Geometric Regional Novel [Hardcover]

Gert Jonke (Author), Johannes W. Vazulik (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1994

The English-language debut of one of Austria's leading writers, Geometric Regional Novel is an innovative satire on the process by which bureaucracy and official regimentation insidiously pervade society. In a deadpan, pseudo-scientific tone, the nameless narrator takes us on a tour of a bizarre village whose inhabitants lead such habitual, regulated lives that they resemble elements in a mathematical equation. The traditional leaders of village life - the mayor, the priest, the teacher - uphold the status quo with comically exaggerated attention to ceremony and trivia, and other villagers perform roles identical to those of the generations who preceded them. That nearly every aspect of village life has been codified in some way is suggested by the intrusive presence of warnings, instructions, aphorisms, diagrams, historical records, ordinances, and forms - including a hilarious 6-page one for anyone wishing to take a stroll in the forest that makes the IRS's long form look user-friendly by comparison. Contrasting with the mathematical descriptions of village life are flashes of colorful, surrealistic writing, exemplifying the life of the imagination so often smothered beneath the monotonous routine of traditional rural existence. The stifling conservatism of such life has rarely been exposed as mercilessly as Jonke does here.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The traditional regional novel celebrating simple rural living is gleefully subverted in this experimental fiction, originally published in Germany in 1969, by Austrian writer Jonke. Alternating mathematically precise descriptions with dreamlike interludes, the author evokes a stultifying village where a schoolteacher obsesses over petty rules while the ineffectual mayor enacts meaningless public rituals. Instead of taking their place in a linear plot, daily events, such as a tightrope walker's performance in the village square, are refracted through multiple points of view, concrete verse and associative word clusters. Alleging that "black men" are hiding in the shadows of trees, the town authorities begin to monitor all citizens' activities; permission to take a walk in the woods requires submission of a six-page form in duplicate. Ordinances, pat aphorisms and pseudo-informative diagrams pervade the narrative, testifying to the onslaught of bureaucracy. Meanwhile, a flock of violent birds periodically destroys villagers' houses, perhaps symbolizing nature's revolt against a fossilized social order. Leavened with irreverent humor, this Kafka-esque fun house of a novel raucously protests the regimentation and standardization of modern life.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This first novel, originally published in 1969 and revised in 1980, is the English-language debut of Austrian avante-gardist Jonke. Intended as a sarcastic comment on traditional, provincial German literature, it attempts to convey its theme by means of structure, utilizing diagrams, questionnaires, government ordinances, and repetitive narrative to support a minimalist plot. Two unidentified characters discuss crossing a village square that "is paved with 1946 white stone slabs." A street sweeper repeats the Sisyphean task of clearing leaves from the tree-lined square. Jonke gives lengthy, tedious descriptions of such things as the layout of the blacksmith's house, devoting several pages to the bridge leaving town, the bridgekeepers' duties, etc. The best passage considers "an artist or acrobat, or whatever such a man should be called," who walks a tightrope across the square. Jonke cutely offers alternative versions: He either fell and broke his back or was able to hang, "fingers clawed in the cracks, chinks, gaps in the walls of air." A difficult work best suited to large foreign literature collections.
Ron Antonucci, Hudson Lib. & Historical Soc., Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 131 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Pr; 1st edition (June 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564780481
• ISBN-13: 978-1564780485
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,603,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A novel not quite like any other, January 5, 2001

By 

Gary Kern (NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Geometric Regional Novel (Paperback)

This novel is so original and surprising in its approach that the reviewer would do it a disservice to tell what it is all about. Suffice it to say that the narrator begins to describe the village, but then... And he goes on with his description, which leads to... And he explains what he has described, which means that... At every turn the reader's expectations are reversed, so that pretty soon he no longer knows what to expect and must share in the delight and sometimes the difficulty of continuous creation.

