Doctor of Silence - Softcover

Kelly, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0914232916 ISBN 13: 9780914232919

Publisher: McPherson, 1988

Synopsis

In this collection of twenty-seven short and long stories (some very brief, one a novella), Robert Kelly once again conjures—as previously in A Transparent Tree—an array of imaginary realms that touch upon our own. These are fictions that proceed from language into psychological epiphanies, sometimes of a very humourous nature, traversing the divisions between external and internal experience, and capturing the dimensions of desire. With its great subtlety and generous wisdom, Doctor of Silence is a bravura performance by one of America’s major writers.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Kelly was born in Brooklyn on September 24, 1935. He attended CCNY and Columbia University, and since 1961 has taught at Bard College. In addition to publishing four fiction collections and three special editions with McPherson & Company, over forty volumes of his poetry have appeared, the major collections having been published by Black Sparrow Press, including Kill the Messenger, which received the Los Angeles Times Book Award in 1980. Kelly also has been Poet in Residence at California Institute of Technology and Tufts University, and presently he teaches in the writing program Bard College.

From Publishers Weekly

These 27 unconventional "fictions" by poet Kelly (A Transparent Tree) are by turns introspective, erotic, fantastic, impenetrable, troubling and amusing. To quote from one of the characters, the eccentric Dr. Perkunas, "There is no beginning. You would understand if you read slowly, and thought about every word as it came along." The protagonists include a man whose apartment is "stripped down to the essential instruments and techniques"; an old Gypsy with "special new ancient Gypsy tarrot cards," which depict, among other things, sewing machines and blue jeans; and a woman for whom ironing a white cotton skirt becomes a sexual experience and an act of liberation. Kelly's subjects range from the meaning of love to the life of a chicken ("these poor virtually flightless birds, whose life was all scratch and furtiveness and fear and haste"). Some tales are brief and plotless, mere ruminations; others reveal intricate and mysterious developments. With his extraordinary imagery and language, Kelly creates a masterful, magical fusion of poetry and prose.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: McPherson
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0914232916
• ISBN 13: 9780914232919
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 180