Customer Reviews

AVA

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At first, this novel seems incomprehensible and pointless, nothing more than a collection of random phrases and information, but after a while the phrases find echoes, the information finds order, and the ultimate effect is haunting and devastating. (Indeed, I soon found myself incapable of reading more than 20 pages or so at a time because it was emotionally overwhelming, though I've yet to figure out the exact source of this power.)

Maso has said elsewhere that this book is, in some ways, related to Virginia Woolf's "The Waves", and I would agree, though in many ways I think Maso's is a more compelling and perhaps even richer book than Woolf's. "Ava" bears a certain relationship to "Mrs. Dalloway" and "To the Lighthouse" as well, for Maso, like Woolf, has subsumed her narrative within the perspective of her protagonist. The story lies between the lines.

This book can't be read impatiently, nor can it be skimmed or speed-read or soundbyted, for its effect relies upon accumulation: the accumulation of ideas, events, and even the sound of the words. It requires an active reader, one willing to put forth effort of both thought and feeling. The effort is rewarded a thousandfold.

AVA has been one of those books that I return to on a regular basis. Each time I pick it up, I remember the first time I moved through it, sometimes crying, often laughing , but most often marvelling at its beauty. Ava Klein walks us through the fragmented recollections of her life -- things she tasted, lovers she's known, places she's visited and people who have left an impact on her. Maso writes in snippets of thought,her text reminding me of the way the human mind works (our thoughts rarely take a linear path, most often they're kind of all over, spinning around). I urge you to pick up this book and just flow through it, enjoying, if nothing else, the beauty and immediacy of the words. AVA is brilliant and wonderful; it is a work you will come back to often just so you can remember what a gift it is.

This is perhaps one of my very favorite books. It is simply a gift to the literary world. Maso uses language like silk and the text shines. The "spaces" in consciousness create a stronger reaction than any amount of description and tight prose. Her words, thoughts, and narration is haunting and stirs the deepest parts of a readers understanding and consciousness. I feel I know Ava better than any other character in any other text. This is a gem. I completely agree with the former reviewer's comparison to fine wine. A great read.

Three years ago while working in a bookstore I noticed a hardcover novel by an author I had never encountered. Picking up the book I was intrigued by a simple white cover with a black and white photograph. I opened the cover to see lines of what seemed to be poetry running down every page, like one long stream of consciousness poem. I decided to read Ava at first because I enjoy poetry, but second because the plot seemed interesting. It is simply put, the thoughts and memories of a dying woman whose life experiences have given her a wealth of sensual and deep images that draw the reader into her life. What I discovered while reading this book was that reading could be like sipping a rare and special vintage of the finest wine. As I got deeper into the book I discovered lines from poets I thought only I loved, and I discovered a woman facing her death with a quiet dignity and gratitude for life's beauty and pain. At the end of each section of the book (it is not broken down into chapters, but time segments; morning, noon,etc.) I had to stop and absorb all the images brought to mind. I felt drunk in a pleasant way; i.e. no hangover.

After I had finished the book, I found myself flipping through it's pages, looking for one line or another, trying to recapture the image I couldn't forget. It never failed to recur with the rereading of a particular phrase, or number of phrases, and even today three years later it is a book I pick up once in a while to sip at. I loan books out to friends regularly and usually don't worry about their return, but Ava is one book that I tell people about, but never even offer to loan out. I just can't take the risk that this special gift might disappear from my world. In the last year I have read another Maso title and found her writing style had the same inebriating effect even though the format was the more traditional prose of most novels. I will always remember Ava as being my personal introduction to the world of a talented and unique author whose books will all be treasured in my library for many years to come.

All you have to do to see how different this novel is from others you have read is open it up and look at the prose. It's written in short poetic lines, separate little pieces. As I began reading, I wondered if I was missing out because I didn't understand everything... Then I gave in and just continued on--much to my delight. The story of Ava unravels itself subtly and carefully, like unrolling a newly discovered scroll written on dangerously fragile parchment. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Do yourself a favor and buy it. Sit somewhere peaceful and let yourself be carried away.

