David Slavitt's Absurdist Novel, 'Walloomsac,' Has Been Released with Anaphora
by Robert Diamond
- Oct 4, 2014
Walloomsac: A Roman Fleuve: ($20, ISBN: 978-1-937536-90-9, LCCN: 2014952145, 176pp, 6X9', October 2014; purchase on: CreateSpace, and Amazon; Kindle Edition: $2.99): If a novel is a work of prose of some length, this is a novel-but different in that it is more like life, which has no plots and does not reward virtue or punish vice, and in which characters appear and then, if the author doesn't kill them off, remain to the end. Life is messier than Tolstoy and Henry James were willing to admit. Here, in David R. Slavitt's farrago, one thing leads to another but without discernible direction until, at the end, there is a kind of resolution, a vision, however unreliable and approximate, of what the life of the speaker has been. It is a deeply thoughtful book but also laugh-out-loud funny. Like life, if we're lucky.
David R. Slavitt: educated at Andover, Yale, and Columbia, is the author of more than 115 books-novels, poetry, reportage, and translations. He was the movie reviewer for Newsweek in the sixties and was co-editor of the "Johns Hopkins Complete Roman Drama" as well as the "Penn Complete Greek Drama." Among his recent publications: "The Sonnets and Short Poems of Francesco Petrarch "(2012, Harvard University Press), Civil Wars (2013, Louisiana State University Press), "The Four Other Plays of Sophocles" (2013 Johns Hopkins University Press), and "The Crooning Wind: Three Greenlandic Poets" (New American Press 2013), and "Shiksa" (C&L Press). His version of "The Mahabharata" will be published in the spring by Northwestern University Press.
'David Slavitt has (herein) written a book about or for which it is impossible simply to write a blurb-a word, it might interest you to know, coined in 1907 by Gelett Burgess. (Did you think of a purple cow, just then?) The text itself is indescribably (deliciously?) itself. Like the Waloomsac River, it just keeps rolling along, taking the reader irresponsibly with it-laughing out loud again and again and again; marveling at its rapid wit (white water?), the wide breadths of its erudition, the dangerous shallows of its overt and covert cheekiness; marking the vertiginous depths of its, yes, wisdom. To make a long blurb short, I haven't had this kind of significant fun since I stayed up 'til dawn one night in 1962 breathlessly reading Pale Fire for the very first time.' ?R. H. W. Dillard on Walloomsac: A Week on the River
$20, Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1937536904
$2.99, Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O4FRIXE
The Anaphora Literary Press was started as an academic press with the publication of the Pennsylvania Literary Journal (PLJ) in 2009. In the Winter of 2010, Anaphora began accepting book-length submissions. Anaphora has now published over 90 creative and non-fiction books. John Paul Jaramillo's collection of short stories received an honorable mention for the Latino Literacy Now's Mariposa Award Best First Fiction Book Award. Professors have taught from a few Anaphora books. Many Anaphora writers have scheduled readings at major bookstores. Anaphora books have also had several articles published about them in regional newspapers. PLJ has featured interviews with best-selling writers like Larry Niven, and Cinda Williams Chima, as well as interviews with the winners of the Sundance and Brooklyn Film festivals.
Photo Flash: Meet the Cast of Theatre Group at SBCC's THE HEIRESS
by BWW News Desk
- Sep 26, 2014
The Theatre Group at SBCC will present the emotional drama, THE HEIRESS, by Ruth Goetz and Augustus Goetz, and directed by Judy Garey, October 15-November 1, 2014 in the beautiful Garvin Theatre. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast below!
Sierra Rep Presents A MURDER, A MYSTERY AND A MARRIAGE, Now thru 10/26
by BWW News Desk
- Sep 26, 2014
Small-town antics, homespun humor and foot-stompin' fiddlin' come to Sierra Repertory Theatre's Fallon House Theatre in Columbia State Park today, September 26 - October 26 with Mark Twain's A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage. Set in Deerlick, Missouri, the musical fits Columbia's historic feeling and should delight audiences seeking a taste of the wit of legendary humorist Mark Twain.
OSIRIS AND ISIS Opens at UChicago's Oriental Institute, 10/17
by Matt Smith
- Sep 17, 2014
CHICAGO (September 17, 2014) -The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago presents a preview showing of Osiris and Isis, a new evening-length story-ballet choreographed by Chicagoan Ron De Jesus and performed by his namesake company, Ron De Jesus Dance, inspired by the ancient Egyptian myth of Osiris, the god who was murdered by his brother, Seth, and resurrected by his loving wife, Isis. The preview is presented one night only in the Yelda Khorsabad Court of the Oriental Institute, 1155 E. 58th Street in Hyde Park, Friday, October 17 at 7 pm.
Sierra Rep to Present A MURDER, A MYSTERY AND A MARRIAGE, 9/26-10/26
by Tyler Peterson
- Sep 12, 2014
Small-town antics, homespun humor and foot-stompin' fiddlin' come to Sierra Repertory Theatre's Fallon House Theatre in Columbia State Park September 26 - October 26 with Mark Twain's A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage. Set in Deerlick, Missouri, the musical fits Columbia's historic feeling and should delight audiences seeking a taste of the wit of legendary humorist Mark Twain.
The Brewing Dept. Presents BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA, Now thru 8/30
by BWW News Desk
- Aug 14, 2014
The Brewing Dept. will present a free, outdoor production of Chuck Mee's bobrauschenbergamerica directed by Emily Kaplan this August. The production runs today, August 14 - 30th, 2014 at 108th Street Lawn in Riverside Park (enter at 108th Street and Riverside Drive).
Simple Machine to Offer EPIMYTHIUM Staged Reading, 8/24
by Tyler Peterson
- Aug 12, 2014
Simple Machine, in partnership with the Resident Lab at Charlestown Working Theater, presents a staged reading of Daniel McCoy's new play Epimythium on Sunday, August 24 at 4 PM at the Charlestown Working Theater at 442 Bunker Hill Street in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The reading will be directed by Hondo Weiss-Richmond featuring a cast of Boston-area actors. Admission is free to the public. Reservations are encouraged and can be made at simplemachinethatre.com.
The Brewing Dept. to Present BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA, 8/14-30
by BWW News Desk
- Aug 9, 2014
The Brewing Dept. will present a free, outdoor production of Chuck Mee's bobrauschenbergamerica directed by Emily Kaplan this August. The production runs August 14 - 30th, 2014 at 108th Street Lawn in Riverside Park (enter at 108th Street and Riverside Drive).
The National Portrait Gallery Displays A Portrait of a Lead Suffragette for the First Time in 80 Years
by BWW News Desk
- Jul 24, 2014
A newly acquired portrait of Christabel Pankhurst, a leading Suffragette, has gone on public display for the first time in eighty years, the National Portrait Gallery announced today, Thursday 24 July. The portrait accompanies a new display of photographs and archive material marking 100 years since the campaigners staged their final and most violent protests, including an attack on National Portrait Gallery paintings, just before the outbreak of the First World War.
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