Da Vinci's Bicycle (New Directions Classics) [Paperback]

Guy Davenport (Author)

Book Description

Series: New Directions Classics | Publication Date: May 1997

his 2nd book of stories, dedicated to Zukofsky

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This title collects ten short stories "full of allusion and linguistic dazzle." The stories take famous people, e.g., Richard Nixon, Leonardo Da Vinci, and James Joyce, and speculates on how they "relate to contemporary life" (LJ
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 185 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811213501
• ISBN-13: 978-0811213509
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Preposterous that a shoe would go the journey of a foot", February 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Da Vinci's Bicycle (New Directions Classics) (Paperback)

If the story is good enough, a story collection can be worth buying simply for the one. "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg," which features German author Robert Walser [whom I haven't read], is that good, but it is not the only story in this marvelous volume worth owning. "A Field of Snow" jumps among 3 times in Walser's life--the presumed present, when he is riding in a hot-air balloon; his stay in a mental institution; and his time as a butler for a "dotty" German lord. In all of these Walser is a compelling character, a man we want to know more about, a man capable of telling us, "The snow is a kind of music. Were I ever to write again, perhaps a poem as deft and transparent as one by a Chinese, I would like to witness to the beauty of the snow. And their books, these people who keep writing, who reads them? It is now a business like any other." Another story, "The Invention of Photography in Toledo," revolves around the rival claims of two possible inventors of photography and is laugh-out-loud funny as the [to us unknown] narrator confuses Toledo, Spain, and Toledo, Ohio. Characters in other stories include Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus, and Richard Nixon [in China, no less]. Davenport's fictional world is constructed out of reality in a way unlike most writers, and thus he can have a character wonder, as Walser does, "Is it not preposterous that a shoe would go the journey of a foot?" Perhaps it is, but it is more preposterous that too many American readers do not know Davenport's work

2 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not the kind of book you would really want to read, January 7, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Da Vinci's Bicycle (New Directions Classics) (Paperback)

Obscure genius is difficult to comprehend in the first place. This author wants us to explore with him the depths of such genius. Sorry. Not impressed. Nixon should certainly not be included. But if you were going to include mad evil geniuses, why not Adolf Hitler instead of Nixon? And who exactly does the author anticipate will be his readers yearning for this obscure knowledge and insight? Sorry again. I can't answer that question either. I have no idea. My guess is that Guy Davenport will continue to remain an obscure writer desperately searching for an audience. Good luck, guy.