Customer Reviews

Requiem (American Literature (Dalkey Archive))

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

 

 

Curtis White's Requiem is one of those rare works that causes you to stop and rethink the possibilities of the modern novel--a difficult feat in this post-everything world. In a way, the structure, based around Mozart's final work of the same name, functions as a balance (or maybe ballast) to the sytlistically disparate sections. These pieces, however, are fused by intent, so collage together to create a whole work that is impressively unified in aim (just as well (if not better) than White's last remarkable novel, Memories of My Father Watching TV). And in the end, Requiem does what a great novel should, it makes you mull over those things which you had forgotten you should have been examining all along.
Very lush and full of dogs, it is also hilarious.

I found Requiem to be quite humorous and shocking
at the same time. It shows the lighter side of people's bad
times and a world that's full of sex and violence. This book
isn't for the easily insulted and closeminded...

requiem is one of the strangest books i have ever read. the main character the so called "modern prophet" basically goes around collecting interviewing murderers, madmen and others in an attempt at i'm not quite sure. when i had finished it i was scared. this book is not for the faint of heart, in fact this book is not for anyone, the world isn't ready for this book so go away and save your precious sanity
DO NOT READ THIS BOOK.

I embarked on reading this book because the publisher and a newspaper reviewer called it "darkly comic," and I was seeking relief from serious literature. The author appears to have made great effort to be funny, but the resulting humor is bitter and cynical. Here's an example of the humor, from a chapter in verse by a Modern Prophet: "and the Lord sent frogs. A Plague of Frogs! ... And the Pharaoh called in his magicians to give an expert opinion and the magicians said, `We can do that.' And so saying the magicians created even more frogs. A frog for a frog, so to speak, One magic frog for every frog of God."

I found the book funny, from time to time, and some objects of the author's derision perhaps deserved skewering, such as the disemboweled Congressman roasted as a human sacrifice. More often, the humor was misplaced and offensive. I do not like parodies of the Bible. Much of the book concerned a Modern Prophet observing human society and finding it wanting. Nearly as offensive to me were the many chapters on the lives of great classical composers which portrayed these men as ordinary, small-minded, and miserable, apart from their musical genius. Internet pornography is another constant theme, and here the humor gets pretty foul-mouthed. There appears to be little in human society that White holds in high regard and considers worth preserving. I am not sufficiently in sympathy with White's negative vision to appreciate the efforts at humor.