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The Journal of Albion Moonlight
Kenneth Patchen sets off on an allegorical journey of his own in which the far boundaries of love and murder, madness and sex are sensually explored. His is the tale of a disordered pilgrimage to H. Roivas (Heavenly Savior) in which the deranged responses of individuals point up the outer madness from which they derive in a more imaginative way that social protest generally allows.
Like Camus, Kenneth Patchen is anti-cool, anti-hip, anti-beat.
313 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1941
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About the author
Kenneth Patchen
157 books128 followersKenneth Patchen was an American poet and novelist. He experimented with different forms of writing and incorporated painting, drawing, and jazz music into his works, which have been compared with those of William Blake and Walt Whitman. Patchen's biographer wrote that he "developed in his fabulous fables, love poems, and picture poems a deep yet modern mythology that conveys a sense of compassionate wonder amidst the world's violence." Along with his friend and peer Kenneth Rexroth, he was a central influence on the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beat Generation.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
June 3, 2017
Disturbing, experimental and brutal, The Journal of Albion Moonlight is a post-apocalyptic novel before such a thing was invented. Patchen doesn't require an invented fantasy apocalypse to tell this story, war is the apocalypse that ends life, morality, and rationality, War is madness. The story is nominally set during World War II but it really takes place in a mind at war. The Journal of Albion Moonlight felt like the pre-cursor to Naked Lunch, perhaps it influenced Burroughs. Patchen combines abstraction and cruelty, literary flights of insightful philosophy and unexpected humor. At times, the violence toward women was too much for me. Yet I reminded myself, this is what war does. It makes the book hard to like but as relevant now as it was then. And it squarely lays the blame for war on Capitalism. I can't recommend this avant-garde, brilliant work, but I'm glad that I read it.
January 27, 2013
This is a gnarled, writhing and undulating experience of a novel. A twisted and peculiar allegorical quest to divinity —actually into madness— inspired by the pre-Shakesperian lyric Tom O'Bedlam [TO'B written by an anonymous author].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_o...
Our protagonist sets out during wartime to traverse the devastation and horror of capitalism's war to reach the sanctity of a holier place... Aaannnnnd that's as much clarity as I can muster.
This book is akin to experiencing synesthesia… which isn't as weird as it might sound, as much of the writing is a high prose style, poetic and rhythmic; combinations of stream-of-consciousness style, poems, lyrics and experimental typography and typesetting and more classical narrative in the form of journal entries - finely crafted sentences and passages with a musicality to them carry the reader along on a cascading sea of styles.
I was reminded of The Tunnel constantly and parallels with Willam H. Gass are unavoidable - there were moments it seemed as if I were deep within a blissful tripped out nightmare, of Fredrick Kohler's...
Beautiful and brutal. A violent, raw and misshapen thing, hard to define and exhilarating to read. I've already ordered several of Kenneth Patchen's poetry collections and one of his other novels Memoir of a Shy Pornographer.
Publisher: http://www.ndbooks.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_o...
Our protagonist sets out during wartime to traverse the devastation and horror of capitalism's war to reach the sanctity of a holier place... Aaannnnnd that's as much clarity as I can muster.
This book is akin to experiencing synesthesia… which isn't as weird as it might sound, as much of the writing is a high prose style, poetic and rhythmic; combinations of stream-of-consciousness style, poems, lyrics and experimental typography and typesetting and more classical narrative in the form of journal entries - finely crafted sentences and passages with a musicality to them carry the reader along on a cascading sea of styles.
I was reminded of The Tunnel constantly and parallels with Willam H. Gass are unavoidable - there were moments it seemed as if I were deep within a blissful tripped out nightmare, of Fredrick Kohler's...
Beautiful and brutal. A violent, raw and misshapen thing, hard to define and exhilarating to read. I've already ordered several of Kenneth Patchen's poetry collections and one of his other novels Memoir of a Shy Pornographer.
Publisher: http://www.ndbooks.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_...
June 14, 2012
First of all I bought this book for 25 cents at a small rusty library. I was immediately seduced by its raunchy cover. When I started reading it I thought it was dangerous because of its graphic bloody and sexual portrayal, but certain parts mostly its ill humored cleverly constructed remarks would make me burst out laughing, it didn't take itself so serious so I kept on reading till I felt addicted. It is carried in a controlled reckless manner, it is poetically haunting, darkly childlike, experimental with bizarre religiousness or best put anti-religiousness. It is a restless book that travels in rogue allegory circles, yet never sways your mind away. Every time it quit on itself it would crack me up. I believe this is one of the most quotable pieces of literature and probably the most unique word ordered travels I've taken my mind so far. I ought to read more of Patchen's works, if he has more personas like Albion Moonlight I would be pleased, he is quite the dark chaotically amusing character.
