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Le macchinazioni
Una storia sui miti della celebrità, sul potere di internet e sulle mistificazioni che fondono e confondono verità e leggenda. Magarian ci porta in un mondo che ha abbandonato il realismo e ci guida in un viaggio pieno di pathos, umorismo e bellezza sovversiva, dando vita a un'opera selvaggiamente inventiva, con un cast di personaggi abbaglianti e grotteschi. "Le macchinazioni" è un romanzo che riflette i nostri tempi tumultuosi, capace di mescolare satira, amore e meditazione su sesso e identità.
- GenresFiction
576 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 19, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
December 27, 2020
Lo spunto narrativo è interessante (un pubblicitario prende un qualsiasi mentecatto dalla strada e lo trasforma in un guru dei nostri tempi), ma la scrittura per me era intollerabile, troppo fittizia. Tutto per me di questo romanzo era fittizio: i dialoghi, i personaggi, le descrizioni.
Inoltre per i miei gusti lo scrittore era troppo presente con le sue idee sul “senso dimenticato della vita” e le continue banalità presenti nel testo (“La gente non guarda più il cielo perché non ha attaccato il cartellino del prezzo”), che non riuscivo a capire se fossero inserite perché ci crede davvero o solo per sottolineare la pochezza del protagonista, mi hanno estenuata.
Non è cosa per me, tuttavia potrebbe piacere agli estimatori de Il maestro e Margherita e de Il circo della notte.
Inoltre per i miei gusti lo scrittore era troppo presente con le sue idee sul “senso dimenticato della vita” e le continue banalità presenti nel testo (“La gente non guarda più il cielo perché non ha attaccato il cartellino del prezzo”), che non riuscivo a capire se fossero inserite perché ci crede davvero o solo per sottolineare la pochezza del protagonista, mi hanno estenuata.
Non è cosa per me, tuttavia potrebbe piacere agli estimatori de Il maestro e Margherita e de Il circo della notte.
May 18, 2017
A feature I wrote about Magarian and his upcoming novel The Fabrications (due out June 1st, 2017 on Pleasure Boat Studio Press) for the March issue of our local English-language newspaper, Florence News.
Baret Magarian is a first generation Armenian immigrant born and raised in London, England. When the bustle and hassles of the British metropolis wore this aspiring novelist and literary journalist down, he escaped to Florence. “In Florence I found sunshine, some good friends, and the tranquility I needed to concentrate on writing,” says Magarian on the eve of the publication of his first novel, the epic The Fabrications, coming later this spring from the prestigious New York-based Pleasure Boat Studio. “Florence is a complex city. It teases, taunts, remaining aloof—one can’t help but love its beauty. As Mary McCarthy said, Florence is like the Platonic form of a thing, undiluted and unfiltered, it captures essences where stark reality is blurry. That’s inspiring for an artist.”
The Fabrications, although re-considered, honed, and launched from Florence is very much the product of Magarian’s previous London life—which he spent writing literary journalism for The Guardian (among others) and working for avant-garde publishing maverick John Calder. The novel focuses on Oscar Babel, projectionist of a dilapidated Camden Cinema, who’s catapulted to overnight stardom in the London art world and ends up a media-produced guru, and finally a kind of new Messiah by novel’s end. As in a medieval painting of a dying man, two figures sit squarely on Oscar’s shoulders, writer Daniel Bloch and publicist Ryan Rees. Angel and demon, Bloch and Rees wrestle not necessarily for Oscar’s soul, but over his image and fate certainly. When the novelist Bloch writes a fiction about his friend the events of the narrative begin happening in real life, much to Oscar’s bemusement. Then, in a more Mephistophelian manner, publicist Rees picks the projectionist up in mid-transformation and re-constructs him anew into a media darling and a kind of prophet of sensuality for an alienated digital age. But, if the New Testament and Tommy teach us anything, it’s that being the new messiah is a tough gig.
These two colliding visions of metamorphosis, the one rather ancient, which uses art as a metaphor for creation in time, and the other our somewhat facile modern day public image ltd., give The Fabrications its brilliant and complex dual meditation upon soul and image, spirituality and spin, philosophy and satire. Never more prescient than in our post-fact world—in which reality TV show figures who never read books but watch endless hours of television hold the highest political offices in the land, The Fabrications’ satire is spot on (as the Brits say). The Ryan Rees character could easily stand-in for a Karl Rove—if Rove, rather than producing silky presidents out of sow’s ears rather conjured up new messiahs.
However, as a long-time reader of serious literature, and as a writer myself, I most enjoyed Oscar’s tentative, mysterious, and ultimately profound relationship with his friend Bloch. The concept of writing in things and events goes back to medieval readings of the Old Testament that posit that God, the ultimate creator, wrote morality through people and events—what we today call history. Bloch’s conjuring up a fictional version of his friend Oscar and building an important destiny for this ordinary man who projects movies onto a screen (like Plato’s forms onto the cave walls) is a tour-de-force of the literary imagination. I couldn’t recommend The Fabrications more strongly; it’s a wondrous novel both cleverly satirical of our spectacle-based society and philosophically profound, a rare accomplishment.
Baret Magarian is a first generation Armenian immigrant born and raised in London, England. When the bustle and hassles of the British metropolis wore this aspiring novelist and literary journalist down, he escaped to Florence. “In Florence I found sunshine, some good friends, and the tranquility I needed to concentrate on writing,” says Magarian on the eve of the publication of his first novel, the epic The Fabrications, coming later this spring from the prestigious New York-based Pleasure Boat Studio. “Florence is a complex city. It teases, taunts, remaining aloof—one can’t help but love its beauty. As Mary McCarthy said, Florence is like the Platonic form of a thing, undiluted and unfiltered, it captures essences where stark reality is blurry. That’s inspiring for an artist.”
The Fabrications, although re-considered, honed, and launched from Florence is very much the product of Magarian’s previous London life—which he spent writing literary journalism for The Guardian (among others) and working for avant-garde publishing maverick John Calder. The novel focuses on Oscar Babel, projectionist of a dilapidated Camden Cinema, who’s catapulted to overnight stardom in the London art world and ends up a media-produced guru, and finally a kind of new Messiah by novel’s end. As in a medieval painting of a dying man, two figures sit squarely on Oscar’s shoulders, writer Daniel Bloch and publicist Ryan Rees. Angel and demon, Bloch and Rees wrestle not necessarily for Oscar’s soul, but over his image and fate certainly. When the novelist Bloch writes a fiction about his friend the events of the narrative begin happening in real life, much to Oscar’s bemusement. Then, in a more Mephistophelian manner, publicist Rees picks the projectionist up in mid-transformation and re-constructs him anew into a media darling and a kind of prophet of sensuality for an alienated digital age. But, if the New Testament and Tommy teach us anything, it’s that being the new messiah is a tough gig.
These two colliding visions of metamorphosis, the one rather ancient, which uses art as a metaphor for creation in time, and the other our somewhat facile modern day public image ltd., give The Fabrications its brilliant and complex dual meditation upon soul and image, spirituality and spin, philosophy and satire. Never more prescient than in our post-fact world—in which reality TV show figures who never read books but watch endless hours of television hold the highest political offices in the land, The Fabrications’ satire is spot on (as the Brits say). The Ryan Rees character could easily stand-in for a Karl Rove—if Rove, rather than producing silky presidents out of sow’s ears rather conjured up new messiahs.
However, as a long-time reader of serious literature, and as a writer myself, I most enjoyed Oscar’s tentative, mysterious, and ultimately profound relationship with his friend Bloch. The concept of writing in things and events goes back to medieval readings of the Old Testament that posit that God, the ultimate creator, wrote morality through people and events—what we today call history. Bloch’s conjuring up a fictional version of his friend Oscar and building an important destiny for this ordinary man who projects movies onto a screen (like Plato’s forms onto the cave walls) is a tour-de-force of the literary imagination. I couldn’t recommend The Fabrications more strongly; it’s a wondrous novel both cleverly satirical of our spectacle-based society and philosophically profound, a rare accomplishment.
