Ibid: A Life

by Mark Dunn

When the only copy of his manuscript - a biography of a three-legged circus performer-cum-entrepreneur - is lost by a careless editor, writer Mark Dunn accepts an offer to publish the only surviving text - the footnotes. With great playfulness, Dunn writes himself into this full-length novel.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Literary Fiction, Adult Fiction, Novels, Language, Contemporary

Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Mark Dunn is the author of several books and more than thirty full-length plays, a dozen of which have been published in acting edition.

Mark has received over 200 productions of his work for the stage throughout the world, with translations of his plays into French, Italian, Dutch and Hungarian. His play North Fork (later retitled Cabin Fever: A Texas Tragicomedy when it was picked up for publication by Samuel French) premiered at the New Jersey Repertory Company (NJRC) in 1999 and has since gone on to receive numerous productions throughout the U.S.

Mark is co-author with NJRC composer-in-residence Merek Royce Press of Octet: A Concert Play, which received its world premiere at NJRC in 2000. Two of his plays, Helen’s Most Favorite Day and Dix Tableaux, have gone on to publication and national licensing by Samuel French. His novels include the award-winning Ella Minnow Pea, Welcome to Higby, Ibid, the children’s novel The Calamitous Adventures of Rodney and Wayne, Under the Harrow and Feral Park.

Mark teaches creative writing and leads playwriting seminars around the country, in addition to serving as Vice President of the non-profit PULA (People United for Libraries in Africa), which he founded with his wife, Mary, in 2002.

(modified bio courtesy of http://njrep.org/playwrights.htm)

Reviews

[Carla · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a story told entirely in end notes. Interesting premise, but have you ever tried to read 230-some pages of end notes back to back? It's extraordinarily tedious. If you are ADD and enjoy the equivalent of very short chapters, then you might enjoy this book. But only if you have a darned good working knowledge of 20th century social history. I mean, it makes a Deanna Durbin reference. Raise your hand if you know who Deanna Durbin is (btw, Camille, do you still have the letter she sent you?) I'm giving it two stars for mentioning the Boston "Molassacre" of 1919 and the Coconut Grove fire of 1946(ish.)

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a love letter to the Chicago Manual of Style

[Mic · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times this book is a little too absurd and appears to be trying too hard, and it's not all that engaging as a story, but the concept is creative and it has some very funny parts.
Ex:
"It was not clear if she ate lye and died, or ate dye and lied, claiming blue tongues ran in her family."
That passage hooked me on this book.

[Donald Quist · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can appreciate this book for its premise and I applaud Dunn for attempting to tell a tale entirely through end notes, but it fails miserably as a novel. This is one of the best examples of bad experimental fiction. When compared to other novelists who have ventured these waters without going into the deep end, Junot Diaz, Steven Hall, Chuck Palahniuk, etc., Ibid highlights Dunn's weakness. He can't tie together this series of anecdotes into a narrative worth telling, and by using the footnote concept he sort of doesn't have to. We excuse him because this is innovative and we're expected to like it for the sake of what it represents, someone trying to do something new with fiction. But I'd argue a better writer might have been able to pull this off.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A totally out there premise - after the author sent his intensively researched and completely comprehensive biography of Jonathan Blashette to his editor, it was lost in an unfortunate reading-in-the-bath incident. And all that was left was the footnotes - which is exactly what we get here. Wacky and funny, and definitely not a format for everyone, but a lot of fun. (Seriously, the titles of the fictional books he references are wonderful in an of themselves.)

I need to reread this stat.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting premise, but it often felt like the author was trying much too hard to be funny.

[Oleksandr Fediienko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Сенсу дочитувати – немає. Книга складена цілковито з приміток. Це її головний плюс і мінус. Сама ідея структури цікава. Проте ця ж структура роздроблює сюжет. А сюжет доволі простий. Джонатан Блашетт народився з трьома ногами, потім потрапив до цирку, а згодом став підприємцем. Книга описує його пригоди в стилі Форреста Гампа. Тільки у Вінстона Грума це справжня історія, а у Марка Данна – лише клаптики. Тому складно підхопити їхній настрій.

