John the Posthumous
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"After reading Jason Schwartz, it's difficult to talk about any other writer's originality or unique relation to the language. John the Posthumous is a work of astounding power and distinction, beautifully strange, masterful." —Sam Lipsyte
"[Schwartz] is complete, as genius agonizingly is." —Gordon Lish
"Haunting, original prose by a writer unlike any other on the planet. Jason Schwartz is a master." —Ben Marcus
John the Posthumous exists in between fiction and poetry, elegy and history: a kind of novella in objects, it is an anatomy of marriage and adultery, an interlocking set of fictional histories, and the staccato telling of a murder, perhaps two murders. This is a literary album of a pre-Internet world, focused on physical elements — all of which are tools for either violence or sustenance. Knives, old iron gates, antique houses in flames; Biblical citations, blood and a history of the American bed: the unsettling, half-perceived images, and their precise but alien manipulation by a master of the language will stay with readers. Its themes are familiar — violence, betrayal, failure — its depiction of these utterly original and hauntingly beautiful.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An explication of Corinthians and its variations in different Bible versions, etymologies of words derived from the names of birds, and a history of the American bed can all be found in Schwartz's second (after A German Picturesque) book. These, along with descriptions of each window in an unnamed narrator's house, census details from a nineteenth-century street and a review of embalming techniques appear in the book, which strings together disassociated images and litanies. In lieu of characters or plot, the book is driven by these images, lists and catalogues of details and citations, contributing to an overall unfulfilling effect. Schwartz's rhythmic sentences suggest loose themes of adultery, violence and death and his confident, distinctive style propels the book forward even without a traditional narrative. An experimental work that reads more like a wandering through the contents of one's mind than a novel, Schwartz's latest will appeal to readers interested in blurring the boundaries between fiction, poetry, and history.