It looks very much like a classroom assignment subverted by a rebellious student, one of those wiseacres who disagrees with everything the teacher says. I will give nothing away if I remark that the village, its structure, its inhabitants, its government, its bureaucracy, its manner of thinking, once subjected to this treatment, become objects of satire. But at a certain point it becomes evident that the author is not just an upstart; he knows perfectly well what he is doing, for he is also methodically exploding conventions on a larger scale: language, logic, literature, the whole enterprise of social life and regulation. The novel-prank takes on a higher meaning, which is spelled out the conventional way in an afterword by the translator, Johannes Vazulik, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Austrian writer Gert Jonke. Vazulik is to be commended for making GEOMETRISCHER HEIMATROMAN, written in 1969 and revised in 1980, available in English for the first time. Judging by the examples of German he gives, the translation itself was a tremendous feat. (Dalkey Archive Press, with its wonderful list, is also to be commended.)

A final observation: there is a curious parallel between GEOMETRIC REGIONAL NOVEL and EINSTEIN'S DREAMS (1993) by Alan Lightman. Neither is a novel in the strict sense of the term, both return to the same scene again and again to achieve new perspectives and both occasionally leap into astonishing flights of fancy. There is one sequence in GEOMETRIC REGIONAL NOVEL that is absolutely breathtaking in its invention, horribly fantastic and horribly real at the same time. Lucian, Aristophanes and Kafka would have been proud to have conceived it, and if your heart goes where the wild goose goes you must read it.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Geometric Regional Novel - Too Cryptic for the Beach, November 10, 2008

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Alyssa Oshiro (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Geometric Regional Novel (Paperback)

Jonke's Geometric Regional Novel presents to us a village in which idiotic bureaucracy, puzzling repetitions, and extended explanations govern the simple lives of the people living there. The relatively easy notion of walking across the village square is suggested over and over again, "Let's walk across the village square," but each time the suggestion is shot down for some reason or another. Completely absurd and prohibitive regulations concerning nonthreatening actions such as crossing bridges or taking a walk through the woods saturate the village. Over-documentation, gossip, and hearsay permeate the village, and there are several versions of the truth about things like how the crowd reacted to the acrobat in the town square, or the mysterious old man who seemed to summon the flood, or the blacksmith who built a circular house.

What kind of a strange place is this? Jonke's novel was very influenced by the prohibitive regime of the Nazis, and the hyper-government of the small town by an elusive and highly regarded mayor is reminiscent of the oppressive time period. The repeated phrases, the backtracking narration, and the drawings and signposts all convey the restrictive tone of the novel. One of the long lists in the novel enumerates what the children in school are taught. Among that list, they are not to slouch, carouse, kill, defy, make any noise, beat, annoy, shout, brag, or love, instead children are to comb, learn, honor, give, sew, file, sifts, let, seek, hurry, help, strain, or follow. These terrifying lists describe the education of a village that is completely controlled by a higher governmental power. Everything is monitored, documented, and labeled.

Geometric Regional Novel presents a terrifying view of what the world can be like if government ever becomes too oppressive or out of control. There is a 4 page application to take a walk in the woods, which asks such ridiculous questions as "Have you answered all questions truthfully? Have you answered any questions falsely? Which? Why? Which questions that you aren't listing here did you answer falsely?" The distrust that the government has for the people and the resulting overregulation of the lives of the citizens paints a dismal picture of the novel, but reveals a fascinating insight into our own bureaucracy and government. As impossible as the novel seems, when one does their taxes or confronts confusing applications at any governmental office, Jonke's novel doesn't seem so off base. This book is one not to be taken lightly - don't take it to the beach. Instead, read it once, put it down. Let time pass. As current events change in the world, as our government inevitably changes to meet the needs of an evolving population, read Jonke's book again. Hopefully the second time you read it, it won't remind you of the reality you are living on a day to day basis.

1 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read, June 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Geometric Regional Novel (Paperback)

We can read the writer's words.

Yes, let's read the writer's words.

Other than the meaning, the writer's words are empty.

Worth reading, reminds me a little of Calvino.