Quentin S. Crisp
Anyone who reads weird literature is probably familiar with the work of Quentin S. Crisp, an author who no less of a giant than Mark Samuels believes to be "the most important writer of his generation." Until I read his recently published novel Remember You're a One-Ball!, however, I was completely unfamiliar with his work (yet another shameful void in my reading). Having just completed the book, I am certain that I will be reading more of his work in the future; and this despite the fact that this book is one of the most difficult I've read in years. Indeed, not since reading The Angel Maker by Stefan Brijs has a book left me feeling so empty.
Remember You're a One-Ball! is the story of Ramsey Blake, a somewhat misanthropic outsider who returns to teach at the elementary school that he himself attended as a boy. When a particularly poorly adjusted boy named Norman has to be dragged kicking, screaming, and sobbing into his classroom one day, it marks the beginning of a series of events that will lead to the young unfortunate losing one of his testicles and thereby becoming an even larger target for his peers' multifaceted torments. Norman's unfolding story, memories from Blake's own life, and what Blake learns about another boy who was similar to Norman in a number of ways, lead Blake down a path of discovery that shocks the conscience in a multiple ways.
This book works on a number of levels and I think it is susceptible to being interpreted in many different ways. At the heart of Remember You're a One-Ball! is an unflinching portrayal of the suffering of the ostracized and maladjusted, and of the cruelty of their tormentors. This aspect of the book easily overshadows the elements of bodily horror that it contains in my opinion. Whatever else Mr. Crisp may be saying about this suffering, it is its devastating portrayal that is the book's chief accomplishment. I found it to be so terribly effective that I felt almost physically stunned, as I imagine Blake does at the point in the novel where he confesses the following:
I do not know how to describe the utter emptiness with which Harley's tale had left me. It only seemed to me that I now knew the tangled hopelessness of All Things. I knew that it would make no difference what role I was forced to play in the human drama--it was the drama itself that was obscene.
The horror of the book's central conspiracy is even more devastating because of the way that its perpetrators approach it. They are, all of them, completely unflinching in carrying it out, quietly assured that everyone has their role to play and that they are simply helping their unlucky victims move along the natural trajectory toward which their lives tend.
Mr. Crisp's portrayal of suffering is such a prominent part of this book that it would almost be easy to overlook the fact that he is a master of crafting prose. His prose is outstanding, and he writes with a degree of patience rarely seen, although he sometimes stretched things out so much that I felt the book occasionally started to drag a bit.
Remember You're a One-Ball! is a thoroughly devastating, soul crushing book because it plumbs the depths of our capacity for cruelty to an extent seldom even attempted. In doing so, though, it also arouses correspondingly deep feelings of sympathy, so that it becomes at once a thing of unspeakable horror and a means of awakening our deepest seated compassion.
Rating: 8/10
The True First
Remember You're a One-Ball! was first published in May of 2010 by newcomer Chômu Press. However, since it is a print on demand book, it doesn't make too much sense to speak of a true first edition.
[This review was based on a review copy]
0 comments:
Post a Comment