July 24, 2020
L'ho finito da quasi due mesi e ancora ci ripenso.
Mi è capitato sotto gli occhi per caso, casa editrice sconosciuta, autore sconosciuto.
L'ho comprato alla cieca senza neppure leggerne un estratto, non so perché, non lo faccio mai; qualcosa mi attraeva, i colori di copertina, il titolo sicuramente e il nome armeno dell'autore.
E mi sono ritrovato catapultato in una Londra caleidoscopica, in cui si muovono strambi personaggi che si intrattengono in strambi dialoghi e che prendono improvvise e strambe sbandate.
La struttura portante - una sorta di rivisitazione di Dorian Gray in cui il personaggio piatto e apatico vede a poco a poco la propria vita riempirsi e fiorire, mentre il contro-personaggio di successo, come tra vasi comunicanti, assiste al proprio svuotamento e avvizzisce - sembra quasi un pretesto per narrare di questi curiosi uomini e donne, tutti trattati da Magarian, anche solo in due battute, con tocco gentile; è un autore che vuol bene alle sue creature, quasi le conoscesse davvero.
La prossima volta che capiterò a Londra starò molto attento a una porta nera dalle parti di Tottenham Court Road, chissà che non mi imbatta nella cantina di Mister Sopso indovino.
Mi è capitato sotto gli occhi per caso, casa editrice sconosciuta, autore sconosciuto.
L'ho comprato alla cieca senza neppure leggerne un estratto, non so perché, non lo faccio mai; qualcosa mi attraeva, i colori di copertina, il titolo sicuramente e il nome armeno dell'autore.
E mi sono ritrovato catapultato in una Londra caleidoscopica, in cui si muovono strambi personaggi che si intrattengono in strambi dialoghi e che prendono improvvise e strambe sbandate.
La struttura portante - una sorta di rivisitazione di Dorian Gray in cui il personaggio piatto e apatico vede a poco a poco la propria vita riempirsi e fiorire, mentre il contro-personaggio di successo, come tra vasi comunicanti, assiste al proprio svuotamento e avvizzisce - sembra quasi un pretesto per narrare di questi curiosi uomini e donne, tutti trattati da Magarian, anche solo in due battute, con tocco gentile; è un autore che vuol bene alle sue creature, quasi le conoscesse davvero.
La prossima volta che capiterò a Londra starò molto attento a una porta nera dalle parti di Tottenham Court Road, chissà che non mi imbatta nella cantina di Mister Sopso indovino.
March 21, 2020
Dopo aver finito di leggere Le macchinazioni mi mancavano i suoi personaggi, e avrei voluto che il libro continuasse ancora qualche pagina; dopo averlo appoggiato sul comodino non vedevo l'ora di riprenderne la lettura.
Già questo basterebbe a far capire come il romanzo riesca a creare quella magia che è il dialogo con il lettore, la capacità di tenerlo agganciato alle vicende narrate, di farlo ripensare a quanto accaduto in quel mondo di finzione letteraria anche oltre i momenti trascorsi in quell'universo parallelo.
Perché di un universo parallelo si tratta, realistico fino a un certo punto, sia per quanto riguarda i luoghi che i personaggi: siamo a Londra, sì, ma potremmo trovarci catapultati in una qualsiasi metropoli contemporanea. L'ambientazione assurge quindi a simbolo di un modo di vivere in una grande città ai giorni nostri, più che trattarsi di uno spazio definito in sé, e assume quindi un valore esistenziale. Questo ha un effetto straniante sul lettore, che allo stesso tempo riconosce e non riconosce i luoghi, li trova plausibili eppure non del tutto realistici.
Lo stesso si può dire dei personaggi, strani, bizzarri, ognuno vittima delle proprie idiosincrasie. L'immedesimazione del lettore con loro non può essere totale, per due motivi: il primo è che essi ci risultano familiari solo a tratti, conservano un'ambiguità, qualcosa che sfugge alla totale comprensione dei loro moventi; il secondo è che essi assumono un valore simbolico nella società, schierandosi sui fronti opposti della lotta contemporanea fra ideale e reale, fra spirito e materia.
Passando alle questioni stilistiche, Le macchinazioni è un libro a tratti surreale, assurdo e realistico insieme, intriso di nostalgia per quello che il nostro presente potrebbe essere e non è, di pietà verso la follia dei nostri giorni, senza mai scadere tuttavia nel pietismo. Quando la tragicità della scena diventa troppa, ecco che Baret inserisce nella frase un particolare bizzarro e divertente, un'immagine buffa che sbuca dal nulla e che appare tuttavia perfettamente coerente con l'assurdità dell'esistenza umana, gli imprevedibili scherzi del destino che Baret è così capace di rappresentare. C'è una costante variazione di toni, dal tragico al comico, dal romantico al trash, dal patetico all'elegiaco.
Baret rivela una sensibilità non comune nel narrare l'amore, le relazioni umane sempre complicate, l'irrazionale spinta a scappare quando il sentimento ci travolge; egli mostra una rara capacità nel ritrarre le brutture del mondo contemporaneo, l'impatto devastante dei social media sulle nostre vite alla deriva, e nel saperle bilanciare con la profonda umanità di certi personaggi, spesso i più fragili, e con i momenti di felicità che vengono loro concessi. È in questi momenti che i personaggi raggiungono una qualche forma di purezza: a volte senza che abbiano fatto nulla per meritarla, attraverso la mano invisibile del destino; altre volte come forma di ricompensa per le buone azioni da loro compiute, come nel caso di Liliana.
La narrazione dell'esistenza ne Le macchinazioni è sempre onesta, anche nei suoi aspetti più crudi, dolorosi e imprevedibili, e l'unico palliativo che Baret usa è l'ironia, non per indorare la pillola, anzi, per mostrare in modo ancora più cristallino tutta la sua assurdità. Ci concede parecchie risate, ma solo perché il suo modo di descrivere il mondo che va a rotoli è (anche) molto divertente.
Già questo basterebbe a far capire come il romanzo riesca a creare quella magia che è il dialogo con il lettore, la capacità di tenerlo agganciato alle vicende narrate, di farlo ripensare a quanto accaduto in quel mondo di finzione letteraria anche oltre i momenti trascorsi in quell'universo parallelo.
Perché di un universo parallelo si tratta, realistico fino a un certo punto, sia per quanto riguarda i luoghi che i personaggi: siamo a Londra, sì, ma potremmo trovarci catapultati in una qualsiasi metropoli contemporanea. L'ambientazione assurge quindi a simbolo di un modo di vivere in una grande città ai giorni nostri, più che trattarsi di uno spazio definito in sé, e assume quindi un valore esistenziale. Questo ha un effetto straniante sul lettore, che allo stesso tempo riconosce e non riconosce i luoghi, li trova plausibili eppure non del tutto realistici.
Lo stesso si può dire dei personaggi, strani, bizzarri, ognuno vittima delle proprie idiosincrasie. L'immedesimazione del lettore con loro non può essere totale, per due motivi: il primo è che essi ci risultano familiari solo a tratti, conservano un'ambiguità, qualcosa che sfugge alla totale comprensione dei loro moventi; il secondo è che essi assumono un valore simbolico nella società, schierandosi sui fronti opposti della lotta contemporanea fra ideale e reale, fra spirito e materia.
Passando alle questioni stilistiche, Le macchinazioni è un libro a tratti surreale, assurdo e realistico insieme, intriso di nostalgia per quello che il nostro presente potrebbe essere e non è, di pietà verso la follia dei nostri giorni, senza mai scadere tuttavia nel pietismo. Quando la tragicità della scena diventa troppa, ecco che Baret inserisce nella frase un particolare bizzarro e divertente, un'immagine buffa che sbuca dal nulla e che appare tuttavia perfettamente coerente con l'assurdità dell'esistenza umana, gli imprevedibili scherzi del destino che Baret è così capace di rappresentare. C'è una costante variazione di toni, dal tragico al comico, dal romantico al trash, dal patetico all'elegiaco.
