Synopsis
In Memory Wax a husband's unfaithfulness unleashes the quasi-mythic violence of his wife's bloodiest imaginings. Somewhere between her thoughts and her deeds the reader stands witness to the knowledge that doing justice to one's own experience entails the most grotesque transfigurations. Delta Tells, the eloquent protagonist of Singer's novel, testifies to this belief in a riveting succession of scenes which pit her against the intimidations of an intractable physical world: the sexual indifference of her husband, the physical jealousies and recalcitrant organs of the women to whom she ministers as midwife, the gravity of her own troubled motherhood, and the authorities who suspect her of committing an unimaginable crime against Nature. Delta's telling of this crime is meant to be the unravelling of anyone who might believe it. And so the husband's desperation to test the truthfulness of his wife's vengeful tale begins to loom as a portentous question about how we gauge the limits of our experience - sexual, intellectual, emotional - or whether any such limits apply.
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Reviews
The newest novel from Singer, literary critic and author of The Ox-Breadth and The Charnel Imp, is full of well-turned phrases and strikingly subtle sentences that make it a beautiful exercise in description. Unfortunately, that is all it is. In it, Singer details the story of Delta Tells, gypsy-esque midwife and spouse of Brainard Tells, wayward husband extraordinaire. The opening lines, perhaps the only straightforward prose in the book, recount how Delta, in a calculated act of revenge, serves a carefully prepared meal, then tells her husband he has eaten his own newborn child. After this incident, entire pages are devoted to defecation, regurgitation, and all the other biological functions that inevitably follow. If the writing is gruesomely exquisite, the book is nonetheless disappointing. It epitomizes "prosaic," and all its metaphors and highly descriptive passages serve no purpose except to mask a shallow tale. The unrelenting broidery that sacrifices everything to the belle phrase will make one appreciate the simplicity of the blunt. Readers will come away thinking that Singer's name is worth remembering, even if Memory Wax is not.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Memory wax
Seller: Biblioteca di Babele, Tarquinia, VT, Italy
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: BUONO USATO. INGLESE Brossura in cartoncino, illustrata, in buono stato generale e con fodera trasparente plastificata a tre risvolti, incollati alle controguardie, con lieve velatura causa polvere e con etichetta adesiva al piede del dorso. Interno integro, saldo, con ampio margine e note al piede. Il volume potrebbe contenere timbri, il materiale è stato regolarmente acquisito dalla nostra Libreria. Numero pagine 142. Seller Inventory # TMM0892