми претензіями більше ніколи не спускався на вулицю.»
March 23, 2012
Prior to a month ago, Donald Barthelme was another treasure hidden in plain sight at my local bookstore. It wasn't until I read the excellent book of Charles Baxter essays "Burning Down the House" that I learned about Barthelme. Baxter devotes an entire essay in the book extolling the virtues of this writer upon his death in 1991. Given my love of Baxter, his well written homage to Barthelme sent me directly to the bookstore to pick-up a couple of his books.
Ben Marcus (especially "The Age of Wire and String"), Mark Leyner (anything by him, but most definitely "The Tetherballs of Bouganville") and David Eggers (especially his short fiction) are all like branches off of the tree of Barthelme. I had no idea how much of a pioneer this guy was in experimental fiction. "Snow White", written in the '60s, just has to be one of the most seminal works in the genre. I haven't read enormous amounts in this field, but having now read fawning pieces about Barthelme by Baxter, Eggers and David Gates, I'm convinced that his canon of work should be required reading for anyone interested in experimental fiction. He's like the godfather of the field.
"Snow White" is a modern, fractured retelling of the well known fairy tale. There are parts that are just plain genius, others hilarious, and some that have you scratching your head and re-reading... certainly just as Barthelme intended. You can see how much of what was written was ground breaking and used as a spring-board for so many authors after him (Eggers even mentioned that he felt like an unwitting thief having read Barthelme after publishing a book of stories). Barthelme's talent and style was so original and true that it apparently soaked into the collective fiction-writing consciousness so that authors like Eggers could write like him before even having read him...
I've cracked into "Forty Stories" by Barthelme and am looking forward to reviewing that book when finished.
Ben Marcus (especially "The Age of Wire and String"), Mark Leyner (anything by him, but most definitely "The Tetherballs of Bouganville") and David Eggers (especially his short fiction) are all like branches off of the tree of Barthelme. I had no idea how much of a pioneer this guy was in experimental fiction. "Snow White", written in the '60s, just has to be one of the most seminal works in the genre. I haven't read enormous amounts in this field, but having now read fawning pieces about Barthelme by Baxter, Eggers and David Gates, I'm convinced that his canon of work should be required reading for anyone interested in experimental fiction. He's like the godfather of the field.
"Snow White" is a modern, fractured retelling of the well known fairy tale. There are parts that are just plain genius, others hilarious, and some that have you scratching your head and re-reading... certainly just as Barthelme intended. You can see how much of what was written was ground breaking and used as a spring-board for so many authors after him (Eggers even mentioned that he felt like an unwitting thief having read Barthelme after publishing a book of stories). Barthelme's talent and style was so original and true that it apparently soaked into the collective fiction-writing consciousness so that authors like Eggers could write like him before even having read him...
I've cracked into "Forty Stories" by Barthelme and am looking forward to reviewing that book when finished.
February 3, 2020
Much of this novel went straight over my head - my problem, not the book's - but Barthelme's Snow White is such a reflection of the era of its creation that, as time goes by, the wordplay and allusions have become increasingly obscure. At publication, the writing must have seemed intensely colorful, and often sharply funny. I would gladly read an annotated edition.
From what I could absorb, this book transplants Snow White and her associated characters into a post-Freudian, post-Jungian world -- or, tighter than that, into a mishmash of early 1960s intellectualism and consumer pop culture. It's a mind game, not exactly emotionally shallow, but the emotions are conveyed through bits and pieces of tone in the writing - an ironic passage, a bored passage, an angsty passage - sort of the way that, in an impressionist painting, the mood is conveyed through dabs of color rather than through the formal depiction of a scene or character. Thus, the emotional impact of the book stems from the direct experience of reading rather than from absorbing the plot or content of the book. Indeed, Barthelme's Snow White doesn't have developed characters in a traditional sense, certainly not characters that invite empathy or appear to have their own internal lives. This style of writing is risky - the author has to be pitch perfect most of the time - which is easier to do in shorter bursts, like short stories -- but I'm glad to have encountered this experiment.
From what I could absorb, this book transplants Snow White and her associated characters into a post-Freudian, post-Jungian world -- or, tighter than that, into a mishmash of early 1960s intellectualism and consumer pop culture. It's a mind game, not exactly emotionally shallow, but the emotions are conveyed through bits and pieces of tone in the writing - an ironic passage, a bored passage, an angsty passage - sort of the way that, in an impressionist painting, the mood is conveyed through dabs of color rather than through the formal depiction of a scene or character. Thus, the emotional impact of the book stems from the direct experience of reading rather than from absorbing the plot or content of the book. Indeed, Barthelme's Snow White doesn't have developed characters in a traditional sense, certainly not characters that invite empathy or appear to have their own internal lives. This style of writing is risky - the author has to be pitch perfect most of the time - which is easier to do in shorter bursts, like short stories -- but I'm glad to have encountered this experiment.
April 3, 2025
HOUSEKEEPING 2025:
Don Bart's least successful novel, in my not humble opinion, making it still better than the best of his short story collections or best-of's. Ergo, better than best of the bests (excluding all four better novels, this the least best of the all better batch). If inclined to count that type of thing, that would be a whole shit load of books. Whether that implies this being rather good or his shorts rather bad...is a matter best left between you and your God. There are neither wrong answers nor best.
Don Bart's least successful novel, in my not humble opinion, making it still better than the best of his short story collections or best-of's. Ergo, better than best of the bests (excluding all four better novels, this the least best of the all better batch). If inclined to count that type of thing, that would be a whole shit load of books. Whether that implies this being rather good or his shorts rather bad...is a matter best left between you and your God. There are neither wrong answers nor best.
