An Dantomine Eerly [Paperback]

Jarret Richard Devlin Middleton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2010

As the Irish-American poet Dallin lay dying he recalls the surreal geography and traumatic events that lead to his end.  An absence in a wind-beaten house suggests a past but somehow still-looming tragedy; vacancy fills a ghostly barroom and the campus of a condemned university; city streets and desolated forests are populated by no one except the formulations of Dallin’s own mind.  The ailed poet and his beautiful, haunting wife Aìsling flee an obscure political persecution that culminates in her planned murder.  The impact of her death afflicts Dallin in ways he cannot comprehend and spirals him into his meeting with the mythic celestial escort, An Dantomine Eerly.

 

An Dantomine Eerly is fine experimental writing, using narrative techniques, dream-world symbolism, and a poetic style of prose that takes up John Banville’s admittance “to blend poetry and fiction into some new form.”  The novel itself is a re-conception of the 17th century Irish poetic form of the aisling, meaning “dream vision” or “vision poem.”  As Dallin confronts his moment of death, the book assembles itself as a collage of the affinities, falsehoods, and absurdities of memory and reality. 

 

Comparisons to pre-discovery Chuck Palahnuik (Fight Club) and early David Foster Wallace (The Broom Of The System) have been made, as well as the influence of older, experimental works.  The result is a stylized exploration of the infinite world through the microscope of Middleton’s ill-fated narrator, and above all, a promising debut.

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It's experimental, surrealist fiction about the end of a poet's life. Eerly calls back to centuries of Irish literary tradition, from the aisling (a patriotic lyric poem from the 17th century with dozens of bizarre constraints) to James Joyce's giddy molestation of language."

Paul Constant, The Stranger

"Identities are never fully clear in this Gothic tale of romance and sex. The language that provides clues as to their appearance and character shines and shifts with something larger than beings of skin and bone. Its language is a liminal one, haunting the borders of life and death, ideas and reality, with a mournful, incendiary resonance. At the heart of this book is a deep romanticism, a dusky tenuity that thwarts and lures, conceals and reveals, confusing actuality with hallucination . . . [An Dantomine Eerly] sounds as if Charles Bukowski had suddenly been possessed by the spirit of Matthew Arnold. As if Dover Beach suddenly became Venice Beach, and the acerbic barfly a quixotic scholar gypsy. . . Middleton's language is chimerical."

 

John Olson, author of Souls of Wind and The Nothing That Is

Book Description

An Dantomine Eerly follows the last recollections of the Irish-American poet Dallin, as the mythic celestial escort, An Dantomine Eerly, ushers him into death.  Written in dazzling poetic prose, current readers of fiction will appreciate an engaging, original read and the rewards of a visionary debut author.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Dark Coast Press (March 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0984428801
• ISBN-13: 978-0984428809
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,703,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jarret Middleton is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Dark Coast Press. He is the author of An Dantomine Eerly and other fiction. He has been profiled in Shelf Awareness and The Stranger as an up-and-coming independent publisher. His fiction and book reviews have appeared in The Collagist, Smalldoggies, Big Other, The Nervous Breakdown, Black Rose, Strike, Slingshot, and Hotel Angeline: A Novel in 36 Voices. He lives in Seattle, WA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetic Surrealism from a great new talent..., May 5, 2010

By 

Jared Bowers (Hamilton, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Dantomine Eerly (Paperback)

I am a voracious reader, and my tastes range from contemporary fiction, to science fiction, to the modern, ironic twists on classics (a la Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), so my interest in this book was piqued as soon as I read the description. I would, somewhat hesitantly, put this in the same literary category of Hal Duncan's "Vellum," in that from the very beginning, you're seeing this story through a very specific set of rules and language, as well as multiple "dimensions," for lack of a better term.

The linguistic style is that of someone drunk on the use of language, a poet compounding his knowledge, love, and jubilant praise of language in to anguished, punishing, and provoking descriptions of his own life after death. As stated in a review excerpt above, the language is so specific, so dizzying, that there has to be a willingness to be swept up in what this dense, enigmatic story has to offer. While you may not fully grasp all of the ideas and imagery that you are bombarded with, the underlying sense of understanding is impossible to ignore, and even more so, impossible to not appreciate. By the time you have finished the story, lived and relived the tragedy of a character made up of awkward imagery and jagged lines, the slow realization hits you, if only sub-consciously, that you may have a basic, ethereal understanding of what death might actually be like.

I have read this story twice through, but believe it still has even more to offer. This is not a work of fiction to be taken lightly, nor a talent anyone can easily ignore. Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mutherluvin good read - A WHOPPER!, May 17, 2010

By 

A. McManus "buffalo bill HIMSELF" (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Dantomine Eerly (Paperback)

Reading An Dantomine Eerly was a truly fulfilling venture. While it took me awhile to get used to Middleton's lyrical syle of prose, once I relaxed my understanding, I was quickly enthralled by his mastery of language. As Dallin's journey becomes more explicit, layers of symbolic imagery reveal themselves and the reader is rewarded for the intellectual engagement the book requires. My one complaint is in the limiting nomenclature of "novel," because it is so much more - poem, dream-vision, stunning debut. Can't wait for more from this author.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unique Debut, July 20, 2010

By 

Sheri Newton (Ashville, AL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Dantomine Eerly (Paperback)

An Dantomine Eerly by J.R.D. Middleton is unique. Going into a local bookstore, this is not the type of book one usually picks up. Gothic, errie, and poetically sound with a lot of the hardcore grit that probably won't make a best-seller's list.

This isn't really a "feel good" kind of book. It is raw and makes you feel kind of dirty and weird - but in a good way, if that is possible. An Dantomine Eerly by J.R.D. Middleton is quite gothic, eerie, and poetically unique. This perhaps may not be a book for everyone, but for those into this type of genre, give it a shot.


Thank you to the publisher of An Dantomine Eerly, Dark Coast Press for providing me with a review copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.