20 Lines a Day (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) [Paperback]

Harry Mathews (Author)

Book Description

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

diaristic "20 lines a day, genius or not"

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Taking his title from Stendhal's practice of writing "20 lines a day, genius or not," Mathews produced this book over a year and a half while working on several other projects. Although its ostensible purpose was to overcome the anxiety of each day's new blank page, this practice helped Mathews confront certain personal concerns, including illness, travel, home, and relationships. Perhaps its most significant fucntion was to allow him to mourn the loss of his friend, the novelist Georges Perec. While Perec is mentioned only briefly at the beginning and end of these selections, it is clear that these lines commemorate Perec by examining the issues raised by his death.Mollie Brodsky, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"20 Lines a Day might be considered an exercise in constrictive form. . . . Though written in the self-preoccupied, matter-of-fact voice of everyday mulling, it has the irony and symmetry of a parable." -- San Francisco Chronicle 8-28-88

"Despite the fact that these lines are exercises, they are more than simple jottings. They offer the reflections of genius; they will be read (and reread) for more than one day, for more than one year. They are 'lasting.'" -- Irving Malin, Hollins Critic 2-89

"I cannot express the extent of my admiration for Harry Mathews, which is well-nigh evangelical. There are now, here and there, other zephyrs blowingJohn Barth, Susan Sontag, Donald Barthelme, Thomas Pynchonbut none so strong as this." -- Thomas Disch

"We all may see moments of ourselves here, as well as many revealing glimpses of Mathews' day-to-day life, but what we can only get a feel for--and . . . get it here as nowhere elseis how a man, living a day like any of us, can generate wild, mysterious fictions in the midst of it all. We are carried beyond telephone, through letter, past thought, to sensibility, all at the easy pace of 20 Lines a Day." -- Bill Bamberger, New Pages #14

"Weighted by sadness, 20 Lines is caliginous, edgy, and worrisome. . . . Mathews frequently is wise, as when he peers inward at the fluttery life of his own mind. Out of the pattern of one's routines comes clues to how life might best be lived." -- George Myers, Jr., American Book Review March-April 89

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press; 2 edition (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564781682
• ISBN-13: 978-1564781680
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #713,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting insights into a writer's life and thoughts, December 31, 2001

By 

Matthew Cheney (New Hampton, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 20 Lines a Day (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) (Paperback)

Harry Mathews gave himself a writing assignment: before going to work on the last chapters of the novel he was writing at the time (Cigarettes), he would write at least 20 lines of something, anything. He mostly tried to avoid automatic writing and forced himself to stick to whatever subject he started out with, but he made no demands on himself of quality or insightfulness. The exercises produced surprising results, work of much better quality than he expected, and they are collected here in chronological order.

This is not the sort of book you will finish reading and say, "That was one of the great reading experiences of my life." The pleasures here are not earth-shaking or mind-blowing. But there are pleasures here, quite a few. The book reads like a journal, because many times Mathews wrote about what was going on in his life (a few people who were close to him had died just before he began the exercises), and the entries which stick to his everyday life can become dull and repetitive for a reader -- its when Mathews lets his imagination wander, or puts down some of his ideas about writing, that these pages really come alive.

The book is highly readable, whether you know Mathews's other work or not, because the exercises are short and the language clear. It's easy enough to skip around in the book, reading it on different days, looking for entries which appeal to whatever mood you happen to be in at the moment. Reading them in order produces a certain feeling of intimacy with the author, though, and the book is oddly moving by the end.