[🐴 🍖]

owe a full review. funny but sorta bloodless. outraged letter from l frank baum & parody of the algonquin round table were highlights

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the acknowledgments at the end of Ibid: A Life (A Novel in Footnotes), Mark Dunn thanks his publisher "for allowing this most recent, brazen attempt at redefining the American novel," and his readers for "giving [him] the chance to convince [them] that history can be more than dry facts and dates. And that naughty can be mighty fun." Well. I found this book pretty fun, but alas, I liked it less than I liked either of the other two books by Dunn I've read (Ella Minnow Pea and Under the Harrow). Dunn's style, tends toward quirky/over-the-top premises and humor, and this book is no exception, but in this one, I felt like the jokes couldn't quite carry the book.

The premise of Ibid, introduced by a series of letters at the start of the book, is this: fictional author "Mark Dunn" has written a biography of fictional three-legged circus performer/deodorant magnate Jonathan Blashette. The only copy of the manuscript, unfortunately, is destroyed in an accident involving his editor's bathtub (and his editor's three-year-old son). Dunn has a separate manuscript of the notes (they're really endnotes, not footnotes, but whatever), and his editor decides to publish them anyway, without the main text. Ibid, then, is the result.

So what does a novel told in endnotes look like? The structure, I think, works, in part because these are some voluminous notes, often reproducing entire fictional letters or diary entries in full, so that the book ends up containing things like: a note from Jonathan's mother to his father about letting the young Jonathan do their weekly shopping, a letter from the historian of the town next to the town where Jonathan grew up, letters from Jonathan to Buffalo Bill Cody (chiding him for killing buffalos) and L. Frank Baum (chiding him for being such a horrible racist/terrible person who wanted to exterminate Native Americans), and so on. The letters and diary entries, combined with shorter notes, give you a sense of the outline of Jonathan's life: he's born in 1888 in a small town in Arkansas, spends some time in a circus sideshow, comes back home and goes to high school then college, fights in WWI, gets engaged, moves to New York after his bride-to-be dies, eventually marries another woman, starts a deodorant company, and later in life, hands over the deodorant company to his son/devotes himself to philanthropy. The notes also give a sense of the difficulties of writing history or biography: there are numerous moments where the imagined primary sources disagree wildly about something, like when Jonathan's grandfather dies and there are nine entirely different reports of what his last words were, or when the roof of the Blashette barn blows off in a tornado, and everyone in the family, plus various neighbors, has a different story about who was actually in the barn/who was just nearby, and what everyone involved was actually doing at the moment the roof lifted.

Dunn's style and humor is simultaneously great and somewhat distancing, because it's so absurd. I was amused by the various fictional books he quotes from, along with their hilariously-named fictional publishers: a book by little people (including one of Jonathan's circus friends) is called "Tiny Writings by Tiny People" and is published by "Really Little, Brown and Company" (30). A book of Helen Keller's reminiscences is published by "Three Senses Press" (67). And passages like this made me laugh, but there are only so many similarly ridiculous passages I really want to read in one book:

Oronwaggee was originally a shipbuilding center. It flourished for approximately six months in 1877. Situated nearly 150 miles from the nearest navigable waterway, the town's location quickly became problematic for its numerous ship construction outfits, lured to the area by cheap labor and a surfeit of whores. Upon the completion of each new ship, attempts would be made to transport the vessel overland, each craft ultimately left to die a slow, weather-assaulted death in one of the area's corn and wheat fields, except for those few upon which salvage rights by local farmers were successfully exercised. (45)

So, yeah: will I read other things by Mark Dunn? Maybe, or maybe I'll just re-read Ella Minnow Pea. Will I be re-reading this book? Probably not. I did, however, enjoy the mention of the Boston Molasses Disaster.

