Poste Restante [Paperback]

Derek White (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2006

Poste Restante is a collection of text and image fragments (postcards, if you will, sent from the subconscious) by Derek White. From the forward: Whenever I dream about home, it s never where I am residing at the time. For that matter, whenever I dream of a place, say, Maldives or the Plaza de Toros in Seville, it s never the place but an idealized concept of one, perhaps amalgamated with other places, including absurd ones I have never been to or that might not even exist. Yet. The same is true of people. Say, Madonna or Captain Beefheart. Or even elementary particles such as quarks or gauge bosons. Or the relationships in between. The nocturnal histories contained here were transcribed in the dark, in the wake of sleep when I couldn t always see what, in fact, I was writing. These are merely the residuals, in translated words and images, that clung to my feet as I woke up and walked across the floorboards of where I was living at the time. This is all I can say with any degree of certainty without sacrificing knowledge of place for where I was going with it. When a letter or parcel is addressed and postmarked, you are assured that it passed through human hands and physical devices to reach its intended destination. It is a validation. A proof of concept. A collapse of its wave function. Poste Restante (literally, post remaining or residual mail ) is an ad hoc destination for mail sent to recipients who are just passing through a place they do not permanently reside. It s what you say when you don t have a place you call home.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Yet his ability to clearly translate the logic of dream-life is what makes this a specialized, noteworthy work of fiction...the stories in Poste Restante represent some of the most enigmatic work being published on flash-fiction websites and in journals around the country." --Ross Simonini, The Believer

"Although there are threads that continue between stories, some of the same characters and places, and more than a heaping spoonful of physics and math (add some paranoia and we're ready for the crying to begin on the auction for White's subconscious) there is no real narrative thread that links them. Like dreams, these stories rise from the ether and then disappear back from whence they came." --Robert Bell, New Orleans Review

"Like the detached sentimentality often evoked after time spent in one's own dreams, the stories seem hungry to communicate the things humming within them; they want to transfer their energy into a remote location." --Blake Butler, Bookslut

About the Author

Derek White is an American writer of surreal and absurdist poetry and fiction, a visual artist, author of the review website 5cense, editor of Calamari Press, and publisher of the avant-garde literary & poetry journal Sleeping Fish. He lives and works in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 122 pages
• Publisher: Calamari Press (December 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977072363
• ISBN-13: 978-0977072361
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,373,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Description of Poste Restante, February 25, 2007

By 

Derek White (Rome, Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Poste Restante (Paperback)

Poste Restante is a collection of text and image fragments (postcards, if you will, sent from the subconscious) by Derek White. From the forward:

Whenever I dream about "home," it's never where I am residing at the time. For that matter, whenever I dream of a place, say, Maldives or the Plaza de Toros in Seville, it's never the place but an idealized concept of one, perhaps amalgamated with other places, including absurd ones I have never been to or that might not even exist. Yet. The same is true of people. Say, Madonna or Captain Beefheart. Or even elementary particles such as quarks or gauge bosons. Or the relationships in between.

The nocturnal histories contained here were transcribed in the dark, in the wake of sleep when I couldn't always see what, in fact, I was writing. These are merely the residuals, in translated words and images, that clung to my feet as I woke up and walked across the floorboards of where I was living at the time. This is all I can say with any degree of certainty without sacrificing knowledge of place for where I was going with it.

When a letter or parcel is addressed and postmarked, you are assured that it passed through human hands and physical devices to reach its intended destination. It is a validation. A proof of concept. A collapse of its wave function. Poste Restante (literally, `post remaining' or `residual mail') is an ad hoc destination for mail sent to recipients who are just passing through a place they do not permanently reside. It's what you say when you don't have a place you call "home."

"Like the detached sentimentality often evoked after time spent in one's own dreams, the stories seem hungry to communicate the things humming within them; they want to transfer their energy into a remote location."

--Blake Butler, from a review in Bookslut.