The Fountains of Neptune (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) [Paperback]

Rikki Ducornet (Author)

Book Description

Series: American Literature (Dalkey Archive) | Publication Date: March 1997

The Fountains of Neptune (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) [Paperback]

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this allegorical novel--part absurdist fairy tale, part Mad Hatter's tea party--poet and novelist ( Entering Fire ) Ducornet renders a vexatiously baffling account of a mentally troubled childhood. Confined to an exotic spa, middle-aged Nicholas recreates for psychoanalyst/water therapist Venus Kaiserstiege his fantasies and obsessions, dreams that have occupied his subconscious during the several decades he has spent in the coma that mysteriously began when he was nine years old. In a flashback to early childhood, Nicholas recalls a hodgepodge of adventures in a French seaside cottage, pre-WW I, where noisy nursery-tale personages (Other Mother, Toujours-La, Totor) cook him delicious dishes and tell stories. A prevailing metaphor is the sea with its marine denizens, e.g., the old sailor, Shark and Cod's wife. Nicholas's analyst calls him Froschlein (tadpole), though he is also known as the Sandman in a case study devoted to his life. Eventually the reason for Nicholas's madness emerges: when he was two, his adulterous mother Odile was murdered with her lover. Both had drowned. In the novel's mythology the sea suggests the amniotic waters of the maternal womb. Ducornet, whose poetic imagination has vividness and charm, acknowledges a debt to the work of clinician Oliver Sacks, but her writing lacks his clarity. Ultimately her novel capsizes under the weight of its own playfulness.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Nicholas spends 50 years in a coma, cared for by the brilliant Dr. Venus Kaiserstiege, and awakens to a completely new world. As a child in a French seaport, he was taken in--in more ways than one--by aging stepparents and surrounded by colorful salts with names like Aristide Marquis and Toujours-La. Who were his parents, and what happened to them? The answers lie deep in his own mind. As in Ducornet's previous novel, The Stain ( LJ 9/15/84), the world portrayed here seems to belong to a much earlier time than the beginning of the 20th century, perhaps because the author wishes to evoke the ancient roots of the unconscious. First published in Canada in 1989, this fine novel might give the American-born Ducornet the big break she richly deserves in the United States. Highly recommended.
- Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. at Chico
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564781550
• ISBN-13: 978-1564781550
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,362,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trip to the subconcious, December 13, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fountains of Neptune (Paperback)

"The Fountains of Neptune" is a dream-like, dense anti-novel that uses dreams and myths to discuss the perception of history, memory, and loss. Like the novels of Jeanette Winterson, "Neptune" does not rely on standard plot structure. The basic story is two-fold: young Nicholas grows up in preWWI France, a precocious nine year old living a town of eccentric storytellers. A traumatic event causes him to go into a coma. He wakes up 50 years later, after both World Wars, having spent his life in dreams. The second part of the story concerns his relationship with his therapist, Dr. K, and her attempts to rebuild his memories. But it is Ducornet's unlimited imagination and gift for fabulation that is the true star here. Her images are sharp, eerie, humorous -- and always haunted. Ducornet leads us into the labyrinth of the subconsious -- complete with its demons, half-heard conversations, and golden memories -- but leaves no trail of twine or breadcrumbs to find our way out. Phantom ships, enchanted seascapes combined with idyllic countrysides and the philosophical world the Spa where Nicholas and Dr. K have their metaphysical relationship make this one labyrinth you won't want to leave -- Minotaurs or no

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous, April 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fountains of Neptune (Paperback)

This is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. Ignore the rantings of the surrealist police -- Ducornet is an original, and this book is her best.

4 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars involving in a potboiler sort of way, but not 'surrealism', November 13, 2001

By 

J from NY (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Fountains of Neptune (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) (Paperback)

rikki ducornet shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence as hp lovecraft or bruno schulz, and certainly not with any of the surrealists. her work is ridiculously self indulgent, trashy, self consciously politically correct, whimsical, and ultimately lacking in real merit. you'll probably get interested in the story, but it's the same kind of interested you get when reading tom clancy or some other ephemeral, pulp writer. this is the literary equivalent of watching television, and amounts to what i might call 'commodified counterculture'. ducornet loves preaching against racism, which would be fine up to a point, but every other page she's having one of her flimsy, cardboard characters go off on some tirade about how awful those racists are, and how bad what they do is, ho hum ho hum!! Racism is indeed despicable and absurd, but it seems at times that ducornet is forming her own kind of racism, an anti racism racism. her books are reactionary and they try too hard to be what everyone wants. it's like having someone jump up and down with a flag saying, "look! i'm a surrealist! isn't this just like surrealism?" i doubt that breton, artaud, desnos would consider rikki ducornet anything but a dogmatic groupie, spouting their slogans and trying ever so hard to be one of them, but failing miserably. this one is particularly absurd and centers around an elderly man who slipped into a coma and regains consciousness when he is 70 or older and, big surprise, the revolutionary doctor who woke him is constantly harassed and pursued by the Third Reich!! i agree theoretically with her liberalism, but she just doesn't do it right. i'm perfectly capable of enjoying the work of a poser, and have many authors i enjoy and even revere who are less than original and who are indeed mere echoes of the authors and artists they plagiarize, but ducornet cannot even strike a pose well andit comes off so clumsy and contrived that it is hilariously bad. this woman should be writing scripts for lifetime television movies or collaborating with danielle steele on her next travesty. if you want to lose yourself in a few pleasant little castles in the air, by all means, pick up something by her right away.if you want real surrealism, buy something by rene crevel, artaud, whatever.