November 26, 2017
Давно собирался — и вот наконец-то. Совершенно бесценный постмодернистский роман 1940 года — человека, который (хоть и не в одно лицо) сделал не только битников, но и много кого еще. Парализованный поэт занимался всем этим прекрасным творчеством, когда это не было ни прибыльно, ни популярно. Делмор Шварц, работавший у Локлина в ту пору «литконсультантом», романа испугался и публиковать его не рекомендовал, и «Новые направления» опомнились только через 20 лет — и в 1961-м роман все же напечатали, а до этого он существовал только в авторском самиздате: т.е. Пэтчен его опубликовал сам по подписке, т.е. как раз нашим методом, аналогового краудфандинга.
Официальная версия была такова, что в пору оголтелого ганг-хо против Гитлера пацифизм романа неактуален, люди не поймут. Но много сам Шварц понимал, как мы теперь видим (это вообще фигура довольно гнусная и переоцененная, на мой взгляд, но мы сейчас не о нем, о нем неинтересно — это был такой странный прыщик на литературном теле Америки). Дело же тут не только в «пацифизме» — это натурально подрывной текст, и своим запальчивым отрицанием всего истэблишмента и христианства, и своим стилистическим разнообразием. Яростный выплеск бунтарства и неприятия всего на свете был способен напугать кого угодно, особенно в узколобой патриархальной Америке середине ХХ века (а поэтому есть надежда, что напугает и русского читателя в начале XXI-го). А судя по рецензиям на относительно недавнее переиздание его в Штатах, текста этого продолжают пугаться — и не понимать его — до сих пор.
Текст Пэтчена — взрыв вулкана и фонтан раскаленной лавы, фейерверк стилей (включая романы в романе как прием и разнообразную типографику). Хотя ретроактивно, понятно, разбираться в этом вроде бы легко, но все же скажу: в нем виден примерно кто угодно в той литературе, что нам так нравится: тут и Бротиган, и Пинчон, и Боб Дилан, и Барроуз, и Бартелми, ФОБ, и, понятно, Соррентино — и это только из тех, кого я сам с ходу определил, не особо разбираясь (потому что некогда было — я его читал). Натурально, в общем, литературная жила, из которой потом не одно поколение писателей добывало руду и плавило металлы различной драгоценности. Пока больше говорить ничего не буду, надо осмыслить.
Официальная версия была такова, что в пору оголтелого ганг-хо против Гитлера пацифизм романа неактуален, люди не поймут. Но много сам Шварц понимал, как мы теперь видим (это вообще фигура довольно гнусная и переоцененная, на мой взгляд, но мы сейчас не о нем, о нем неинтересно — это был такой странный прыщик на литературном теле Америки). Дело же тут не только в «пацифизме» — это натурально подрывной текст, и своим запальчивым отрицанием всего истэблишмента и христианства, и своим стилистическим разнообразием. Яростный выплеск бунтарства и неприятия всего на свете был способен напугать кого угодно, особенно в узколобой патриархальной Америке середине ХХ века (а поэтому есть надежда, что напугает и русского читателя в начале XXI-го). А судя по рецензиям на относительно недавнее переиздание его в Штатах, текста этого продолжают пугаться — и не понимать его — до сих пор.
Текст Пэтчена — взрыв вулкана и фонтан раскаленной лавы, фейерверк стилей (включая романы в романе как прием и разнообразную типографику). Хотя ретроактивно, понятно, разбираться в этом вроде бы легко, но все же скажу: в нем виден примерно кто угодно в той литературе, что нам так нравится: тут и Бротиган, и Пинчон, и Боб Дилан, и Барроуз, и Бартелми, ФОБ, и, понятно, Соррентино — и это только из тех, кого я сам с ходу определил, не особо разбираясь (потому что некогда было — я его читал). Натурально, в общем, литературная жила, из которой потом не одно поколение писателей добывало руду и плавило металлы различной драгоценности. Пока больше говорить ничего не буду, надо осмыслить.
