What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going (American Literature) [Paperback]

Damion Searls (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 2009

In his debut collection, Damion Searls gives us five extraordinary tales of the life of the mind in America today. "56 Water Street" and "Goldenchain" follow writers whose projects only lead them deeper into the labyrinth of modern relationships and friendships. The nasty office satire "The Cubicles" and the atmospheric "A Guide to San Francisco" take place in the sun and fog of West Coast dreams. In the final story, "Dialogue Between the Two Chief World Systems," a Hungarian beauty creates a scholarly conundrum with surprising parallels to the book as a whole.

Set amidst Ethiopian healing scrolls and sponges of the Adriatic and the guy who invented flashing the temperature on bank clocks, What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going plays in the intersection of knowledge and life in contemporary America. Searls's flights of fancy and painterly eye for detail introduce a range of intelligent characters feeling their way toward complex moral and personal truths.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A too spare debut collection of five elegantly crafted stories by translator Searls (Rilke's The Inner Sky) explores the exquisite indignities suffered by those with rich inner lives. The well-read narrator of the dry 56 Water Street attempts to write a novel about a man who circles back to where he came from, much like the fastidious writer himself whose girlfriend is soon to leave him because he is unable to plan what happens next. The Cubicles is a delightful dig at the vacuous new economy of Northern California, wherein the narrator is ensconced in a nebulous position at the punnily nicknamed Prophet Corp. There, leading a life of Circean pleasures which keeps him from becoming a writer, he chronicles the other sad cube-dwellers. Self-consciously writerly, Searls's work possesses a schoolmarmish charm and hints at the fresh, smart talent he may one day become. (May)
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Review

"A series of highly imaginative and original takes on the contemporary world, both sophisticated and quirky, elegant and unique." --Edith Grossman

"Literature is dead, everyone knows that, and also--another thing everyone knows--all the great literature has already been written. But if we were somehow to begin bringing literature into the present day, we'd do it by updating, reimagining, rewriting, and then finally once and for all forgetting the past masters. That is what, in these funny, eclectic, and ultimately very contemporary stories, Damion Searls somehow manages to do." --Keith Gessen

"These stories not only read beautifully and feel true; I don't think I've ever read anything that seems at once so off-hand and so formally exacting. Damion Searls's work gives me an idea of how the short story can keep on going, what its future might be." --Benjamin Kunkel

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Product Details

• Paperback: 101 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Pr; First edition (May 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564785475
• ISBN-13: 978-1564785473
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.3 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,522,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Damion Searls was born and raised in New York City, and is a writer, editor, and award-winning translator from German, French, Norwegian, and Dutch. He has translated many of Europe's greatest writers, including Rilke, Proust, Ingeborg Bachmann, Peter Handke, Nescio, Jon Fosse, Robert Walser, and Kurt Schwitters, and produced an abridged edition of Thoreau's "Journal" and an experimental edition of Melville's "Moby Dick" called "; or The Whale." Details, excerpts, reviews, and contact information are at www.damionsearls.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Boy Wonder Makes Good May 19, 2009

By D. Golden

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going is an amazing book. It challenges me and makes me want to keep on reading. The author, Damion Searls is fresh, new and invigorating. I look forward to reading more by this author.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful! July 22, 2010

By Fairlee E. Winfield VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This little book of five of Searls' short stories is enchanting. Just the thing for a hot summer day. Funny, quirky, filled with unbelievable characters who are unbelievable but nevertheless remind you of, yeah, that guy you went to grad school with. Whatever happened to him? My favorite was "56 Water Street" and Angela who tries them all out.

Searls has translated all the great writers, but his own fiction is fantastic.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A read well worth the investment June 11, 2009

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Paperback

Everyone sees the world differently, and author Damion Searls brings readers his own perspective through a series of short fiction with "What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going". The anthology offers his own view of the world through a series of highly entertaining and unique stories. Funny, thought-provoking, and a page-turner, "What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going" is a read well worth the investment.