[VeganMedusa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not great, but mildly amusing if read in small doses every day. I kept wanting to re-read Pale Fire though, as the slightly unbalanced narrator kept reminding me of that better book.
This would be a good one to read in e-book form, being able to google historical references - there are a lot of them, and sometimes I was unsure which was made up and which was true. I knew nylons were sought after in WWII but nylon riots? Wow. Probably funnier for Americans who are familiar with the strange people and incidents in the book. But I learned a thing or two - nylon riots, Evelyn Waugh's first wife was called Evelyn and they were known as "He-Evelyn" and "She-Evelyn", Flannery O'Connor had a fetish for peacocks (and birds in general), Carry Nation threw bricks in saloon windows to fight intemperance.
Poor old Boston got a hard time but at least they got a footnote of a glowing essay at the end.

[Jerry Landry · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I respect what Dunn was trying to do with this novel and I think it had some effective, innovative points, I have to admit that I got bored with Jonathan's love stories. Great Jane was interesting, but his other two 'loves of his life' felt like the same character. Neither made much of an impact on me as they were both 'perfect,' which led them to feel flat. Also, some of Jonathan's business associates felt rather flat -- either indistinguishable or just defined by one 'gimmick.' However, the portrayal of Jonathan's parents was really good, some of the appearances by real-life celebrities and personalities piqued my interest, and overall I think it was a decent effort at an experimental literary form that, while not completely successful, was praiseworthy for the attempt.

[LeeLee Lulu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been "reading" this book since August, and am finally throwing in the towel. I just can't bring myself to complete it.

The conceit of this literary experiment is as follows:

There's a biography of this three-legged circus fellow that's been lost. All that's left is the footnotes, which have been published in lieu of the actual content. The footnotes are, for the most part, funny embellishments on things "off-screen," as it were.

Which would have been charming as a short story, but becomes tiresome in novel format.

I feel bad for writing it because I love Mark Dunn (his "Ella Minnow Pea" is superlative). But this just didn't work for me. :(

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

A biography about a three-legged circus freak... told entirely in footnotes. Sounds great, right? I bought it because I really liked Dunn's Ella Minnow Pea. Unfortunately, I got bored and abandoned Ibid. The inventive format could only take me so far. In the end, I guess I just didn't care about what's-his-name or any of his legs.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

The framing format of the book (endnotes for a biography that was accidentally destroyed) was a fun bit of textual whimsey. The story itself (a three-legged ex-circus performer making his way through the 20th century) was amusing too, but at times it felt like it was trying a little too hard. It was a worthwhile experiment, but only a fitfully successful one.

[Karen Carlson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I knew this book was a gimmick going in. After all, I knew Dunn’s earlier book, Ella Minnow Pea, was likewise a gimmick, but I loved it anyway, and it turned out to have more depth than I’d expected. I’d hoped the same for this one: a book composed only of end notes, the only copy of the main text having been accidentally destroyed.
Alas, no.
It starts well, and I was with it up to a point; I do love goofy humor. But after fifty pages of random, not-very-connected absurdist anecdotes, it got tiring. I didn't finish it.
It might, however, be a book worth reading in a unique way: Start, enjoy the setup and the goofiness of the premise, then scan the rest, perhaps reading a page now and then to recapture the mirth of the initial impression.
FMI see my blog post at A Just Recompense.

[Chrisanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me preface this by saying I'm a huge fan of the Author's Ella Minnow Pea. Due to the middling reviews on this book I very nearly removed it from my list. I'm so glad I didn't.

But, you might say, you only gave it 3 stars. True. Let me explain.

Dunn's creative concept is this: to tell a story completely in footnotes. He succeeds... partly. Is the story told? Yes. Did he effectively spoof historical works? Absolutely. Are some good laughs had along the way? Sure.

However, just like I would any historical notes section, I skimmed the majority of the text. Either that is a sign of it's brilliance or it is a sign of it's failure to create content that is intriguing. I, pessimistically, chose the latter because I would prefer not to read it again.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Mark Dunn's Ella Minnow Pea, which combined a fascinating experiment in written language with a story that was both delightful and frightening; unfortunately, this was much less of a success for me. The experiment in written language (here, a novel written entirely in endnotes) was interesting, but the story itself was lacking. The main character is very Forrest Gump-y in encountering lots of famous historical figures, but otherwise, it wasn't very entertaining or compelling. Despite being fairly short, it took me far longer than I expected to read this, just because I avoided picking it up or kept getting distracted while reading it. But I got through it! I'm giving it three stars because of the creative format, but Pale Fire this definitely isn't.

