From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate: Bedouin Hornbook, Djbot Baghostus's Run, Atet A.D.

From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate #1-3

by Nathaniel Mackey

The great American jazz novel of “such exquisite rhythmic lyricism” ( Bookforum ) by National Book Award Winner Nathaniel Mackey. From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Volumes 1-3 collects the first three installments― Bedouin Hornbook , Djbot Baghostus’s Run , and Atet A.D.―of Nathaniel Mackey’s genre-defying work of fiction. A project that began over thirty years ago, From a Broken Bottle is an epistolary novel that unfolds through N.’s intricate letters to the mysterious Angel of Dust. Unexpected, profound happenings take place as N. delves into music and art and the goings-on of his transmorphic Los Angeles-based jazz ensemble, in which he is a composer and instrumentalist. This triple-set book opens in July 1978 with a dream of a haunting Archie Shepp solo, and closes in September 1982 in a parallactic studio recording session on a glass-bottomed boat borne aloft by the music. The fourth volume of Mackey’s novel, Bass Cathedral ―also available from New Directions―was chosen by The New York Times as one of 100 Notable Books of 2008. But that it didn’t end there…

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Music, African American

560 pages, Paperback

First published July 30, 2010

About the author

Poet and novelist Nathaniel Mackey was born in 1947 in Miami, Florida. He received a BA degree from Princeton University and a PhD from Stanford University.

Nathaniel Mackey has received numerous awards including a Whiting Writer’s Award and a 2010 Guggenheim fellowship. He is the Reynolds Price Professor of English at Duke University and served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2001 to 2007. Mackey currently lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This deserves a much more thorough review than I have the time or inclination to provide. Briefly I would say that the 5 stars come with reservations, and this is by no means a perfect work. Nonetheless both in form and focus it is certainly unique. I would say that a reader without at least a basic knowledge of Jazz - for example knowing what a reference to certain stylistic characteristics of Cecil Taylor's work would mean - would struggle with this. Also anyone without the patience for the borderline surreal as well as philosophical discussions that may stray at times close to meaninglessness.

It is commonplace to refer to a jazz soloist "speaking" through his horn. This idea is extended to allow for complex debates to take place purely within a group improvisational performance. Whether this irritates you or seems a wonderfully original way to deal with the material inherent in any exploration of the African-American experience, is hard for me to predict.

Fundamentally I would say that any of you with both a fondness for Jazz and the more novel Novels should give this a go.

[Jacob Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is consistently blowing me away.

[Steven Scribner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of fictional letters forms not so much a novel as a vast discussion on the subtleties and usage of language. Concepts are bandied about, words (and even characters' names) become puns (i.e. Penguin, a character, becomes Pen, then Penny, then E Po Pen, then King Pen, with lengthy discussions on the ramifications of each). Likewise, the characters themselves morph and mutate into new forms. Penguin and Penny are originally different people; the narrator "N." may also be Jared Bottle (the "broken bottle" of the title), who may also be Djbot Baghostus, who may also be (again) E Po Pen. All of this is tied together by the occasional third-person narration in the "Creaking of the Word" sections. Ostensibly the "story", what there is of it, is about musicians playing in a free-jazz band, the sessions of which cause surrealism (or at least "magic realism") to break into reality as though it were an alternate reality. The more one reads, the more one realizes that this "story" may all be fragments of a dream (and a dream about language as much as about music). The surrealism may be the setting. As if to emphasize this, two characters remain in the dreams of the others -- at the same time. Perhaps the author is saying that reality and dream-states are indistinguishable while someone is experiencing them. At any rate, it's fascinating stuff; and Mr. Mackey's knowledge of jazz (and other music) is encyclopedic. Not an easy read by any means, but fun to explore.

--Steven E. Scribner, author of the "Tond" series (fantasy) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

[Peter Nowakowski]

1. Bedouin Hornbook ( 193 pages) ................ July 18, 2020--------July 21, 2020
2. Djbot Baghostus's Run ( 179 pages).........September 29, 2020--October 06, 2020
3. Atet A. D. ( 162 pages).................................November 02, 2020--November 05, 2020