August 30, 2007
Surrealist literature from earlier in the century, ~world war II. A man seeks an enigmatic figure that is both demon and saint. Convinced of crimes that he didn't commit. Albion bares himself in naked brilliance. Don't expect a solid storyline, or even a plot. The book gives up on itself several times and tries to start over. Not your typical fiction. Albion is only on the surface, the author underneath. Paschen continually attempts to get to the heart of his experience, without any hope of reaching it. Nothing is censored, nothing with-held. The book is very trying on the reader, but is admirable in that it is written in the only way it could be written.
September 29, 2007
How to write from the core of the naked soul.
September 20, 2020
The surrealistic use of stream-of-consciousness allows readers to experience World War II as Americans witnessed it in the summer of 1940. The story conveys the sense of being trapped in a totalitarian nightmare, and captures the aura of alienation and impotence against the unseen evil that shapes modern life.
The plot describes the flight of a disparate group of Americans through the nation in 1940. This flight, from something to something and somewhere to somewhere else, becomes a murderous adventure in sympathy with events in Europe, although the word "France" never comes up. The surreal aspect means absurd things happen: People who have been killed are back in the plot a few pages later; people are both enemies and friends, sometimes at the same time. To describe the plot, though, is of less value with this novel than it normally would be.
The book is experimental. Kenneth Patchen tries different literary techniques with varying results. A two-page part breaks down sentences into chaotic phrases. Chaos, in fact, pervades parts of the novel and is perhaps the intended protagonist. Some of the experimentation worked for me; some of it didn't. The book is an uneven mix. But on balance, this is a skillful and at times brilliant literary work.
The author fills in an odd gap in historical perspective: how Americans, at least those with their eyes open, reacted to and thought about the horror of World War II in the two years before they themselves became ensnared. What we get with Journal of Albion Moonlight is a picture of how sane people react to an encounter with insanity. Its daring experimentation and unusual niche make it a book that people on the lookout for something out of the ordinary will enjoy reading.
The plot describes the flight of a disparate group of Americans through the nation in 1940. This flight, from something to something and somewhere to somewhere else, becomes a murderous adventure in sympathy with events in Europe, although the word "France" never comes up. The surreal aspect means absurd things happen: People who have been killed are back in the plot a few pages later; people are both enemies and friends, sometimes at the same time. To describe the plot, though, is of less value with this novel than it normally would be.
The book is experimental. Kenneth Patchen tries different literary techniques with varying results. A two-page part breaks down sentences into chaotic phrases. Chaos, in fact, pervades parts of the novel and is perhaps the intended protagonist. Some of the experimentation worked for me; some of it didn't. The book is an uneven mix. But on balance, this is a skillful and at times brilliant literary work.
The author fills in an odd gap in historical perspective: how Americans, at least those with their eyes open, reacted to and thought about the horror of World War II in the two years before they themselves became ensnared. What we get with Journal of Albion Moonlight is a picture of how sane people react to an encounter with insanity. Its daring experimentation and unusual niche make it a book that people on the lookout for something out of the ordinary will enjoy reading.
July 15, 2009
"Books--all those big, heavy-bottomed ashcans where men empty their lives. I like the leopard. I don't like Benj. Franklin."
This book starts off with some interestingly hallucinatory and surrealistic prose, but cannot maintain the necessary mixture of abstraction, alienation, and violence. Soon it devolves into bad gender relations and attacks on language and tradition, as per above or: "Man has been corrupted by his symbols. Language has killed his animal." &etc.
There are interesting aspects and themes present, but none of them are ones that aren't done better elsewhere. Try Derrida, Proust, Camus.
This book starts off with some interestingly hallucinatory and surrealistic prose, but cannot maintain the necessary mixture of abstraction, alienation, and violence. Soon it devolves into bad gender relations and attacks on language and tradition, as per above or: "Man has been corrupted by his symbols. Language has killed his animal." &etc.
There are interesting aspects and themes present, but none of them are ones that aren't done better elsewhere. Try Derrida, Proust, Camus.
September 13, 2012
I loved this book so much I carried it around for two years and still I come back to it at some point. He is like a high school friend I check on from time to time to say "Hi and Thank You for my addiction to you and many others authors because of you".