April 21, 2019
Touch-point for many post-modernist tendancies run to extremes in a kind of flippant, amusing fake erotica (the totally absurd Bantam mass market paperback cover is a kind of a deception, although, granted, it's also literally a scene in the story. The counterpoint of annoyance this book sometimes generates centers around its being a little frivolous perhaps, and I admit that I can't necessarily pull together a cohesive thematic design here. But as a series of clever episodes, self-reflexive experiments, commentary on roles and archetypes in stories and in modern life, intertitle polemics, generally deft prose juggling -- taken as a set of independent parts you can't really go wrong. And Barthelme remains best known for short stories, so reading it with less demand for cohesion doesn't seem a bad approach.
February 27, 2023
Rarely in my life have I been quite so bamboozled by a book. This novel is a mixture of surprisingly erudite pseudo-philosophical discussions, mixed with actual genuine nonsense about comparing shower curtains, tending to vats and washing buildings. It uses a fairly weak connection to the titular fairytale to offer a kind-of-critique of American life in the 60s.
This Snow White is nominally promiscuous, and this novel features a number of nominally sexually active characters. But this is by no means an erotic novel. It was - at one time - marketed as one, however any sensuality here is punctuated by absurd discussions of Stendhal or outlandish and barely comprehensible happenings - which generally burst so far out of the left field that it’s impossible to see any of them coming.
I’m glad to have read this novel. I’m not sure that I understood this novel but I think that’s the feeling that I was supposed to have. This is an absurdist dada-like crazy-piece. I’m not convinced that even the author understood this book - but that’s okay! It’s art!
This Snow White is nominally promiscuous, and this novel features a number of nominally sexually active characters. But this is by no means an erotic novel. It was - at one time - marketed as one, however any sensuality here is punctuated by absurd discussions of Stendhal or outlandish and barely comprehensible happenings - which generally burst so far out of the left field that it’s impossible to see any of them coming.
I’m glad to have read this novel. I’m not sure that I understood this novel but I think that’s the feeling that I was supposed to have. This is an absurdist dada-like crazy-piece. I’m not convinced that even the author understood this book - but that’s okay! It’s art!
May 26, 2017
While nowhere near the level of The Dead Father or The King (yet considerably more to my taste than Paradise), this book is full of amazing fragments that add up to a puzzling book. The parts are greater than the whole. Go into thinking of it as loosely related bits of poetry and flash fiction and you'll probably enjoy it more.
June 5, 2012
I'm quite sure I'll never finish this little monster. It's like someone else's horribly behaved twelve-year-old you really want to smack around or throw down the stairs, but you know you'll never get away with it so you just grit your teeth and try to endure its squeaky voice, bad jokes and completely misplaced superior attitude. I guess I just don't get the appeal of this kind of literature. I think at this point we should be beyond the "its edgy and risqué to re-tell a fairy tale, modernise it and make it all perverse and post-modern" stage. Seems like a pretty juvenile exercise no matter how many references to sex and contemporary pop culture you throw in; perhaps even moreso because of those very things.
December 7, 2021
Fabulous. Where else can you find scoutmasters teaching scouts about “the mystique of rope?” Where else can you feel Snow White’s pain, trapped in a house with seven ineffectual, incompetent men? Nobody writes like this anymore, but damn it, somebody should.
June 11, 2019
Il primo romanzo di Barthelme è una rivisitazione postmoderna, nonsense e libertina della favola di Biancaneve.
È un opera interessantissima dal punto di vista formale/lessicale, divertente e inoltre mette in luce i problemi e le idiosincrasie degli uomini e delle donne dell’America degli anni ’60.
Però che fatica.
È un opera interessantissima dal punto di vista formale/lessicale, divertente e inoltre mette in luce i problemi e le idiosincrasie degli uomini e delle donne dell’America degli anni ’60.
Però che fatica.
A noi piacciono i libri che contengono una quantità di pattume, materiale che si presenta come non del tutto rilevante (o per nulla rilevante, in certi casi) ma che, se gli si presta la dovuta attenzione, può fornire una specie di «senso» di ciò che accade. Questo «senso» non si ottiene leggendo fra le righe (giacché non c’è nulla in quegli spazi bianchi) ma leggendo per l’appunto le righe, ovverosia osservando le righe e arrivando in tal modo a una sensazione non esattamente di soddisfazione, ché sarebbe aspettarsi troppo, ma di averle lette, di averle «completate».
A questo punto ciascuno di noi guardò Bill, il quale era assente.
«Perché mai sentiamo sempre l’esigenza di un “di più”?», si domandò Hogo. «Per quale ragione non siamo mai soddisfatti? È come se fossimo stati creati apposta così. Come se ciò facesse parte del disegno cosmico».
Cercare di uscire da questa impasse in cui ci troviamo. Cosa ci ha dato l’idea che ci fosse qualcosa di meglio? Donde nasce il concetto «qualcosa di meglio»? Come è fatto questo qualcosa di meglio? Non ditemi che è un’idea infantile perché mi rifiuto di crederlo. Conosco degli infanti senzienti ma essi non sono così senzienti. E poi c’è la grande orda di persone subsenzienti che riescono nondimeno a concepire il qualcosa di meglio.
March 2, 2023
Another incredibly thought provoking class read. If I had to describe this to someone (from the bookstore, basically) I would say it's a book that Alex Ness would love and recommend. Thus, it was also wildly confusing!
thank you ENG 338
thank you ENG 338
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