The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

The Doloriad by Missouri Williams (Dead Ink Books)

I do hope this one wins. I'm reading it as an attempt to think through the (post)Anthropocene condition and the grotesque appears as the most appropriate way to figure it. To paraphrase what Wolfgang Kayser writes in his Das Groteske, the grotesque appears when our usual categories for orienting in the world cease to function. The novel is exceptional in that regard considering that most of others dealing with the same issues are way too literal (the so-called cli-fi).

Yes I am with you on this one. Would be a very worthy winner.

I would not object to this one winning. It is pretty grotesque but compelling. Did result in some unpleasant dreams!

Two of my favourite books in recent years are such because they gave me nightmares (Fever Dream and Ezra Maas).

Dead Ink is a small, ambitious and experimental literary publisher based in Liverpool.

Supported by Arts Council England, we’re focussed on developing the careers of new and emerging authors.

We believe that there are brilliant authors out there who may not yet be known or commercially viable. We see it as Dead Ink’s job to bring the most challenging and experimental new writing out from the underground and present it to our audience in the most beautiful way possible.

Our readers form an integral part of our team. You don’t simply buy a Dead Ink book, you invest in the authors and the books you love.

A debut novel which more than hints at an outstanding writing talent. The author’s ability to switch seamlessly from one intense stream of consciousness to another mid flow is particularly strong; similarly, she manages to blend the worlds of reality, dreams, oral stories and a TV show the characters watch in a way when the barriers between them prove porous in both directions.

But the talent is sadly misdirected in this case into an attempt to endow a rather hackneyed/cliched post-apocalyptical tale (the world has almost ended and a small band of survivors live on the outskirts of what we know as a major City from our world – in this case Prague – no really how original) with sub-Moshfegh grotesquerie (together with apparently obligatory fat-shaming and ableism) in an attempt to provoke but which in me raised more like boredom.

Don't think you and the judges are quite in tune here :-)

Reminded me most of the apocalyptical (rather than mystical) version of Krasznahorkai, with a bit of Hilbig chucked in. Suspect it will appeal to fans of those authors (also Lispector, Bernhard, Hval, Schulz).

For me this is an ‘admire but not embrace book’ I do think it sums up the RoC aesthetic though

I think every book here deserves its place on the list in terms of RoC ethos - as Paul said elsewhere I think the judges this year have more consciously gone back to that.

Robert wrote: "For me this is an ‘admire but not embrace book’ I do think it sums up the RoC aesthetic though"

I agree - I could see what it was trying to do, but didn't enjoy reading it, Still bottom of my rankings, but all of them have some merit.

Was I the only one who also found it darkly funny? Not in an obviously humourous way, but cynical and sardonic in approach?

Roman Clodia wrote: "Was I the only one who also found it darkly funny? Not in an obviously humourous way, but cynical and sardonic in approach?"

I did not but that would fit with the Bernhard comparisons, who I also have not much enjoyed reading. Relentless misanthropy doesn’t seem to work for me in my reading!

endrju wrote: "I do hope this one wins. I'm reading it as an attempt to think through the (post)Anthropocene condition and the grotesque appears as the most appropriate way to figure it. To paraphrase what Wolfga..."

That is the best case I’ve heard for it. I’ve obviously not personally been convinced that the grotesque is the best way to think about what comes next, and aesthetically I don’t generally care for it, so I’m still not a fan but I’d read a longer argument for it in this context.

You just might get a longer argument because I want to write about The Doloriad and Joy Williams' Harrow when a suitable call for (academic journal) papers appears. :)

I haven't really built my argument in any substantial way, but there's a long discussion about what category or categories are most convenient for understanding the (post)Anthropocene (global warming, pollution, extinction), and some theorists like Timothy Morton propose "the weird". I see where the grotesque in Kayser's sense might fit into this way of thinking in relation to these two novels.

I would absolutely read that.

Harrow, another book I couldn't enjoy... perhaps your future paper will provide a way in to these for me, would definitely read!

The other thing that has subconsciously biased me against this book is the publisher as it ultimately this is a prize for the press as much as the book

What was the role of Dead Ink vs. FSG? My impression (no first-hand knowledge) is that Jackson Howard at FSG Originals was the primary editor on this, meaning Dead Ink may have just acquired the rights.

