Schopenhauer's Telescope
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
In an unnamed European village, in the middle of a civil war, one man digs while another watches over him. Gradually, they begin to talk.
Over the course of the afternoon, as the snow falls and truck-loads of villagers are corralled in the next field, we discover why they are there - not just who they are and how specific, sinister events in their country have led them to be separated by a deepening grave, but why the history of civilization is inseparable from the history of mass violence.
Beautifully written, with a poet's eye for detail coupled with a chilling narrative drive, Gerard Donovan's first novel has been compared with Franz Kafka and Bernhard Schlink. SCHOPENHAUER'S TELESCOPE is current in the best sense - not merely about Bosnia or Kosovo, but in attempting to make art out of brutal life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A self-reflexive commentary on war and violence, Donovan's first novel is sophisticated and innovative, though too caught up in toying with literary conventions. Two unnamed men in an unnamed, war-torn European town some time in the 20th century engage in philosophical dialogues on morality and human cruelty. One, an awkward loner referred to as "the baker" is digging a hole, while the other, an educated, overbearing man referred to as "the teacher" watches him. The men's philosophical ruminations circle around historical instances of evil from the Mongol hordes to World War II as well as the baker's secret past, which is somehow linked to recent events in the ravaged town. The war is conveyed through stylized imagery (in the background are brooding soldiers and a mass of people delivered in trucks) that could belong to any conflict of the last century. The baker's past, when revealed, stands the reader's assumptions on their head, but the energy of this climax and of the novel as a whole is diffused by Donovan's experimental hijinks, which involve excerpts of a screenplay about Genghis Khan, a fairy tale, and such digressions as an overly long anecdote about one of the baker's obnoxious former customers. Donovan lets this novel get away from him, but he is an inventive and thoughtful writer, and those who have the patience will appreciate his meditations on the specters haunting Europe and look forward to his next, hopefully more focused effort. 3-city author tour.
