Tintin in the New World: A Romance - Hardcover

Tuten, Frederic

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688123147 ISBN 13: 9780688123147

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1993

Synopsis

Trapped in the body and psyche of a teenager, the world-traveled Tintin travels to the New World, where he discovers minds capable of creating and destroying the world and a woman who steals his heart. 20,000 first printing. $10,000 ad/promo.

About this title

About the Author:

Frederic Tuten is the director of the Graduate Program in Literature and Creative Writing at City College, New York.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Like Tallien (1988), etc., Tuten's latest is conceptually interesting and quite the rage--a post-mod mix of high and low culture. But not all hip ideas translate into compelling fiction. Reminiscent of Jay Cantor's Krazy Kat, Tuten's ponderous fable reimagines the famous Belgian cartoon character, Tintin, in a grown-up world peopled with refugees from The Magic Mountain. Tuten thus fills in his comic-strip word balloons with dialogue from an old-fashioned novel of ideas. Once an ``incorruptible, a natural spirit, a blond elf,'' the stunted boy-man discovers himself in the greatest adventure of his life. In Peru, on Machu Picchu, Tintin, his faithful terrier, Snowy, and his sidekick, the salty sea- captain Haddock, encounter Clavdia Chauchat, Peeperkorn, and others from Mann's classic. In the New World, they must all reconceive their purposes in life. These rather inanimate talking heads debate the merits of revolution, the value of art, and the designs of power. Meanwhile, Tintin falls madly for Clavdia after a night of wild passion, a moment so fraught with meaning that it leads to an elaborate dream of their future together. But Tintin's vision of contentment at his retreat, Marlinspike, is dashed by the decadent Peeperkorn, who reveals Clavdia's history of madness and nymphomania. Tintin grows, his voice deepens, he broods. He pushes Peeperkorn off the mountain edge and embarks on his last great adventure. High on psychedelic mushrooms, he flashes on ``the Grand Spectacle of the New World'' and sees himself as the fulfillment of ancient prophecy. A beggar in Lima, a shaman in Brazil, Tintin finally submerges himself in the Amazon, at one with the primal forces. Herg‚ meets Mann, and the result would be as delightfully silly as an Abbott and Costello movie if Tuten didn't take all this so seriously. But, alas, he does, and the reader must suffer through his arch prose, with its pretentiously elevated diction. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0688123147
• ISBN 13: 9780688123147
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 239