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June 9, 2015“Everyone is saying where can we hide when the war comes? No one at all is saying: where can we hide the war?” (35)
A formidable, deeply affecting novel/poem by a master of mixed media. I read “Albion Moonlight” in bits and pieces, binged on it, ignored it for months only to take it up again, amazed by what I remembered and didn’t remember. At several points I thought I’d never finish it. At other points I wanted to read nothing else.
Patchen, a pacifist, self-published “The Journal of Albion Moonlight” on the eve of America’s entrance into WWII. In his own words :
"I attempted to write the spiritual account of this summer... [1940]-a summer when all the codes and ethics which men lived by for centuries were subjected to the acid tests of general war and universal disillusionment. I had to recreate that chaos...uncharted horror and suffering and complete loss of heart by most human beings...I have I think kept the reader on his toes-I have made him a participant...To love all things is to understand all things; and that which is understood by any of us becomes a knowledge embedded in all of us...To recognize truth it is only necessary to recognize each other.”
A formidable, deeply affecting novel/poem by a master of mixed media. I read “Albion Moonlight” in bits and pieces, binged on it, ignored it for months only to take it up again, amazed by what I remembered and didn’t remember. At several points I thought I’d never finish it. At other points I wanted to read nothing else.
Patchen, a pacifist, self-published “The Journal of Albion Moonlight” on the eve of America’s entrance into WWII. In his own words :
"I attempted to write the spiritual account of this summer... [1940]-a summer when all the codes and ethics which men lived by for centuries were subjected to the acid tests of general war and universal disillusionment. I had to recreate that chaos...uncharted horror and suffering and complete loss of heart by most human beings...I have I think kept the reader on his toes-I have made him a participant...To love all things is to understand all things; and that which is understood by any of us becomes a knowledge embedded in all of us...To recognize truth it is only necessary to recognize each other.”
May 31, 2015
one of a kind; sort of a goth whitman? a feverishly scattered surrealist road trip through a WWII pre-beat post-apocalyptic dreamscape. studded with some beautiful poetry and great lines and aphorisms, but just... largely boring. probably best read a few random pages at a time.
What is often mistaken for prose style is only a tone of false gravity.
What is often mistaken for prose style is only a tone of false gravity.
October 27, 2008
I read this book in college and I was afraid that it might not hold up on a 2nd reading... but Patchen is so quirky that there is really no time or place but the present to read this wonderful book.
May 28, 2010
I clutched this book as if it were a bible, when I was a teenager and if I were to read it again, I am sure my fingers would grip it just the same.
September 8, 2022
There's obviously a journal in here, but precisely whose is not clear. At times it's a dense, symbolic retelling of some sort of cross country trip across a broken America, this would seem to be the work of Albion. At others it would seem to be the memoir of Patchen, focusing on the time spent writing Moonlight.
Although this clashing of narratives will produce some disorientation at first, considering how fragmented, symbolic and misanthropic it is, I found Journal surprisingly easy to jump into. It does flow and it does so surprisingly well.
Having recently gone through a reappraisal of Blake his influence was sensed almost from the first page. There's also a simple, unassuming tone to the wording, even if they are sometime built up into bonfires. It's also a violent book but it's not De Sade, I find some of the other reviews I've looked at give that impression.
The influence on the Beats is also obvious, one that Patchen himself was not all that happy about, as he felt he was lumped in with a school of poetry, if that's the right phrase, with which he had little in common.
It's worth a look, and the time frame in which it was written, the mid 1940s probably would bear some fruit with this in mind. The misanthropy is obviously a reflection of the rotten, disfigured state of Europe at that point in time.
Although this clashing of narratives will produce some disorientation at first, considering how fragmented, symbolic and misanthropic it is, I found Journal surprisingly easy to jump into. It does flow and it does so surprisingly well.
Having recently gone through a reappraisal of Blake his influence was sensed almost from the first page. There's also a simple, unassuming tone to the wording, even if they are sometime built up into bonfires. It's also a violent book but it's not De Sade, I find some of the other reviews I've looked at give that impression.
The influence on the Beats is also obvious, one that Patchen himself was not all that happy about, as he felt he was lumped in with a school of poetry, if that's the right phrase, with which he had little in common.
It's worth a look, and the time frame in which it was written, the mid 1940s probably would bear some fruit with this in mind. The misanthropy is obviously a reflection of the rotten, disfigured state of Europe at that point in time.
