3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic, February 2, 2010
This review is from: Head in Flames (Perfect Paperback)
At one time, Lance Olsen was one of the best science fiction authors in the world, giving the genre an aesthetic edge equaled only by authors such as Samuel Delany or Kathy Acker. Also, during this period, he produced a number of extremely high quality non-fiction pieces, including a study in postmodern fantasy (one of the first--and only) and Rebel Yell, the ultimate book on writing (again, equaled only by Samuel Delany).
More recently, Lance has engaged in an active dialog with history and literature itself, wrought with increasingly excellent prose.
Head In Flames is a stunning cubist narrative stretching across space, time, and conflicting perspectives, each utilizing a different tense and POV. The voices: Vincent Van Gogh, on the verge of suicide; Theo, the great grandson of Vincent's brother; and Mohammed Bouyeri, Theo's murderer. The transitions between each are startling, forcing us remind ourselves, every few lines (the "narriticules" are rarely longer than a phrase) of the sheer difference between these characters, equidistant and parallel, who, on the page, continuously interrupt each other, elaborating and redefining, separate pieces of a dynamic collage.
Isolated, any subject actively asserts its own presence (envision: a drop of rain; the wings of a bird; a close-up of an eye). The same proves true of language, exemplified in this text, a paradigm of isolation. In particular, I found the Van Gogh sections especially beautiful: a phantasmal periphery/foundation to the main action, poignantly reminiscent of his own work.
Altogether, this is yet another magnificent novel from one of our best contemporary authors. Lance Olsen's work displays not just stylistic brilliance, but a consistent integrity and dedication to literature itself. Even among his diverse profile, Head in Flames is his most singular--a book so unique I have nothing to compare it to beyond generalized references to authors such as Raymond Federman, Arno Schmidt, Barth, etc--a tremendous, inimitable work of art.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Head Still in Flames After Reading Head in Flames, February 20, 2010
This review is from: Head in Flames (Perfect Paperback)
I don't remember the last time I yelled (screamed) as I read a book. The female circumcision (clitorectomy) of one filmmaker and the use of a machete during the murder of another just about undid me, but I could not walk away. This is a brilliant, startling, color-filled novel ("Look," Monsieur Vincent explains: "I am standing inside the color yellow"). I have never before read anything like it. It seems a natural candidate for feature-film adaptation, with its flash cuts and voice overs and flashbacks and flashforwards and two shots and split screens and superimpositions and fade-outs and on and on in filmic terms. The screenwriter in me wants to get right to work on it. It is a novel. It's a script. It's a painting (it is hundreds of paintings---it is the taste, the flavors, of paints). It is documentary (about a documentary). It is a dream---"innovative," but not difficult. It is a pleasure, an amazement, to read.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From Someone Who Hasn't Actually Read it, But Knows it's Amazing, November 4, 2009
This review is from: Head in Flames (Perfect Paperback)
I haven't read this book yet, but I attended a Lance Olsen reading in which he read and performed a few pieces from Head in Flames. I couldn't believe what I was experiencing. His work is funny and intense; weeks and months after his reading I still find myself thinking about his work, particularly the Van Gogh piece, which made the hairs on my neck rise and tingle. He additionally read a piece about Facebook. I know. At the time I thought, How is he going to pull this off? And then I was stunned. It was incredibly funny, and then in the end it resonated with profundity. I hope to capture just 25% of that in my own work. I want this book, and I want it now.
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