Baret rivela una sensibilità non comune nel narrare l'amore, le relazioni umane sempre complicate, l'irrazionale spinta a scappare quando il sentimento ci travolge; egli mostra una rara capacità nel ritrarre le brutture del mondo contemporaneo, l'impatto devastante dei social media sulle nostre vite alla deriva, e nel saperle bilanciare con la profonda umanità di certi personaggi, spesso i più fragili, e con i momenti di felicità che vengono loro concessi. È in questi momenti che i personaggi raggiungono una qualche forma di purezza: a volte senza che abbiano fatto nulla per meritarla, attraverso la mano invisibile del destino; altre volte come forma di ricompensa per le buone azioni da loro compiute, come nel caso di Liliana.
La narrazione dell'esistenza ne Le macchinazioni è sempre onesta, anche nei suoi aspetti più crudi, dolorosi e imprevedibili, e l'unico palliativo che Baret usa è l'ironia, non per indorare la pillola, anzi, per mostrare in modo ancora più cristallino tutta la sua assurdità. Ci concede parecchie risate, ma solo perché il suo modo di descrivere il mondo che va a rotoli è (anche) molto divertente.
June 23, 2017
I became interested in reading this book primarily because it was a satire. Satires tend to fall in either of two categories: Really good, or ridiculously bad. Baret Magarian’s The Fabrications fits squarely in the former category.
The novel’s central premise revolves around the current state of the world’s media, especially touching on the digital age’s proliferation of ‘celebrity’ figures. Magarian crafts a story that rings very close to the reader’s (or maybe specifically the millenial’s) ear, drawing all sorts of parallels to the world we now see surrounding us: everyone and everything from the Kardashians to the so-called social media influencers have taken over our media while offering us very little. A former journalist, Magarian has first-hand knowledge and experience of the how the media functions, and as such his criticism of it misses nothing. He litters the text with various snippets of fictional newspaper and magazine articles as he constructs his tale, which only add to the novel’s appeal.
Though perhaps the main plotline is a satire of the current state of media, and executed remarkably so, the novel as a whole is about much more than that. The novel is set in London, where Magarian used to live, and draws on his experiences to build the characters, none of which are without complexity. This novel is very much about inner turmoil, about finding oneself. It is about finding love, and the meaning of love. About the fragility of relationships, and about the value of friendship. Every character in this novel goes through some sort of crisis, and each is given its time to unfold and resolve. The author merges almost-poetic vivid descriptions with blunt humor and minimal embellishment to excellent effect.
I haven’t yet thought long enough to unpack this, but throughout my reading of this novel I couldn’t help but draw connections with Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Perhaps the main character’s name, Oscar Babel, is a subtle nod to Wilde’s masterpiece (and his character Basil)?
My only negative comments would be that any cat lover may cringe at reading that a cat is (force)-fed some chocolate (toxic to cats), and also that the novel concludes with a bit too much of a description of Oscar’s feelings regarding the recent events that have happened to him. Redundant, as Magarian’s description throughout the novel sufficiently captures Oscar’s state of being, but easily forgivable.
All in all, I’m glad I read this and would highly recommend it with a 9/10. A clever, literary page-turner. I received a free pdf of the book in exchange for an honest review, but will nevertheless go out and purchase a physical copy.
June 12, 2017
The novelist Daniel Bloch starts writing a novel about his friend, Oscar Babel, which gradually starts to manifest as reality. As the events of the novel become true, not only Oscar's life chances, but also Bloch's, with surprising turns.
This is a book that treats about life, it's meaning, friendship and love with very profound reflections. The turns in this story are quite unexpected and invite the reader to reflect and get more conscious about life itself. The characters are well developed, exposing their internal life, as well as their external one. The thread of the story is easy to follow from beginning to end and contains different surprises, especially in the end. It has been an enjoyable read.
This is a book that treats about life, it's meaning, friendship and love with very profound reflections. The turns in this story are quite unexpected and invite the reader to reflect and get more conscious about life itself. The characters are well developed, exposing their internal life, as well as their external one. The thread of the story is easy to follow from beginning to end and contains different surprises, especially in the end. It has been an enjoyable read.
April 1, 2020
Dopo aver finito di leggere "Le macchinazioni" mi mancavano i suoi personaggi, e avrei voluto che il libro continuasse ancora qualche pagina; dopo averlo appoggiato sul comodino non vedevo l'ora di riprenderne la lettura.
Già questo basterebbe a far capire come il romanzo riesca a creare quella magia che è il dialogo con il lettore, la capacità di tenerlo agganciato alle vicende narrate, di farlo ripensare a quanto accaduto in quel mondo di finzione letteraria anche oltre i momenti trascorsi in quell'universo parallelo.
Perché di un universo parallelo si tratta, realistico fino a un certo punto, sia per quanto riguarda i luoghi che i personaggi: siamo a Londra, sì, ma potremmo trovarci catapultati in una qualsiasi metropoli contemporanea. L'ambientazione assurge quindi a simbolo di un modo di vivere in una grande città ai giorni nostri, più che trattarsi di uno spazio definito in sé, e assume quindi un valore esistenziale. Questo ha un effetto straniante sul lettore, che allo stesso tempo riconosce e non riconosce i luoghi, li trova plausibili eppure non del tutto realistici.
Lo stesso si può dire dei personaggi, strani, bizzarri, ognuno vittima delle proprie idiosincrasie. L'immedesimazione del lettore con loro non può essere totale, per due motivi: il primo è che essi ci risultano familiari solo a tratti, conservano un'ambiguità, qualcosa che sfugge alla totale comprensione dei loro moventi; il secondo è che essi assumono un valore simbolico nella società, schierandosi sui fronti opposti della lotta contemporanea fra ideale e reale, fra spirito e materia.
Passando alle questioni stilistiche, Le macchinazioni è un libro a tratti surreale, assurdo e realistico insieme, intriso di nostalgia per quello che il nostro presente potrebbe essere e non è, di pietà verso la follia dei nostri giorni, senza mai scadere tuttavia nel pietismo. Quando la tragicità della scena diventa troppa, ecco che l'autore inserisce nella frase un particolare bizzarro e divertente, un'immagine buffa che sbuca dal nulla e che appare tuttavia perfettamente coerente con l'assurdità dell'esistenza umana, gli imprevedibili scherzi del destino che Baret Magarian è così capace di rappresentare. C'è una costante variazione di toni, dal tragico al comico, dal romantico al trash, dal patetico all'elegiaco.
Magarian rivela una sensibilità non comune nel narrare l'amore, le relazioni umane sempre complicate, l'irrazionale spinta a scappare quando il sentimento ci travolge; egli mostra una rara capacità nel ritrarre le brutture del mondo contemporaneo, l'impatto devastante dei social media sulle nostre vite alla deriva, e nel saperle bilanciare con la profonda umanità di certi personaggi, spesso i più fragili, e con i momenti di felicità che vengono loro concessi. È in questi momenti che i personaggi raggiungono una qualche forma di purezza: a volte senza che abbiano fatto nulla per meritarla, attraverso la mano invisibile del destino; altre volte come forma di ricompensa per le buone azioni da loro compiute.
La narrazione dell'esistenza ne "Le macchinazioni" è sempre onesta, anche nei suoi aspetti più crudi, dolorosi e imprevedibili, e l'unico palliativo che Magarian usa è l'ironia, non per indorare la pillola, anzi, per mostrare in modo ancora più cristallino tutta la sua assurdità. Ci concede parecchie risate, ma solo perché il suo modo di descrivere il mondo che va a rotoli è (anche) molto divertente.
Già questo basterebbe a far capire come il romanzo riesca a creare quella magia che è il dialogo con il lettore, la capacità di tenerlo agganciato alle vicende narrate, di farlo ripensare a quanto accaduto in quel mondo di finzione letteraria anche oltre i momenti trascorsi in quell'universo parallelo.
