By Alain-Paul Mallard. Translation by Sarah Pollack.
A miniature Borgesian portrait in misanthropy
In a sequence of anecdotes imbued with haughty melancholy and nihilistic irony, Alain-Paul Mallard assembles a puzzle of an Austrian writer who despises both the world he lives in and the work he himself has produced, whose fragmented life crosses paths with fictional and nonfictional protagonists from Hans Magnus Enzensberger to Paul Celan, and whose concise first-person reflections describe a complicated and sympathetic monster. A masterpiece of the miniature in the tradition of Robert Walser and Fleur Jaeggy, and a tribute to the legacy of Thomas Bernhard, Mallard’s “imaginary life” offers a celebration of sterility and silence in its appropriately distilled essence. Writer and filmmaker Alain-Paul Mallard was born in 1970 and raised in Mexico City. He studied Hispanic literature in his native city, and then studied European intellectual history in Toronto. Tempted by silence, he is the author of a short, highly concentrated body of work. His films include L’origine de la tendresse, Évidences and L’adoption.
Featured image is reproduced from 'An Evocation of Matthias Stimmberg'.
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
FORMAT: Pbk, 4.5 x 7 in. / 56 pgs / 7 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $11.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $15.95 GBP £9.99 ISBN: 9781939663733 PUBLISHER: Wakefield Press AVAILABLE: 9/7/2021 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Wakefield Press. By Alain-Paul Mallard. Translation by Sarah Pollack.
A miniature Borgesian portrait in misanthropy
In a sequence of anecdotes imbued with haughty melancholy and nihilistic irony, Alain-Paul Mallard assembles a puzzle of an Austrian writer who despises both the world he lives in and the work he himself has produced, whose fragmented life crosses paths with fictional and nonfictional protagonists from Hans Magnus Enzensberger to Paul Celan, and whose concise first-person reflections describe a complicated and sympathetic monster.
A masterpiece of the miniature in the tradition of Robert Walser and Fleur Jaeggy, and a tribute to the legacy of Thomas Bernhard, Mallard’s “imaginary life” offers a celebration of sterility and silence in its appropriately distilled essence.
Writer and filmmaker Alain-Paul Mallard was born in 1970 and raised in Mexico City. He studied Hispanic literature in his native city, and then studied European intellectual history in Toronto. Tempted by silence, he is the author of a short, highly concentrated body of work. His films include L’origine de la tendresse, Évidences and L’adoption.