Synopses & Reviews
Presumably she is mad. And yet so appealing is her character, and so witty and seductive her narrative voice, that we will follow her hypnotically as she unloads the intellectual baggage of a lifetime in a series of irreverent meditations on everything and everybody from Brahms to sex to Heidegger to Helen of Troy. And as she contemplates aspects of the troubled past which have brought her to her present state--obviously a metaphor for ultimate loneliness--so too will her drama become one of the few certifiably original fictions of our time.
"The novel I liked best this year," said the Washington Times upon the book's publication in 1988; "one dizzying, delightful, funny passage after another . . . Wittgenstein's Mistress gives proof positive that the experimental novel can produce high, pure works of imagination."
Review
"As precise and dazzling as Joyce....I couldn't put this book down. I can't forget it....Original, beautiful, and an absolute masterpiece." Ann Beattie
Review
"A work of genius...an erudite, breathtaking cerebral novel whose prose is crystal and whose voice rivets and whose conclusion defies you not to cry." David Foster Wallace
Review
"Brilliant and often hilarious...Markson is the one working novelist I can think of who can claim affinities with Joyce, Gaddis, and Lowry, no less than with Beckett." San Francisco Review of Books
Review
"The novel I liked best this year....one dizzying, delightful, funny passage after another....Wittgenstein's Mistress gives proof positive that the experimental novel can produce high, pure works of imagination." Washington Times
Synopsis
Wittgenstein's Mistress is a novel unlike anything David Markson or anyone else has ever written. It is the story of a woman who is convinced and may ultimately convince the reader as well that she is the only person left on earth. Presumably she is mad. And yet so appealing is her character, and so witty and seductive her narrative voice, that we will follow her hypnotically as she unloads the intellectual baggage of a lifetime in a series of irreverent meditations on everything from Brahms to sex to Heidegger to Helen of Troy.
Synopsis
The heroine of David Markson's witty experimental novel is a woman named Kate, and she's convinced that she is the only person left on earth. Is she insane? And does it matter? As she ranges back through the events of her life, and through a ragbag of opinions on everything from Rembrandt's cat to Willem de Kooning's soccer shirt, Kate manages to find some kind of meaning for herself in the oddities she turns up.
Synopsis
Brilliant and often hilarious . . . Markson is one working novelist Ican think of who can claim affinities with Joyce, Gaddis, and Lowry, noless than with Beckett.Addresses formidable philosophic questions with tremendous wit . . .remarkable . . . a novel that can be parsed like a sentence; it is thatwell made.
Synopsis
Wittgenstein's Mistress is a novel unlike anything David Markson--or anyone else--has ever written before. It is the story of a woman who is convinced--and, astonishingly, will ultimately convince the reader as well--that she is the only person left on earth.
About the Author
David Markson's novel Wittgenstein's Mistress was acclaimed by David Foster Wallace as "pretty much the high point of experimental fiction in this country." His other novels, including Reader's Block, Springer's Progress, and Vanishing Point, have expanded this high reputation. His novel The Ballad of Dingus Magee was made into the film Dirty Dingus Magee, which starred Frank Sinatra, and he is also the author of three crime novels. Born in Albany, New York, he has long lived in New York City.Steven Moore earned his Ph.D. at Rutgers University. He is a noted William Gaddis scholar and wrote William Gaddis, the first comprehensive critical guide to his work, and A Reader's Guide to William Gaddis's The Recognitions. Moore has edited a number of books, including Beerspit Night and Cursing: The Correspondence of Charles Bukowski & Sheri Martinelli 1960-1967 and In Recognition of William Gaddis. He has also contributed essays, articles, and reviews to a number of newspapers, journals, and magazines.