Perché di un universo parallelo si tratta, realistico fino a un certo punto, sia per quanto riguarda i luoghi che i personaggi: siamo a Londra, sì, ma potremmo trovarci catapultati in una qualsiasi metropoli contemporanea. L'ambientazione assurge quindi a simbolo di un modo di vivere in una grande città ai giorni nostri, più che trattarsi di uno spazio definito in sé, e assume quindi un valore esistenziale. Questo ha un effetto straniante sul lettore, che allo stesso tempo riconosce e non riconosce i luoghi, li trova plausibili eppure non del tutto realistici.
Lo stesso si può dire dei personaggi, strani, bizzarri, ognuno vittima delle proprie idiosincrasie. L'immedesimazione del lettore con loro non può essere totale, per due motivi: il primo è che essi ci risultano familiari solo a tratti, conservano un'ambiguità, qualcosa che sfugge alla totale comprensione dei loro moventi; il secondo è che essi assumono un valore simbolico nella società, schierandosi sui fronti opposti della lotta contemporanea fra ideale e reale, fra spirito e materia.
Passando alle questioni stilistiche, Le macchinazioni è un libro a tratti surreale, assurdo e realistico insieme, intriso di nostalgia per quello che il nostro presente potrebbe essere e non è, di pietà verso la follia dei nostri giorni, senza mai scadere tuttavia nel pietismo. Quando la tragicità della scena diventa troppa, ecco che l'autore inserisce nella frase un particolare bizzarro e divertente, un'immagine buffa che sbuca dal nulla e che appare tuttavia perfettamente coerente con l'assurdità dell'esistenza umana, gli imprevedibili scherzi del destino che Baret Magarian è così capace di rappresentare. C'è una costante variazione di toni, dal tragico al comico, dal romantico al trash, dal patetico all'elegiaco.
Magarian rivela una sensibilità non comune nel narrare l'amore, le relazioni umane sempre complicate, l'irrazionale spinta a scappare quando il sentimento ci travolge; egli mostra una rara capacità nel ritrarre le brutture del mondo contemporaneo, l'impatto devastante dei social media sulle nostre vite alla deriva, e nel saperle bilanciare con la profonda umanità di certi personaggi, spesso i più fragili, e con i momenti di felicità che vengono loro concessi. È in questi momenti che i personaggi raggiungono una qualche forma di purezza: a volte senza che abbiano fatto nulla per meritarla, attraverso la mano invisibile del destino; altre volte come forma di ricompensa per le buone azioni da loro compiute.
La narrazione dell'esistenza ne "Le macchinazioni" è sempre onesta, anche nei suoi aspetti più crudi, dolorosi e imprevedibili, e l'unico palliativo che Magarian usa è l'ironia, non per indorare la pillola, anzi, per mostrare in modo ancora più cristallino tutta la sua assurdità. Ci concede parecchie risate, ma solo perché il suo modo di descrivere il mondo che va a rotoli è (anche) molto divertente.
May 23, 2017
‘All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players,’ so wrote William Shakespeare in As you like it. Amid all the technology of today, social media, the media, and modernity at large, these words were never as true as in The Fabrications - a satirical novel that explores a wild idea: what if a fictional account of your life actually came true?
Baret Magarian explores this and more in The Fabrications with a multifaceted tale of which each prism is a refraction of the protagonists' lives that leaves you laughing while pondering the absurdity of our modern existence. With the precision of a master craftsman each character’s inner workings unfold; the author Daniel Bloch driven to madness through his own God complex and pen; the unwitting player Oscar Babel projectionist turned guru, whose life is written and manipulated by those he unwittingly trusts; and the producer of all things unreal Ryan Rees, a publicist of demonic proportions.
Magarian’s breakout novel never disappoints in taking quirky characters with a myriad of issues, mostly narcissistic, and giving them a stage to play out some of the most ridiculous yet poignant acts in familiar settings that mirror our obsession with fame, selfies and influencers.
Baret Magarian explores this and more in The Fabrications with a multifaceted tale of which each prism is a refraction of the protagonists' lives that leaves you laughing while pondering the absurdity of our modern existence. With the precision of a master craftsman each character’s inner workings unfold; the author Daniel Bloch driven to madness through his own God complex and pen; the unwitting player Oscar Babel projectionist turned guru, whose life is written and manipulated by those he unwittingly trusts; and the producer of all things unreal Ryan Rees, a publicist of demonic proportions.
Magarian’s breakout novel never disappoints in taking quirky characters with a myriad of issues, mostly narcissistic, and giving them a stage to play out some of the most ridiculous yet poignant acts in familiar settings that mirror our obsession with fame, selfies and influencers.
November 25, 2017
I think the author lived in London about the same time that I did, because it was very evocative. One scene in particular brought memories flooding back: the night before Charles and Diana were married, there was a public fireworks display in Hyde Park. Getting there was easy, but, when it was all over and everyone tried to leave at once, the crowds took over the streets and brought traffic to a standstill. It was a happy crowd.
Otherwise, this is a strange little book. Satirical, magical, and yet quite down to earth in its romantic vision. It wasn't quite what I was expecting to read, but I did enjoy it.
Otherwise, this is a strange little book. Satirical, magical, and yet quite down to earth in its romantic vision. It wasn't quite what I was expecting to read, but I did enjoy it.
March 1, 2021
This book comes from the same universe as 'Master and Margarita'. I say 'same universe', because I don't want to do it the injustice that 'same world' would imply. I do not suggest in any way that Baret Magarian's writing style is similar to another writer's. It would be a dis-service to him to not acknowledge that he has a unique voice. But there is something about the quality of his writing, the atmosphere of the scenes that his words paint, and the covert hints of magical realism telling the reader that, despite the familiar settings of London and the relatively ordinary lives of the characters, there is a deep, dark and mysterious force manipulating them all. And this manipulating force - perhaps Baret himself, has invited you, the reader, to sit behind a one-way mirror with him, watching, while he pulls their strings. Just a thin veil seperating our world from theirs. Some of them seem to be half-aware of such manipulation, but they have no power to really grasp it.
It's been a long time since I was struck so strongly by a style and a story. I will be reading more Baret Magarian in the not-too-distant, just as soon as I recover from the unsettling fascination I was drawn into with 'The Fabrications.'
It's been a long time since I was struck so strongly by a style and a story. I will be reading more Baret Magarian in the not-too-distant, just as soon as I recover from the unsettling fascination I was drawn into with 'The Fabrications.'
December 4, 2017
“Oh, I see. It’s unethical, Oscar; that’s what’s troubling you. Look around, shitface, there are no ethics or truth anymore. Grow up a little. There is no reality anymore; reality is what you choose to make up, what you choose to manufacture, or what I, Ryan Rees, choose to manufacture, to be exact.” These lines express what could well be called the logos of Baret Magarian’s The Fabrications, its organizing, energizing and directing principle. It is lyrical satire about what retired Princeton philosopher Harry Frankfurt famously calls ‘bullshit.’ It is about our own immediate times, about how the social media has a stranglehold on the truth: “roll your own truth,” “roll your own values,” “roll your own sexuals.” Frankfurt writes that bullshit thrives in an atmosphere of skepticism, where there are no objective standards for measuring truth and value, just a chaotic flow of emotions and desires; now enter Ryan Rees, the ultimate spin doctor, the puppet master, transforming Oscar Babel, a dullard of a movie projectionist, into public star and messiah, and making the passionate strength of paradox the mark of the real. But it may not be Ryan Rees at all. He too may be a fiction, an invention of apparent protagonist Daniel Bloch, a successful but depressed writer of trashy novels who finally wants to craft a respectable and highly imaginative work. It is Daniel who creates Oscar and, for that matter, perhaps the entire scenario in which we find Ryan Rees and a London society engulfed in undecidability and the consequent disinterest in the truth of anything, yes the underbelly of London, echoes of Baudelaire and Rimbaud, the debauchery and squalor of another city, Paris.
“Panem et circenses” the crowds shouted in Nero’s Rome, and nothing less will satisfy the cravings of such a populace other than pleasure and security, unhinged from concerns about the truth, claiming false news and alternative facts. Dostoyevsky’s Ivan Karamazov tells his brother Alyosha that all that the people really want are miracles, authority, and the anonymity of one great ant heap, shunning the horror of the responsibility that freedom entails. Ryan Rees promises them this in the form of a messiah, the ultimate fabrication, not Jesus, not Osho Rajneesh, but Oscar Babel.