I think that’s clear from the Acknowledgements where she thanks FSG ie MacMillan for all their advice, input and for being the ones taking the risk on the book and Dead Ink for the UK publication (it worked well for them with selling out their 2000 copies immediately on publication and moving to a reprint - the latter something they did not appear to do for another book much loved of this group)

‘I owe profound thanks to Jackson Howard at FSG for his judgment, care, and attention, and then also for taking a chance on something so patently weird; to Ella Chappell for her invaluable work on the earlier versions of the book; to Thomas Colligan for the cover design of the U.S. edition of the book; and to everybody else at FSG who helped make the book happen-I am grateful to have worked with so many amazing people. Thanks are due too to Nathan Connolly, Laura Jones, and Jordan Taylor-Jones at Dead Ink for their support with the U.K. publication, and to Luke Bird for the U.K. cover.’

Jordan Taylor-Jones who is part of the team does a fantastic job of publicity generally - his twitter thread alone is sufficient to keep one in reading recommendations (actually I muted it at one point as a bit too many recommendations for my TBR control sanity!)

Luke Bird I know from Neil does the covers for Weatherglass as well e.g. think this is his:



But also more commercially e.g. this is one of his best-sellers



and another recently:



and this which is brilliant (love the Korean and Japanese):


Don't know - even virtually - Nathan and Laura (who has actually left Dead Ink)

Book cover design is a fascinating topic. I've never seen data on what draws in a customer's eye, but I'm sure it's a much studied area.

Gumble wrote: "I think that’s clear from the Acknowledgements where she thanks FSG ie MacMillan for all their advice, input and for being the ones taking the risk on the book and Dead Ink for the UK publication . . ."

I'm glad it went to a small press for UK publication.

I started The Deloriad and while I could appreciated the writing I did not want to be there. I have never liked dystopian novels and grotesque dystopian novels have even less appeal.
I do hope to finish it one day, but during dreary grey days I want more of a comfort read.
I recall trying to read Satantango this time of year and I couldn’t do it. I ended up reading it in November.

Lamorna Ash: “The assurance of its style alone would make The Doloriad a superlative novel. That such stylistic power is in service of a plot so strange, counter, original, its mood flashing between the tragic, comic and sublime in the most surprising sequencing, raises The Doloriad’s achievement to something astonishing. What is at stake in this novel is salvation, whether humanity might be worthy or capable of salvation once the known world is over. It matters that indie presses like Dead Ink exist in the publishing industry to support and champion debuts as audacious as this, and we want to celebrate them for that.”

New novel announced by author (with a mainstream press in UK)

am really happy to share that my next book, The Vivisectors, will be published by @mcdbooks in the US and by @4thEstateBooks in the U.K

Interesting given it was a small press last time that this time the UK rights seem to have been fought over:

4th Estate has acquired The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams following an eight-way auction.

Williams is the Prague-based author of The Doloriad, published in 2022 by Dead Ink Books, which won the Republic of Consciousness Prize. 4th Estate publishing director Kishani Widyaratna acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) to The Vivisectors from John Ash at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) London. North American rights went to Jackson Howard at Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG), and further rights deals include German rights to DTV in a pre-empt, Italian rights to NN Editore in a pre-empt, and French rights to Christian Bourgois.

The Vivisectors, which the publisher described as a “satirical campus novel”, will be published in hardback in spring 2026. Williams said: “When writing The Vivisectors, I was thinking about the problem of interpretation, how we read the world and others. I became very interested in metaphor and scepticism. No one was more surprised than me when I turned out to be writing a love story. This is a book that’s very close to my heart, and so I’m so happy that it will be published by 4th Estate in the UK and FSG in the US. I can’t wait to work with Kishani and Jackson.”

Widyaratna said: “Missouri Williams is an utterly unique writer and a dazzling mind, and to read her is to witness sparks fly on the page. The Vivisectors is a politically incisive, morally profound, stylistically sublime novel that delights with its gallows humour and unexpected heart. This is an exciting next step for Missouri and we are thrilled to welcome her to the list.”