August 19, 2012
The author of this book was so creative and his imagination so powerful that it shattered not only the laws of physics but even the laws of literature itself. In addition, without any doubt, some of the loveliest imagery, if not the most stunningly beautiful images ever conceived, are contained in this book. I have a copy which was signed by the author's wife, Miriam Patchen, who has by now passed out of and hopefully beyond this reality.
Kenneth Patchen, the author, would surely be more well known had he not vociferously opposed all warfare, including World War 2. I myself am not a pacifist, but it's too bad Patchen was robbed of his due because of his views.
If the world were comprised of mostly intelligent, creative, sensitive people, Patchen might be the most famous writer who over lived.
You haven't read jack if you haven't read this.
Kenneth Patchen, the author, would surely be more well known had he not vociferously opposed all warfare, including World War 2. I myself am not a pacifist, but it's too bad Patchen was robbed of his due because of his views.
If the world were comprised of mostly intelligent, creative, sensitive people, Patchen might be the most famous writer who over lived.
You haven't read jack if you haven't read this.
September 19, 2020
this is sometimes annoying and obtuse(deliberately so i think) and occasionally anticipates some of the more stupid tendencies of the beats but there are also really striking sections of great writing and vivid imagery, lots of formal experimentation(lists, text set in different columns at different sizes, etc) and some really sincere impassioned rants against war and imperialism.
May 4, 2011
Kenneth Patchen's piece is poetic prose with poetry supplanted into work. Amazing images of Albion Moonlight and his travails with his companions as they travel the US during the world war two period.
There is much allegory to images of Moonlight as the sacrificed son, much as Jesus was sacrificed. For a man who was bed bound due to a spinal condition, Patchen conjures up images as the painters of the Impressionist movement did with paint. The book may remind readers of Joyce's Ulysses, but this is easy to read. Highly recommend this one.
There is much allegory to images of Moonlight as the sacrificed son, much as Jesus was sacrificed. For a man who was bed bound due to a spinal condition, Patchen conjures up images as the painters of the Impressionist movement did with paint. The book may remind readers of Joyce's Ulysses, but this is easy to read. Highly recommend this one.
March 20, 2013
Confession: when I was 18 The Journal seemed mysterious and psychological.
The poet speaks for himself: "there can only be one action: what a man is. When you have understood this, you will be through with novels."
What The Journal is not:
a novel;
a serious pacifist manifesto;
a journey across America;
disturbing or affecting.
What The Journal is:
Patchen's excuse to whine about literature;
an undisciplined take-off on Hesse's Journey to the East;
the epitome of misogyny;
worshipful Marxist drivel;
tiresome adolescent sex fantasy;
200 repetitive pages too long.
The poet speaks for himself: "there can only be one action: what a man is. When you have understood this, you will be through with novels."
What The Journal is not:
a novel;
a serious pacifist manifesto;
a journey across America;
disturbing or affecting.
What The Journal is:
Patchen's excuse to whine about literature;
an undisciplined take-off on Hesse's Journey to the East;
the epitome of misogyny;
worshipful Marxist drivel;
tiresome adolescent sex fantasy;
200 repetitive pages too long.
December 30, 2007
Perhaps my most favorite book of all time? At least in the top five. This is also easily one of the key novels in helping me develop my voice as a writer -- Patchen is essential, especially if only as a creative entity.
I categorize this book as "rare" because I never find people have read it, let alone have heard of him or remember him and securing a copy of the book, even in the shoddy state mine is in, took nearly a month via online resellers!
I categorize this book as "rare" because I never find people have read it, let alone have heard of him or remember him and securing a copy of the book, even in the shoddy state mine is in, took nearly a month via online resellers!
September 20, 2010
I read this book many years ago, shortly after returning from Vietnam. My recollection is that it contained some very intense writing with some quite remarkable prose; but then, maybe I was just in an intense mood, after a fairly intense period in my life. A friend allowed me to stay at his cabin in the woods, overlooking a lake in Kentucky in the new winter with no leaves on the trees and no snow on the ground, just grey sky all around.
February 10, 2011
You have to be ready for this one...It challenges all assumptions. One of the great anti-war books in literature.
October 31, 2025
"You have read many books. This book reads you"
In this multiformatted metafiction Patchen tells the reader that genre and subject be dammed, you either like it or you don't. While he states that he's serving up the world's ugliness for the reader to react to, charge their emotions and express their own feelings about- some sections featuring violence against women... well I don't know, maybe you need to trust the process, because at times it felt too natural, or to be for a poorly judged laugh.
