P

Andrew Lewis Conn

ISBN 10: 1887128557 / ISBN 13: 9781887128551

Published by Counterpoint, 2003

About this Item

P tells the story of Benjamin Seymour, a failed pornographer obsessed over his lost love, and Finn, a ten-year-old runaway girl genius. Separately and then together they wander the city, searching for home and family. Taking place mostly over the course of a single day, the novel telescopes out from Benji and Finn's quest to embrace a wide variety of characters and themes; the external journey matched by inward journeys into consciousness and the very nature of language and storytelling itself. One chapter of the book is written in the form of newspaper headlines and articles; one chapter is composed of thirteen vignettes following major and minor characters as they move about the city; one chapter is written in question and answer form; one chapter is a punctuation-less stream of consciousness monologue; and one chapter, the center of the book and its climax, is written in the form of a full-length screenplay.

Seller Inventory # 00074091257

Bibliographic Details

• Title: P
• Publisher: Counterpoint
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1887128557
• ISBN 13: 9781887128551
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Fair

About this title

Synopsis

P tells the story of Benjamin Seymour, a failed New York City pornographer obsessed with his lost love, and Finn, a ten-year-old runaway girl genius. Separately and then together they wander the city over the course of a single day, searching for love and life through lust and loss.

Reviews

P is the literary equivalent of a cover song. Conn, a film critic and essayist, here covers Ulysses (Joyce is "St. James" in the acknowledgments), a novel that poses obvious challenges to a young writer hoping to pay homage. Technically, the talented Conn is more than proficient. His take on Ulysses is set in Manhattan on (of course) June 16, 1996. His Leopold Bloom is Benjamin Seymour, an Ivy League-educated pornographer (director, actor) chafing his way through three years of celibacy in mourning for his dead true love, Penelope. Stephen Dedalus is Finn, a 10-year-old girl, who ditches her elite prep school to smoke dope, beg for change and wander the city. Conn's discursions on the porn industry and his stream-of-consciousness presentation of Manhattan through a child's stoned gaze are smart and fun to read. Scenes recounting Penelope and Benjamin's doomed relationship are at once tender and tortured, imbued with a complexity that is rare in a first-time novelist. These accomplishments are considerable, but Conn's novel is hamstrung by its slavish devotion to Ulysses. Overschematic and hyperallusive, P will be mystifying to those unfamiliar with the source material and vexing to those who know it. Such is perhaps the inevitable pitfall of tributes. One hopes that Conn will next apply his gifts to a more freewheeling project.
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