Synopses & Reviews
First published in Ireland in 1958, this fantastic excursion of the mind, which moves between Dublin and Dundalk on a train headed for the scrap heap after fifty years, also reminds the reader of , and At Swim-Two-Birds. But while Leopold Bloom is peripatetic in his Dublin Odyssey, Cusack's Desmond locks himself in train carriage 304D and orders out--sandwiches, whiskey, and beer. A brilliant tour de force melding time, place, and memory.
Review
Beautifully written . . . bizarre and at times macabre.One can only say that Ralph Cusack has a giant mind. And has seen enough horror in his time to write several bibles. . . . It's the first time I've ever had to put a book down out of fear of going on to find out what's going to happen. -- J. P. Donleavy
Synopsis
It is--in capitals--A Work of Art.On nearly every page is a cry and tumult of the earth and the sea's beauty and an enormous inconsequent humor. . . . His prose achieves a richness and greedy joy practically invisible in any literary works today.
Synopsis
Like Melies's film , Ralph Cusack's Cadenza gives us a hero, Desmond, who finds himself caught between two worlds, the night before and the morning after, the past and the present, the world that is and the world that was.
About the Author
Ralph Cusack (1912-1965) was born in Dublin. Though trained as a painter, he settled in the south of France to grow flowers for the manufacture of perfume. He wrote one novel, Cadenza, originally published in 1958.In addition to his books of poetry and criticism, Gilbert Sorrentino is the author of fourteen novels, including Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things, The Sky Changes, and Mulligan Stew. He has received numerous grants and awards throughout his career, including the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, two Guggenheim Fellowships, two NEA Fellowships and a Lannan Literary Award.