The Journalist: A Novel (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) [Paperback]

Harry Mathews (Author)

Book Description

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

As an aid to recovering from a nervous breakdown, the narrator of The Journalist begins to keep daily records of almost everything that goes on in his life, from how much he has spent on books and movies to what he eats.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This low-key novel is not, as one might expect, about a member of the press. Instead, its unnamed protagonist is a middle-aged manic-depressive who, encouraged by his wife and doctor, begins to keep a journal. Before long, he's off his medicine and taking the diary entirely too seriously-ignoring the needs of home and work in order to better index his entries. He also starts to notice suspicious behavior all around him: by his wife and best friend (whom he believes are having an affair), and by his mistress (whom he suspects of seducing his son). Mathews (Cigarettes) writes lucidly and with a great deal of sensitivity, but his form betrays him. The journal scheme sounds good but doesn't work well on the page, and at least half the text concerns the protagonist's diet, clothing or endless indexing efforts. Had Mathews allowed himself a more introspective narrator who could make the occasional astute perception about what it means to keep a journal, this would be a much better book. Yet it is by no means an unrewarding read, since Mathews depicts his forlorn protagonist with ironic humor.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Mathews's journalist is a diarist, not a newspaper reporter. Recovering from a mysterious nervous collapse, he begins to record everyday events in a notebook, including what he ate for lunch, how much he spent on movies and books, and the number of pills he took. At first the diary puts him more in touch with his surroundings, but as he becomes more observant, the entries increase in length. Soon he is experimenting with elaborate classification and indexing schemes to bring some order to the unwieldly manuscript. The more time he devotes to organization, the further behind he gets in his entries, and he finds himself trying to recollect events that occurred days before. To avoid unnecessary distractions, he begins to withdraw from family and friends. More focused and accessible than Mathews's highly experimental early works (e.g., Tlooth, LJ 12/1/66), The Journalist is essentially a reworking of Michel Butor's classic nouveau roman, Degres (1960). Recommended for most collections of serious fiction.
Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Pr; Dalkey Archive ed edition (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564781658
• ISBN-13: 978-1564781659
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comfort for the obsessive-compulsive, June 10, 2003

By A Customer

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This review is from: The Journalist: A Novel (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) (Paperback)

Have you ever worried about that thought that keeps running through your head, again and again? A line from a song that won't let go of you? A need to get into the details of the details of the details? If so, get yourself a copy of The Journalist. Read it. You'll immediately feel the tension draining away: You may be bad, but nowhere near THAT bad. What a relief!

Of course, it won't hurt if you're also a Harry Mathews fan like I am. And an Oulipo fan. And if you're not acquainted with either, this is as good a place as any to get started with both of them. Enjoy!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Unique, March 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Journalist: A Novel (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) (Paperback)

The plot of the story, interesting as it is, becomes secondary to how this book is written. Addictive and hard to put down!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious, April 25, 2004

By 

alexander laurence (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Journalist: A Novel (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) (Paperback)

One of Harry Mathew' most ambitious and strikingly original novels. His fifth novel, The Journalist, confronts our present day disillusionment with reality and the art of writing. I recommend this novel for its summoning back of all those delicious qualities that I havd found both attractive and mind-expanding when first encountering Mathews' work. The concept is simple: the narrator keeps a journal to help him organize his life. But nothing is ever so simple. His ordinary life as a European businessman receives amazing scrutiny as he becomes meticulous in recording his life's events, shrews details, and his daily thoughts. The characters of his journal include his wife Daisy, his mistress Colette, his son Gert, and his friend Paul. Those designations don't in his life don't last long as the journalist worries about relations between his wife and Paul and his mistress and Gert.

The journalist soon decides that his journal needs subcatergories: certain sections for the objective facts and other parts for his subjective thoughts. As he organizes the journal into more severe categories, the secret meetings around him proliferate. As an Oulipian, Mathews has emploed a poetical structive to create a world unto itself and has refined and updated his language with this novel which, in the context of contemporary Modernism, rivals both Nabokov's Pale Fire and Calvino's Mr. Palomar.