Logo
ISSUE #32.50 • BOOKS • REVIEW

Literary Threesome


The Mystery Guest, Laughter in the Dark, The Children's Hospital

Share: | Permalink
Email | Print | Rate It! | 0 comments
Recently in "Books"

November 18th, 2009
Paul Mccartney: A Life Peter Ames Carlin | A McCartney bio takes superfans a step beyond the Beatles.0 comments

November 11th, 2009
Tom Krattenmaker Onward Christian Athletes | Is Christianity’s monopoly in sports evangelism fair?0 comments

November 4th, 2009
The Opposite Field | A father and son connect by way of the summer game.0 comments

October 28th, 2009
Q & A • Jon Raymond | Of hot springs, lost dogs and the Oregon Trail.0 comments

October 21st, 2009
Jonathan Lethem Chronic City | Manhattan goes meta.0 comments

October 14th, 2009
R. Gregory Nokes Massacred For Gold | Anatomy of a (120-year-old) mass murder.0 comments

September 30th, 2009
David Byrne Bicycle Diaries | A Talking Head on two wheels around the world.0 comments

September 23rd, 2009
Jen Yates Cake Wrecks | The cakes are so wrong, but the blog is so right.0 comments

August 19th, 2009
Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Eric Scigliano, Flotsametrics and the Floating World | Of junks and shipping trunks.0 comments

August 5th, 2009
The Impostor’s Daughter Laurie Sandell | A daddy’s girl gets a rude awakening. And bad credit.0 comments


The Children's Hospital
BY KARLA STARR | kstarr at wweek dot com

[October 18th, 2006] The Mystery Guest, by Grégoire Bouillier (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $18, 128 pages): Bad breakups, at best, are invitations to suicide—the same fixative impulses that drove one to unspeakable lust and love implode on the jilted and suddenly single, devolving one's mental capacities into a seemingly endless array of neurotic behaviors. At some point, without warning, life will pick up and meaning will be restored. For Bouillier, that day arrives when—after hearing nothing from the love of his life since her abrupt, mid-meal departure five years prior—she calls and invites him to a birthday party, at which he'll be the unknown "mystery guest." Like the oft-mentioned Mrs. Dalloway, the party is the heart of this improbably delightful memoir, during which Bouillier downs champagne, caustically immune to the celebratory ambience, and, when asked, proclaims his occupation as "an expert in the cruelties of existence." As funny as it is pathetic, Guest is a ridiculously accurate depiction of a brokenhearted man searching for meaning anywhere, which should earn it the title of requisite breakup text and meditation on doomed love. There is, well after the party ends, cause for celebration.

Laughter in the Dark, by Vladimir Nabokov (New Directions, $12.95, 308 pages): You may not need another reminding kick-in-the-pants to read Nabokov, but nevertheless here it is. His fourth novel, Laughter in the Dark—originally published in Russian as Kamera Obskura in 1932 and translated by the author four years later—is often considered the precursor to his masterpiece, Lolita. The middle-aged art critic Albinus abandons sanity to take up a lover half his age: "Albinus' specialty had been his passion for art; his most brilliant discovery had been Margot." Though told with a more playful and less self-conscious tone than his later works, it's a timeless and delightfully cruel look at the follies of love, with a new introduction by John Banville. It's Nabokov, for chrissake!













icon Story continues below

advertisement

advertisement

The Children's Hospital, by Chris Adrian (McSweeney's, $24, 480 pages): Adrian, author of Gob's Grief, is a pediatrician and student at Harvard Divinity School. What he brings to the table seems like something you've heard before—a semi-post-apocalyptic tale, in which the only building remaining after a massive flood is a children's hospital, floating atop 7 miles of water. Its inhabitants, led by pregnant med student Jemma, encircle and bob around the earth as disease threatens to kill them off. Yes, there are more than two Biblical allusions (it's narrated by a "recording angel") and a bit of med-speak, but at heart, The Children's Hospital is a wildly imaginative tale of loss and redemption, its writing as varied and textured as the story it brings to life.

Rate This Story
5 average/1 vote

 
read all 0 comments | add your comment
 

RECENT COMMENTS ON “Literary Threesome”

 
 
 





Ad

Ad

Ad

Sponsored Links: WW Personals
Musician's Market
Snowboard Jackets
Legal Tips
Camping Gear


Recently in Willamette Week
December 31st 1969Washington State | The Canada of Oregon has it all—a Stonehenge replica, a longboarder's concrete wet dream and dark, damp underground lava caves. Vive les rocks.
December 31st 1969Oregon's Outer Edges | Crater Lake. Hell's Canyon. Wallowa and Steens mountain ranges. Hell, yeah.
December 31st 1969Central Oregon/High Desert | No rain, plenty of snow, obsidian flows and great local beer. The folks from the real eastside know how to unbend outside.
December 31st 1969Great Cascades/Columbia Gorge | With plenty of room to roam—and hot springs for your weary feet—it's the place to ramble and relax for the weekend.
December 31st 1969Willamette Valley | Monks, tracks, tubing and wine make the fertile strip a virile place to play.
December 31st 1969Stumptown | Tons of public parks, an extinct volcano and nude beach volleyball to keep you jolly. Get out and collect those merit badges, without leaving the city.
December 31st 1969The Coast | The beaches are public. You own them. Go play—hike in the old-growth forests.
December 31st 1969Cycle Tour 101: Your on-bike guide to Highway 101 | To ride the greatest bike route in Oregon, you need to get out of Portland.
December 31st 1969Doggin' It | What happens when a Portland running club jogs with pooches from the pound?
December 31st 1969Over the Edge | Sam Drevo will paddle yr ass.