But somehow the reader still wants to take his or her bearings in the belief that the novel is about real characters, Bloch, Oscar, Rees and others. If there are reversals (and there are many), they are highly subtle, and the discovery of them delights the reader. Oscar is presented as a friend of Bloch, yes a hapless projectionist but also as a failed painter and part-time male nude model working in a rundown movie theatre in a junky part of London, who mysteriously begins to fulfill the power fantasies that Bloch writes about him in his new novel. Ryan Rees is in fact the grand fabricator who through his control of social media lifts Oscar almost to the level of sanctity and, of course, for enormous profit. Or is it Magarian himself who is the ultimate fabricator, thus undermining and purging in the end the self-assurance of his reader.
“Will loveliness ever cease to be lovely?” This question resounded throughout the salons and temples in the golden age of ancient Greece evidenced by its statuary of the voluptuous feminine. Lilliana, Najette, and Natalie, Magarian’s women, depicted in their complexity, their beauty, their power, three women, each trapped in the social web, in that labyrinth of incessantly changing impressions sustained by deceit and contempt and loathing. Even Lilliana, almost a celestial Venus whose gentleness and beauty generate a future to believe in, to hope in, to love in, yes even Lilliana gets caught up in the bullshit when she fabricates elaborately a story about being engaged to the homosexual fortune teller Sopso, and then there is the ironic and fiercely independent Najette, a painter, loved by Oscar, who shows her works at a gallery under a male pseudonym, and finally the unruly and ravishing Natalie, wife of Bloch, who seduces his father, all women testifying to the collapse of the transcendent form.
Like those of Lawrence Durrell, Magarian’s landscape tones, morning and evening light over London, arouse a passion for being. With a command of Indian mysticism and Tantrism, his epiphanies and love scenes rival those of D. H. Lawrence or Anais Nin. With lyrical mastery reminiscent of James Joyce, Magarian unveils the lovemaking of Najette and Oscar, exposing their kisses, breath becoming flesh, growing like waves from inner pressures and desires and memories and wishes through a stream flowing from the darkness of life to the joyous ‘yes’ of promiscuity, touching each other with lips and nose and tongue and cheeks, hearing and smelling and tasting each other in a moment of such voluptuous abandon that action and passion become almost indiscernible in an intercorporeity more fundamental than either.
Friedrich Nietzsche describes how the Dionysian festivals of ancient Greece, celebrated with wild frenzy and deep intoxication, expressed the exhilarating power of life, but when deprived of the self-restraint and serenity of spirit of Apollo, led to excesses of sensuality and cruelty and the disintegration of the personality. He could have learned a lesson from Magarian who has an orgy scene that subverts all defiance, that shows how my body and the body of others are born from an original ecstasy.
The humor of the text should be noted , played out in outrageous scenes, such as the fight at the awards ceremony over photographs of feces, or the one where the guy deliberately sets fire to his own house and then belatedly tries to extinguish it, the orgy with penises standing at half mast before announcing their graduation, then the scandalous and incongruous names such as ‘Dr. Feltersnatch,’ the fictional psychiatrist, or the constipated and salacious Albert Lush, or the stripper Tracy Fudge or ‘Edwin,’ the henchman/bodyguard, who should have been named ‘Biff,’ a more fitting and much less sophisticated name.
If on a dreary afternoon you should find yourself in a dark, angry, brooding depression, and if something like cardboard fills your mouth, generating that feeling of emptiness, powerlessness, futurelessness, meaninglessness, nothingness, then the time has come for you to read The Fabrications by Baret Magarian, just to confirm that you are not alone in the stink, that we are all accomplices in the failure of the truth, but how, despite ourselves, we are able to embrace the power of language and imagination to transform monotony into wild life, into a wild-flowering world that really exists despite our tantrums and trifling cultivation of the dubious. This outrageous, profound, humorous and poetic novel will become a cult classic, and is accessible to everyone with an imagination sufficient to let loose the clinging of habit, who has control of grammar, and who loves the lyrical play of words. It is a “must read,” but not for the thin skinned.
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July 21, 2017Read Kaley Kiermayr's interview with Baret Magarian about The Fabrications: https://tetheredbyletters.com/intervi...
May 16, 2017
The Fabrications is a brilliant and prescient book that captures contemporary society's preoccupation with larger-than life figures who often achieve their fame by unrelenting media coverage but have nothing more than their fame to define who they are. At the heart of the novel is a villainous publicist who manipulates the media and the public and turns an ordinary person into an overnight sensation. This publicist could be a stand-in for so many people in the media today, including those who helped catapult a businessman with no political experience into the highest office in the land.
May 30, 2017
A stunning novel of beauty, concepts and characters. I couldn't recommend it more.
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May 23, 2017This book was featured in the Nota Benes section of the May 2017 issue of World Literature Today Magazine.
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...
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October 24, 2017Won in the Goodreads Giveaways.
March 6, 2021
Ci troviamo di fronte un romanzo particolare, un libro visionario ma molto realistico, una storia che ci porta in un mondo pieno di personaggi dove è impossibile non riflettere sulla società di oggi.
Oscar e Daniel, due personaggi molto diversi ma legati da situazioni imprevedibili.
Oscar è un pittore fallito che diventa un modello, sfruttando la sua bellezza per riuscire a realizzarsi. Daniel è uno scrittore, il suo sogno è quello di scrivere un romanzo, uno di quelli che fa strada, che fa parlare di se. Decide così di scrivere di Oscar, assicurandogli di farlo diventare famoso grazie al suo libro. Quello che non si aspettano è che la storia raccontata nel romanzo si avvera, tutto quello che scrive Daniel diventa realtà. Quindi Oscar diventa una celebrità.
Tutti aspettano che lui parli, la folla è lì per lui, Oscar, attendono le sue parole come fosse un profeta, ha carisma, cattura le persone con i suoi discorsi, dà speranza.
"Mi piacerebbe offrire qualche riflessione su come vivere, su come tutti potremmo vivere in modo creativo, bello, pieno, con gli occhi esperti, i sensi che ribollono, le nervature in fiamme."
Ci sono anche tantissimi personaggi che arricchiscono il romanzo e le vicende ci trascineranno in una serie di situazioni particolari, tra fantasia e realtà.
Attraverso queste pagine l'autore ci mette di fronte a quella che è la realtà di oggi, una vita in cui i social hanno preso il sopravvento, in cui con un clic otteniamo tutto. Ci porta ad aprire gli occhi sulla non-vita che viviamo tutti i giorni, fomentando le amicizie virtuali, allontanandoci dal vero senso della vita. L'autore ci fa capire quante "macchinazioni" ci impediscono di vivere la vita al massimo, di goderci la famiglia, di essere noi stessi, calando quella maschera che inevitabilmente si porta dietro gli schermi.
Questo romanzo è un vortice di luce, ci attira tra le righe portandoci ineluttabilmente a riflettere, è un'analisi sulla società di oggi, su quello che pensiamo ci offre, ma che in realtà ci toglie. Troveremo però anche la strada per uscire dalle macchinazioni che ci rendono schiavi, l'amore, è quella la chiave, l'amicizia, il desiderio di libertà.
E' un libro che consiglio assolutamente di leggere, un romanzo che sicuramente farà strada.
Oscar e Daniel, due personaggi molto diversi ma legati da situazioni imprevedibili.
Oscar è un pittore fallito che diventa un modello, sfruttando la sua bellezza per riuscire a realizzarsi. Daniel è uno scrittore, il suo sogno è quello di scrivere un romanzo, uno di quelli che fa strada, che fa parlare di se. Decide così di scrivere di Oscar, assicurandogli di farlo diventare famoso grazie al suo libro. Quello che non si aspettano è che la storia raccontata nel romanzo si avvera, tutto quello che scrive Daniel diventa realtà. Quindi Oscar diventa una celebrità.