I fell in love with this book last night and could not put it down!

It is written in a unique and original way, and yet, feels more

familiar and nostalgic than most novels you meet.

You will fall madly in love with her language. This is poetic,

mystical and beautiful.

If you love language, literature, art, beauty---read it.

This is one of my favorite novels ever!

This is perhaps one of my very favorite books. It is simply a gift to the literary world. Maso uses language like silk and the text shines. The "spaces" in consciousness create a stronger reaction than any amount of description and tight prose. Her words, thoughts, and narration is haunting and stirs the deepest parts of a readers understanding and consciousness. I feel I know Ava better than any other character in any other text. This is a gem. I completely agree with the former reviewer's comparison to fine wine. A great read.

I had the honor of taking a creative writing course under Carole Maso and must say that her prose poetry is both captivating and hypnotizing. Although very passionate and sensual, this story is also very grim. It shows that in the mind and heart, things are ill-defined and often the feelings of love, desire, and passion can also become intermingled with dying and death. So, here I am, having gone from being her writing student to being this writer's fan. I also recommend Ghost Dance if you have a chance.

Carole Maso's Ava is an attempt to build a symphony out of words instead of musical notes.

Like a symphony, it is comprised of discrete themes, many repeated over and over again, sometimes with slight variations of rhythm, instrumentation, and harmony. Like a symphony, it has specific sections. However, unlike a symphony, Ava does not resolve in a meaningful manner. Perhaps Maso is trying to make the point that death does not resolve in any key.

Maso takes the fascinating subject of what a sick woman thinks during what the narrator, Ava Klein, expects might be one of her last days to live. She is only 39 and she is dying in a New York City hospital on August 15, 1990. As she floats through the day, few things impede her thoughts. Nurses asking her to roll over, talking about going to the park, and discussing the invasion of Kuwait are some of the few notes of the outside world that bleed into her consciousness. Some number of her ex-husbands and lovers are (or may be) in the room with her, but a description of her environment is sketchy. Her thoughts vary from the mundane ("The child draws the letter A"), to ruminations on music, Europe, and literature ("Just once I'd like to save Virginia Woolf from drowning"), to the philosophical ("We live once. And rather badly"), and to thoughts of the men in her life ("I would have married you, after just one night. Had I not already been married at the time").

But the problem with Ava is that her thoughts are so scattered that they fail to come together in a cohesive way. Ava has clearly had an interesting life, and while she is in no hurry to die she is also unwilling to continue to endure treatments for the sake of having treatments since her condition is judged to be hopeless. And it is difficult to ascertain what really happened in her life, what happened in fiction she read, and what she wished had happened in her life.

Yes, I read it all, and, no, I'm not a literary traditionalist by any means. Being a fan of speculative and experimental fiction, I figured I should give Maso a shot, having heard innumerable raves about her work. And it's interesting, though I came away from AVA feeling ultimately unsatisfied. I couldn't help thinking that, for all of Maso's concern with the body and physical desire, the book is really pretty anemic. Flip to any page and you'll find there's far more white space than print; pages go by without a line reaching the left margin. Which, yes, I get, since it's about the increasingly fragmented memories of a dying woman. Plus she (Ava or Maso, if there's a difference) mentions that she's interested in intervals, the liminal spaces. So the text formally enacts what it's laying out discursively. Okay. But, apart from the theoretical justifications of the form -- if she's interested in liminal spaces, a novel arranged in slabs of ink would appear to undermine her argument -- what else is there? How does the form actually do anything to the memories of Ava Klein? How does it help us as readers know Ava better, rather than knowing Maso better? I'm honestly not sure. As I read, I wondered (rather snarkily) if literary theory had so deeply permeated literary culture that AVA was a gesture toward doing away with the novel altogether and getting right to the criticism. And, yes, I realize the book exists in a literary liminal space, between fiction and poetry and criticism and whatever else. Or that's the idea, at least. Trouble is, I found the idea of the book more interesting than the book itself, the discussion surrounding it more compelling than the writing in it.