The Late Work of Margaret Kroftis: A Novella

Mark Gluth

дек. 2009 г. · Akashic Books

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“Evocative, emotional . . . Readers looking for something different will appreciate this work.” —Library Journal
 
During the later days of her life, Margaret Kroftis is a writer, living alone. As she experiences a personal tragedy, the narrative of this novel moves forward in an emotionally coherent manner that exists separately from linear time. Themes of loss and grief cycle and repeat and build upon each other. They affect the text and create a complex structure of crosshatched narratives within narratives. These mirror each other while also telling unique stories of loss that are at the same time separate from Margaret’s and deeply intertwined.
 
This groundbreaking debut demonstrates an affinity with the work of such contemporary European writers as Ágota Kristóf and Marie Redonnet, while existing in a place and time that is uniquely American. Composed in brief paragraphs and structured as a series of vignettes, pieces of fiction, and autobiography, The Late Work of Margaret Kroftis creates a world in which a woman’s life is refracted through dreamlike logic. Coupled with the spare language in which it is written, this logic distorts and heightens the emotional truths the characters come to terms with, while elevating them beyond the simply literal.
 
“In The Late Work of Margaret Kroftis, Mark Gluth does something I’ve never seen another author do: he captures perfectly the feel of daydreams. Though everybody in the book daydreams, Gluth doesn’t simply describe their thoughts; instead, he does something better and more brilliant—he infuses his words with the deceptive simplicity and surrealism of the fantasies we dream up for ourselves. Like daydreams, his book is brief but powerful; like daydreams, it is both heartbreakingly hopeful and heart-stoppingly honest. It’s a reverie that’s a revelation. It is great.” —Derek McCormack, author of The Show that Smells

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Mark Gluth's writing has previously appeared in the anthology Userlands (edited by Dennis Cooper) and Ellipses Magazine. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and now lives in Bellingham, Washington with his wife and their two dogs. Dennis Cooper is the author of The George Miles Cycle, an interconnected sequence of five novels that includes Closer (1989), Frisk (1991), Try (1994), Guide (1997), and Period (2000). The cycle has been translated into fourteen languages. His most recent novel is My Loose Thread (Canongate, 2002). He lives in Los Angeles.