Tutti aspettano che lui parli, la folla è lì per lui, Oscar, attendono le sue parole come fosse un profeta, ha carisma, cattura le persone con i suoi discorsi, dà speranza.
"Mi piacerebbe offrire qualche riflessione su come vivere, su come tutti potremmo vivere in modo creativo, bello, pieno, con gli occhi esperti, i sensi che ribollono, le nervature in fiamme."
Ci sono anche tantissimi personaggi che arricchiscono il romanzo e le vicende ci trascineranno in una serie di situazioni particolari, tra fantasia e realtà.
Attraverso queste pagine l'autore ci mette di fronte a quella che è la realtà di oggi, una vita in cui i social hanno preso il sopravvento, in cui con un clic otteniamo tutto. Ci porta ad aprire gli occhi sulla non-vita che viviamo tutti i giorni, fomentando le amicizie virtuali, allontanandoci dal vero senso della vita. L'autore ci fa capire quante "macchinazioni" ci impediscono di vivere la vita al massimo, di goderci la famiglia, di essere noi stessi, calando quella maschera che inevitabilmente si porta dietro gli schermi.
Questo romanzo è un vortice di luce, ci attira tra le righe portandoci ineluttabilmente a riflettere, è un'analisi sulla società di oggi, su quello che pensiamo ci offre, ma che in realtà ci toglie. Troveremo però anche la strada per uscire dalle macchinazioni che ci rendono schiavi, l'amore, è quella la chiave, l'amicizia, il desiderio di libertà.
E' un libro che consiglio assolutamente di leggere, un romanzo che sicuramente farà strada.
November 15, 2017
The Fabrications has the attribute of the books that let us questioning about its teachings for days in a row and surprises us from the beginning to the end.
The book has anti-heroes as main characters and the author exposes their weaknesses, their impotence and mainly, their lack of self–knowledge and lack of creativeness plus a strong dose of low self-esteem.
Oscar Babel has a job in a Vintage cinema theatre as a projector and as he is not satisfied with both his life and job, so he starts to consider going back to his work as a painter.
Daniel Bloch is in his forties, he is a well succeeded and a famous novelist but he is not personally fulfilled. So, at a certain point, Bloch sees that his friend can do great things in his life, maybe he sees a certain nobleness in Oscar’s character, and from this point on, he begins to write a novel, the novel of his life, a real contribution to human kind, about how a brand new life Oscar Babel could construct and have according to his abilities and charisma.
Strangely, everything that Bloch writes about Oscar hypothetical new life, begins comes true. However as Oscar take an ascending way to become a suspect manufactured “Spiritual Guru” of our time having Ryan Rees as his caricatured publicist, that uses mainly The Internet to build a new celebrity from a no one man, Daniel Bloch embarks into a descending journey into the dark places of his soul losing the awareness of the reality and diving into his own questionings and issues without finding a way out for it.
All this story has London City as a scenario, but are the locations like pubs, hotels, art galleries etc, that play an important role for the development of this story. Almost everything is kitsch and excessive, opulent and quite grotesque as well as most of secondary and tertiary characters personalities.
This book works like a kind of a mirror that shows us the madness of our time, especially because of the force of internet and the advent of mythological celebrities of our contemporary days, which most of us insist on worship and wait for life lessons from them.
The book has anti-heroes as main characters and the author exposes their weaknesses, their impotence and mainly, their lack of self–knowledge and lack of creativeness plus a strong dose of low self-esteem.
Oscar Babel has a job in a Vintage cinema theatre as a projector and as he is not satisfied with both his life and job, so he starts to consider going back to his work as a painter.
Daniel Bloch is in his forties, he is a well succeeded and a famous novelist but he is not personally fulfilled. So, at a certain point, Bloch sees that his friend can do great things in his life, maybe he sees a certain nobleness in Oscar’s character, and from this point on, he begins to write a novel, the novel of his life, a real contribution to human kind, about how a brand new life Oscar Babel could construct and have according to his abilities and charisma.
Strangely, everything that Bloch writes about Oscar hypothetical new life, begins comes true. However as Oscar take an ascending way to become a suspect manufactured “Spiritual Guru” of our time having Ryan Rees as his caricatured publicist, that uses mainly The Internet to build a new celebrity from a no one man, Daniel Bloch embarks into a descending journey into the dark places of his soul losing the awareness of the reality and diving into his own questionings and issues without finding a way out for it.
All this story has London City as a scenario, but are the locations like pubs, hotels, art galleries etc, that play an important role for the development of this story. Almost everything is kitsch and excessive, opulent and quite grotesque as well as most of secondary and tertiary characters personalities.
This book works like a kind of a mirror that shows us the madness of our time, especially because of the force of internet and the advent of mythological celebrities of our contemporary days, which most of us insist on worship and wait for life lessons from them.
November 7, 2017
Like any great novel I didn’t want "The Fabrications" to end. Magarian's vivid tapestry of colorful characters, the lives they’re living, and the places they inhabit, is both familiar and strange. I often found myself lost in what felt like a 19th or 20th century London until a smart phone or social media alert snapped me back to our always on digital age. Still the tactile stream of typewritten pages, audiotapes, and analog detritus is ever present. In less capable hands this would feel like steampunk overkill but instead it lends the book an aura of literary timelessness while reminding readers of the characters’ and our own mortality. And that reaction, toggling between characters and oneself like some surreal Borges story, is the trick that keeps readers wondering what is real and what is imagined in “The Fabrications” and in our own lives.
Magarian’s novel within a novel construct in which a writer transforms the life of a friend through an imagined story that become true, as the writer himself sinks into despair and disrepair, is haunting and confounding. And the book’s the celebrity driven media and delirious public consumption of lies feels frighteningly real in today’s Trumplandia. My own immersion in Magarian's masterful book became extra meta when a friend connected us on Facebook where we traded messages. “How do you like the book?” he asked. Coincidentally my own life was taking some strange and unimaginable turns so that exchange with the IRL novelist, about his novel about a novelist writing a novel that changes his friend’s life, was extraordinarily disorienting.
Fortunately I loved the book from beginning to end and said as much. “I’ll write it all down in a review,” I promised (many weeks ago). I suspect I wasn’t the first reader to recall Italo Calvino’s “If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler” while enjoying "The Fabrications.” By assembling, disassembling, and reassembling the form itself, both writers pull their readers into thought provoking rides which are now happily burnt into my memory like recurring dreams that I remember one piece at a time.
Magarian’s novel within a novel construct in which a writer transforms the life of a friend through an imagined story that become true, as the writer himself sinks into despair and disrepair, is haunting and confounding. And the book’s the celebrity driven media and delirious public consumption of lies feels frighteningly real in today’s Trumplandia. My own immersion in Magarian's masterful book became extra meta when a friend connected us on Facebook where we traded messages. “How do you like the book?” he asked. Coincidentally my own life was taking some strange and unimaginable turns so that exchange with the IRL novelist, about his novel about a novelist writing a novel that changes his friend’s life, was extraordinarily disorienting.
Fortunately I loved the book from beginning to end and said as much. “I’ll write it all down in a review,” I promised (many weeks ago). I suspect I wasn’t the first reader to recall Italo Calvino’s “If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler” while enjoying "The Fabrications.” By assembling, disassembling, and reassembling the form itself, both writers pull their readers into thought provoking rides which are now happily burnt into my memory like recurring dreams that I remember one piece at a time.
October 15, 2017
Thank you to Pleasure Boat Studio and Baret Magarian for the free copy!!
This book was...strange.
On one hand, the satirical portion of the novel, which had to do with the making and marketing of a talentless celebrity, one Oscar Babel, were brilliant. If the book had been refined to only those parts, I could easily see it being a four or five star read.
Unfortunately, the book is a lot more than just a satire of modern fame. There's a strange allusion to magical realism that just didn't work for me and lots of secondary characters who seem terribly out of place, many of whom don't really get resolutions to their stories and are simply left hanging.
There are moments of brilliance but I think this book is trying to do, and be, too much. Some parts really work and others really don't. The result is a book I want to really love and recommend (because I'd really like to discuss the great parts) but honestly can't because the other parts are mediocre at best. I'd be willing to read another of Magarian's novels but I'm hoping he gets a better editor next time.
