Customer Reviews

Moravagine (New York Review Books Classics)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This may be described as an exquisitely depraved travelogue of regions both geographic and psychological. Other reviewers have more than adequately laid out the storyline and in that regard I have nothing to add. I will simply admonish readers that this is not a book for the queasy, the timid, or those of a markedly nervous disposition. That said, if you took pleasure from Oscar Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray, J.K. Huysmans' A Rebours (Against Nature), or, stretching a bit, even the fantastical satire of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, then this decadent, entertaining romp may be just what the "doctor" ordered. But you have been warned: I accept no responsibility for psychotic breaks triggered by this gruesome literary morsel.

This was the first book I read from Cendrars with little thought that he would have the humbling effect on me that he did. To say this book is great, is an understatement! After you've read it ,you too, will understand why! The amount of research that had to be applied to this book is an amazing feat in itself, let alone the whole storyline which is genius, complex,and poetic,... like all the great authors! Moravagine...A psychological thrilling novel that confronts bare human emotion with an honesty unmatched by few.. brings us closer into the mind of an author, whose awesome talent for expression, sent tremors down the spine of the literary world, showing us life's true nature...macabre and yet beautiful!

It is obvious that this book is one of Cendrars most ambtious novels. It is so well written that each minor and major shock create a seamless flow within a paradox of uncontrolled energies on one level - yet controlled energies on other levels - coupled with an almost invisible hatred of the human for the entire human condition. To me, it is the most frightening book I have every read. ALso, it is in the realm of the greatest of classics. I cannot help but wonder where or not Blaise Cendrars was or had been an avid reader of Balzac (This is based upon some of his structuring of the story).

This is a depraved and beautiful book that should be read by everyone. It is the literary equivalent of the best meal you've ever eaten to the point of sickness--you wouldn't want to do it every night but you don't want to die without ever having done it once. Everyone who cares about literature, especially the decadent literature of this century, should check this out.

Every time I read this there is a new layer of meaning that jumps out; from the adventure story examining the limits and constraints of human nature to Cendrars' brilliant digressions in which each one paragraph could be fodder for entire books. It will have you rethink what it means to be human.

One of the best books I have read. But it doesn't surprise me that I never hear about it. The end of the millenium and the vocabulary that people would use to describe it is taboo.... mmm... I would say this is about beauty of experience through contrast. Read it. Go through and beyond.

I have probably read over 5000 books in my life, and this is the only one I ever liked.

i'm sure i'll lose my membership card as a nihilist, but i found this book to be a waste of my time. the characters are tiresome in their quest for life, the title character always committing acts of violence for no reason, usually against women, while the character documenting Moravagine is obviously utterly in love with him.

like others i'm sure i was drawn to Cendrars because of Henry Miller's recommendation, but i am disappointed. i have recently found a number of books of this negative trend that seem to offer nothing, but think themselves documenting life as a plate of maggots. most of the book centers around the characters' involvements as pre-soviet Russian revolutionaries. then follows their escapades with natives in South America, etc. the treatment of women in this book is utterly grotesque.

the characters complain about the horrors of man but are the worst example of man. Moravagine imagines himself a god when he is nothing but an over-ripe anus. much better literature is had elsewhere.

update: i don't retract a word of this review. i only add that Georges Bataille seems to me to have taken this form to a better, more meaningful place. so there.