That's my doubt or critique. The text is a dizzying display of techniques, wordplay and the grotesque. It didn't quite reach the heights that Sleepers Awake did for me, but that's a really high bar.
In this multiformatted metafiction Patchen tells the reader that genre and subject be dammed, you either like it or you don't. While he states that he's serving up the world's ugliness for the reader to react to, charge their emotions and express their own feelings about- some sections featuring violence against women... well I don't know, maybe you need to trust the process, because at times it felt too natural, or to be for a poorly judged laugh.
That's my doubt or critique. The text is a dizzying display of techniques, wordplay and the grotesque. It didn't quite reach the heights that Sleepers Awake did for me, but that's a really high bar.
January 7, 2009
A major influence on the Beats and collaborator with jazz musicians, Patchen somehow taps into the collective horror of World War II, penning a disjointed and surreal journal of a group of people fleeing and raging against a ubiquitous army of wolves. Phenomenal and chilling, this is the 40s, an emotional intensity never reached in the work of Pynchon, including the ballsy move of making both Jesus and Hitler misunderstood minor characters to his plot. A must read.
August 8, 2008
Weird? Genius? It barely makes sense, but when it does just try and stop yourself from scribbling down whole sections of this book into your journal. It's stream-of-consciousness meets surrealism. You know, basically. Oh, and Kenneth Patchen is from Ohio, so, booyah.
January 11, 2011
NOT A REVIEW} Dick Bauerle called this "precious" writing. Seemed like a dream vision to me when I read it 50 years ago. Might could try it again. One of those dreams where you are travelling endlessly through a ghostly landscape.
January 6, 2009
a surrealist work that is anti-beat. thank christ. it is more poetic than kerouac could ever hope to be. fuck the beats, except the holy father william burroughs. fuck beat writing.
July 29, 2012
One of the strangest book I've ever read. Don't ask me to explain it...
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April 22, 2022Sometimes people make a war
Don’t know what is for (business)
Say you stop the war (yee c’mon, once again)
Don’t know what is for (business)
Say you stop the war (yee c’mon, once again)
December 21, 2018
At this point in my life, there are fewer and fewer pieces of art that truly amaze me, be it literature, film, music, or otherwise. That isn't to say I've lost my sense of amazement, simply that my experiences have exposed me to the vast underground of forgotten art and there remains very little stones to be unturned. But there are still hidden gems out there and when I find them now, my enthusiasm for the discovery is even greater.
This is one of those discoveries. Originally published in 1941, this is a post-modern novel before the term really existed. It's clearly twenty years ahead of it's time and reads like a foundation for books by Burroughs and Pynchon and the French new novel movement of the '50s, though shockingly American in every way.
Set against the backdrop of WWII and the rise of fascism, this surrealist novel examines the war that takes place endless within the psyche, both of the individual and society. It breaks all conventions of plot and narrative structure as it attempts to break open the conventions of novel writing, which Patchen (primarily a poet) seems to hold in low regard.
In many ways, this feels like an accessible Finnagan's Wake in that it is a love of language, a tribute to the written word liberated from the weight of plot and character development.
This is one of those discoveries. Originally published in 1941, this is a post-modern novel before the term really existed. It's clearly twenty years ahead of it's time and reads like a foundation for books by Burroughs and Pynchon and the French new novel movement of the '50s, though shockingly American in every way.
Set against the backdrop of WWII and the rise of fascism, this surrealist novel examines the war that takes place endless within the psyche, both of the individual and society. It breaks all conventions of plot and narrative structure as it attempts to break open the conventions of novel writing, which Patchen (primarily a poet) seems to hold in low regard.
In many ways, this feels like an accessible Finnagan's Wake in that it is a love of language, a tribute to the written word liberated from the weight of plot and character development.
April 3, 2022
One does not read this book so much as absorb it. It demands to be read in its entirety before the reader is able to then begin pondering what it is Mr. Patchen has created here and how did he accomplish the task. The writing is singular, incandescent, and beautiful, but beyond any of the common connotations normally associated with the word "beautiful". Some of it is disturbing, some of it is horrifying, some of it is breathtaking, all of it is strange, wildly original, and basically unlike any other book I have previously read. One comes away from the book with the distinct feeling of having been transported by Mr. Patchen, but one does not necessarily know where. Intrinsically, one understands the import of the journey. This book is unique in every way.
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