[Tati]

Comical. Easy. Clever. Wasn't as fun as Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters, but perhaps just as wry. I suppose I mostly read it because I wanted to know what a "novel in footnotes" was like. Well, it's disjointed, but fun (?). Interesting concept and about as well executed as one can expect. But if you're looking for a clever and fun read to follow up Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters, I'm not sure this is it.

[Patti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some truly funny bits, but reading the entire novel was a chore that I only completed it because my book group chose it. I found myself forgetting what I had just read, but not minding. It was a send up, at times hilarious, of almost any and everything in history, pop culture, art, and even religion, as told through the footnotes made about the life of a three legged man. The story was told through footnotes only because the biographer/narrator’s editor had accidentally destroyed the manuscript of the biography.

[Cath Ennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book more. I loved Ella Minnow Pea, and the concept of a story told only through footnotes sounded similarly clever and interesting. Turns out you can indeed tell a story solely through footnotes, but this particular story just really didn't grab me, and I felt nothing for any of the characters. There are some nice little touches and clever wordplay, but overall this was disappointing.

[Tim Timberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the weird premise, as the book was the footnotes to a lost biography. Parts were pretty funny, and the author clearly knew much about popular culture from the late 19th century into the middle of the 20th. I was impressed with everything and everybody he mentioned, and I had to look up a few as well. At times I found the book to be about fifty pages too long, but I did finish the book and will probably read other books by Dunn.

[H. Givens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reads like A Series of Unfortunate Events for adults -- not really fantasy or even magical realism, something realistic yet a little off-kilter, with a lot of weird little stories and asides, all so snappy and fast that you almost miss it. I first read this book almost twenty years ago, have remembered it ever since, and still really love it.

CN: Depiction of historical racism, sexism, and ableism (none especially egregious)

[Zoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting premise to a novel, to tell the entire story through endnotes. Unfortunately, that was the best part of the book as it often felt like it was trying too hard to create an engaging plot and premise. While there were witty lines scattered throughout, the did not make up for the overall length of the novel.

[Michelle]

I love this author, and this was an interesting idea, but by 30% in I wasn’t buying it or enjoying it any longer. Including whole letters, recipes, conversations captured in diaries, in the footnotes? No, not buying it. As soon as I lost the connection to the conceit, I lost any desire to finish the book. I’ll read his other works, but …..ugh.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun concept but I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as LMNOP which I thought was absolutely genius.
I think the jigsaw pieces we were given didn’t add up to a complete picture, but I did like the analogy, being a jigsaw addict myself. Maybe I’m too used to more conventional storytelling? I enjoyed it, but was left wanting more from it.

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved how the story just unravels itself the more you read it. It's funny, has sad bits (that sometime turn out to be, in some way, funny too), and the end make the whole book worth reading. The amount of details that are crawling everywhere and that you just can't grasp completely at the first reading just makes me want to reread it completely. Loved it !

[Dorothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author gets full credit for creativity in this unique idea, a biography where the meat of the manuscript is lost and the only remaining part of the book is the footnotes. And so a novel told in footnotes, and nothing else.

Beyond that, it wasn’t the book for me.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked Ella Minnow Pea, but even with this great premise, I still didn't have high hopes going into this and they definitely weren't surpassed. It's just absurdly clear that Dunn thinks he's FAR more clever than he actually is.

[Fernanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved, loved, loved Ella Minnow Pea, so when I heard Mark Dunn had written this novel using only footnotes I thought it as innovative as Ella's. Wrong!
The story gets confusing and sometimes even boring.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew it would be gimicky before I started, so I have no one to blame but myself. It was, overall, fine and mildly funny. But Dunn doesn't just play to the gallery, he plays to the stratosphere.