This book was...strange.
On one hand, the satirical portion of the novel, which had to do with the making and marketing of a talentless celebrity, one Oscar Babel, were brilliant. If the book had been refined to only those parts, I could easily see it being a four or five star read.
Unfortunately, the book is a lot more than just a satire of modern fame. There's a strange allusion to magical realism that just didn't work for me and lots of secondary characters who seem terribly out of place, many of whom don't really get resolutions to their stories and are simply left hanging.
There are moments of brilliance but I think this book is trying to do, and be, too much. Some parts really work and others really don't. The result is a book I want to really love and recommend (because I'd really like to discuss the great parts) but honestly can't because the other parts are mediocre at best. I'd be willing to read another of Magarian's novels but I'm hoping he gets a better editor next time.
September 24, 2017
Full disclosure: I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. And was delighted to do so, as it was on my wishlist due to a warm recommendation from Jonathan Coe, one of my favourite authors. The publisher was clearly delighted too, as the first page in the book reproduces Coe's glowing review in full.
I can see why Coe appreciates it; it's very much the type of novel he does so well, a savage social satire that is also tinged with pathos. Here Magarian has a go at the modern trend for manufacturing instant celebrities. Novelist Bloch's friend Oscar finds his life changing in surprising ways when Bloch starts writing a novel about him. He acquires a Max Clifford-style publicist and becomes a guru spouting platitudes to amazed crowds. Of course ultimately it all goes wrong. Alongside this story, Bloch's life starts to spiral downwards as he ceases to find a reason for living. Most of the characters are also unhappy and frustrated in love, and broken relationships abound -- although there is one successful one.
There are certainly some Coe-like scenes, for example the art prize ceremony, which could be straight out of Number 11, but Magarian does not have the skill and biro, I mean brio, of Coe (Coe in-joke). He's described as "from London, of Armenian extraction", but the book reads as if English is not his first language. Using words in odd ways, suggesting they don't mean what he thinks they mean, adds an extra layer of strangeness to the narrative. For example "Oscar ordered two pints of bitter and the barman yanked the lever with habitual wherewithal". He doesn't mean "wherewithal"; perhaps "expertise"? Or "casualness"? "Sinuous" is another favourite that he seems to use to mean various different things. I found these oddities of style put me off a bit, so I can't give it the rating I'd give a Coe novel. Don't read it if you like realistic novels, but worthwhile if you have a taste for absurd satire.
I can see why Coe appreciates it; it's very much the type of novel he does so well, a savage social satire that is also tinged with pathos. Here Magarian has a go at the modern trend for manufacturing instant celebrities. Novelist Bloch's friend Oscar finds his life changing in surprising ways when Bloch starts writing a novel about him. He acquires a Max Clifford-style publicist and becomes a guru spouting platitudes to amazed crowds. Of course ultimately it all goes wrong. Alongside this story, Bloch's life starts to spiral downwards as he ceases to find a reason for living. Most of the characters are also unhappy and frustrated in love, and broken relationships abound -- although there is one successful one.
There are certainly some Coe-like scenes, for example the art prize ceremony, which could be straight out of Number 11, but Magarian does not have the skill and biro, I mean brio, of Coe (Coe in-joke). He's described as "from London, of Armenian extraction", but the book reads as if English is not his first language. Using words in odd ways, suggesting they don't mean what he thinks they mean, adds an extra layer of strangeness to the narrative. For example "Oscar ordered two pints of bitter and the barman yanked the lever with habitual wherewithal". He doesn't mean "wherewithal"; perhaps "expertise"? Or "casualness"? "Sinuous" is another favourite that he seems to use to mean various different things. I found these oddities of style put me off a bit, so I can't give it the rating I'd give a Coe novel. Don't read it if you like realistic novels, but worthwhile if you have a taste for absurd satire.
August 28, 2017
***I received a free copy of the text in exchange for an honest review.***
I am not very well versed in the field of satire - I usually stick to the familiar forests of YA and fantasy. That being said, The Fabrications is a fantastic novel to introduce me to this genre. Being used to drawing parallels to my life and society in a more abstract way, reading this novel felt more like reading a personal diary.
The premise quickly drew me in and I almost immediately fell in love with the author's writing style and language.
The fabrications follows a set of well developed characters as they manage their interpersonal relationships and their relationships with society. The story also explores some very interesting ideas regarding love and admiration - especially focusing on celebrity culture.
Sometimes a page was so full of ideas that I had to put the novel down and reorganize my thoughts :)
Altogether I'd recommend the novel to anyone seeking an interesting story they can relate to, especially my fellow millennials out there.
I am not very well versed in the field of satire - I usually stick to the familiar forests of YA and fantasy. That being said, The Fabrications is a fantastic novel to introduce me to this genre. Being used to drawing parallels to my life and society in a more abstract way, reading this novel felt more like reading a personal diary.
The premise quickly drew me in and I almost immediately fell in love with the author's writing style and language.
The fabrications follows a set of well developed characters as they manage their interpersonal relationships and their relationships with society. The story also explores some very interesting ideas regarding love and admiration - especially focusing on celebrity culture.
Sometimes a page was so full of ideas that I had to put the novel down and reorganize my thoughts :)
Altogether I'd recommend the novel to anyone seeking an interesting story they can relate to, especially my fellow millennials out there.
March 16, 2017
Stunning, unique, engaging, beautiful, captivating. I couldn't recommend it more.
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October 24, 2017Won in the Goodreads Giveaways.
April 28, 2021
Un libro senza dubbio complesso, ricco di sfumature e riflessioni, che si sovrappongono tra loro, pagina dopo pagina, fino a creare questo volume, splendidamente intricato.
Di queste righe non sarà tanto la trama a colpirvi, quanto i personaggi, figli di un mondo in cui molto spesso l’apparenza e il successo sono l’unica dimensione che conta. Maschere dorate posate su ossa vuote: ecco come saranno molte delle persone che incontrerete in questo romanzo. Uomini e donne volti all’eccesso, pur di dirsi artisti, famosi, senza comprendere la realtà, che li vede solo come cibo per un organismo disturbato qual è la nostra società, che dopo aver tratto il nutrimento dalla loro personalità e individualità li risputerà, come scarti ormai inutili. E loro si troveranno a vagare in cerca di un qualcosa che li faccia sentire davvero vivi, che li distingua gli uni dagli altri, ora che sono stati rigettati dai meandri malsani della società. Cercheranno qualcuno che con la sua ars oratoria sembrerà in grado di dare loro le risposte che cercano, un qualcosa a cui aggrapparsi per non essere costretti a fare i conti con la propria vita disastrata.
In questo turbinio di anime vuote, ci sarà qualcuno che si divertirà a da loro ciò di cui hanno bisogno, soddisfacendo la loro sete di verità rivelatrici, creando il guru perfetto. Un personaggio che altro non è che una marionetta, alla ricerca della propria strada, ma che è spinto negli eventi della vita da altri, parlando con le parole non sue, proponendosi al mondo come ciò che non è. Forse riuscirà ad uscire dal labirinto in cui è caduto grazie all’amore di qualcuno che sembra refrattario ai compromessi continui a cui ci spinge al società, da un’anima pura. Oppure no.
In questo scenario si muovono i protagonisti, Bloch e Oscar, cercando di districarsi tra il loro passato e il loro futuro, indissolubilmente intrecciati, perfettamente simmetrici.
Di queste righe non sarà tanto la trama a colpirvi, quanto i personaggi, figli di un mondo in cui molto spesso l’apparenza e il successo sono l’unica dimensione che conta. Maschere dorate posate su ossa vuote: ecco come saranno molte delle persone che incontrerete in questo romanzo. Uomini e donne volti all’eccesso, pur di dirsi artisti, famosi, senza comprendere la realtà, che li vede solo come cibo per un organismo disturbato qual è la nostra società, che dopo aver tratto il nutrimento dalla loro personalità e individualità li risputerà, come scarti ormai inutili. E loro si troveranno a vagare in cerca di un qualcosa che li faccia sentire davvero vivi, che li distingua gli uni dagli altri, ora che sono stati rigettati dai meandri malsani della società. Cercheranno qualcuno che con la sua ars oratoria sembrerà in grado di dare loro le risposte che cercano, un qualcosa a cui aggrapparsi per non essere costretti a fare i conti con la propria vita disastrata.
In questo turbinio di anime vuote, ci sarà qualcuno che si divertirà a da loro ciò di cui hanno bisogno, soddisfacendo la loro sete di verità rivelatrici, creando il guru perfetto. Un personaggio che altro non è che una marionetta, alla ricerca della propria strada, ma che è spinto negli eventi della vita da altri, parlando con le parole non sue, proponendosi al mondo come ciò che non è. Forse riuscirà ad uscire dal labirinto in cui è caduto grazie all’amore di qualcuno che sembra refrattario ai compromessi continui a cui ci spinge al società, da un’anima pura. Oppure no.
In questo scenario si muovono i protagonisti, Bloch e Oscar, cercando di districarsi tra il loro passato e il loro futuro, indissolubilmente intrecciati, perfettamente simmetrici.
May 14, 2025
Ein mächtiger, unterhaltsamer Roman, der einen schon nach wenigen Seiten mit kraftvollen Bildern und zunächst unglaublich anmutenden Erzählsträngen seinen Bann zieht. Magarian führt uns ein in eine Welt, in der der Protagonist eines Roman eines Schriftstellers die Wirklichkeit verändert. Auch wenn Einiges sich zunächst mitan absurd anfühlt, verdichtet sich die Handlung zu einem gekonnten und originellen zeitkritischen Gesellschaftsgemälde einer Welt, in der neue Medien auch aberwitzige Inhalte und Auftritte zur beachteten Wirklichkeit veredeln. Die Parallelen zu aktuellem politischen Geschehen sind zum Teil beängstigend. Und eine ungewöhnliche Liebesgeschichte gespickt mit originellen Einfällen über gelebte, romantische Zweisamkeit gibt es noch obendrauf. Mit Ausnahme des Titels – im Englischen heißt das Werk etwas eindrücklicher „The Fabrications“ – entpuppt sich die Übertragung ins Deutsche von Cathrine Hornung als besonders gelungen und verleiht der deutschen Werksversion den Status eines eigenständigen Kunstwerks. Der Roman sei all denen empfohlen, die sich für Politik, Gesellschaft oder Kunst interessieren und die die Dauerberieselung von sensationsheischenden Kurznachrichten und Kurzbildern ermüdet und/oder verzweifeln läßt. Auch in „der Erfindung der Wirklichkeit“ spielen Zeitgeist, Medienaufmerksamkeit und Manipulation der vermittelten Realität grosse Rollen. Aber sie sind in ein Bouquet von Bildern, Ideen und Gedankensträngen verpackt, das angenehm mitnimmt, unterhält und anregt und die Leserinnen und Leser für einige angenehme Stunden dem Diktat der flimmernden Bildschirme befreit.
March 2, 2021
Last year a dear Friend gave me for my Birthday a book of short stories called Melting Point by Baret Magarian and I was instantly drawn into this writers unique voice, his non linear storytelling, his multinuanced charecters and the quirky universe they dwell in.
Then shortly after Baret Magarian's novel The Fabrications crossed my path and once again I was drawn into that wonderful universe that I was introduced to in Melting Point except this time the volume was turned up.
The tropes I was drawn to in Melting Point shined once again in The Fabrications and in short form or long Baret Magarian's voice as an Artist roars.
Once again in this wonderful non linear universe filled with charecters in all their flawed humanity, Baret Magarian with his clear sense of archetypes with a twist spins a tail of heartache and frustration both deserved and undeserved,a universe filled with hope and frustration only to be setup for something else.
In The Fabrications I found Baret Magarian's vision strong and clear but not spoon fed in the slightest but at the same time he leaves the reader a little piece that one can call their own.
I look forward to whatever Baret Magarian has to offer in the future.
Then shortly after Baret Magarian's novel The Fabrications crossed my path and once again I was drawn into that wonderful universe that I was introduced to in Melting Point except this time the volume was turned up.
The tropes I was drawn to in Melting Point shined once again in The Fabrications and in short form or long Baret Magarian's voice as an Artist roars.
Once again in this wonderful non linear universe filled with charecters in all their flawed humanity, Baret Magarian with his clear sense of archetypes with a twist spins a tail of heartache and frustration both deserved and undeserved,a universe filled with hope and frustration only to be setup for something else.
In The Fabrications I found Baret Magarian's vision strong and clear but not spoon fed in the slightest but at the same time he leaves the reader a little piece that one can call their own.
I look forward to whatever Baret Magarian has to offer in the future.
August 10, 2019
At the core of this novel, as I interpret it, is the question of what it means to be an artist; is it about the influence you have on others, or about expressing yourself? There is something almost Faustian about the main plot; Oscar, an ordinary cinema projectionist whose artistic ambitions are dying a slow death, becomes famous for speaking aloud the words of his writer friend, through a process neither of them can control, and you as a reader can feel through the prose how this drains the life out of them. As other readers mentioned, you can also interpret this as an indictment of modern Western society, where now, along with everything else, a person's mental health can be bought and sold.
Another aspect of the novel I liked was the literary prose. I felt as if every sentence had been written with care. Though there were moments when I found it a little overwrought for my taste, it was, ultimately, artistic and sensual without losing a central thread of narrative. I really appreciated that. All in all, a pleasure to read, and its questions will definitely stay with me.
Another aspect of the novel I liked was the literary prose. I felt as if every sentence had been written with care. Though there were moments when I found it a little overwrought for my taste, it was, ultimately, artistic and sensual without losing a central thread of narrative. I really appreciated that. All in all, a pleasure to read, and its questions will definitely stay with me.
April 16, 2023
Leider konnte ich mit diesem Buch nichts anfangen.
Zu Beginn fand ich die Idee großartig. Die Umsetzung fand ich aber mehr wie fragwürdig.
Das Buch verliert sich meiner Meinung nach in pseudo-philosophischen Ergüssen, strotz vor vulgären Passagen und kommt nicht auf den Punkt. Es wird sich ständig im Kreis gedreht, Seitenweise wird eine Metapher an die andere gereiht, eine Figur nach der anderen wird in die Geschichte geworfen und dann einfach stehen gelassen. Es wird so viel gesagt und doch nichts gesagt. Verwirrende Sequenzen lösen noch verwirrendere Sequenzen ab und ehrlich gesagt, kann ich dem zum Teil weder folgen, noch etwas abgewinnen.
Die Kernbotschaft kam an, aber dafür hätte es nicht so ein aufgebauschtes und verwirrendes Szernario gebraucht.
Schade, ich hatte mich auf eine besondere und spannende Geschichte gerfreut.
Zu Beginn fand ich die Idee großartig. Die Umsetzung fand ich aber mehr wie fragwürdig.
Das Buch verliert sich meiner Meinung nach in pseudo-philosophischen Ergüssen, strotz vor vulgären Passagen und kommt nicht auf den Punkt. Es wird sich ständig im Kreis gedreht, Seitenweise wird eine Metapher an die andere gereiht, eine Figur nach der anderen wird in die Geschichte geworfen und dann einfach stehen gelassen. Es wird so viel gesagt und doch nichts gesagt. Verwirrende Sequenzen lösen noch verwirrendere Sequenzen ab und ehrlich gesagt, kann ich dem zum Teil weder folgen, noch etwas abgewinnen.
Die Kernbotschaft kam an, aber dafür hätte es nicht so ein aufgebauschtes und verwirrendes Szernario gebraucht.
Schade, ich hatte mich auf eine besondere und spannende Geschichte gerfreut.
October 30, 2017
A clever piece about art and society that somehow manages to avoid tripping on its own cleverness or dragging its importance like a weight. Sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, it offers unique delights in each new chapter, and is a worthy read for any lover of heady classics like Proust, Kafka, or Bulgakov.
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