Customer Reviews

A voyage to Purilia,

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All the details concerning the planet Purilia (called a "country" in the book) are derived from silent movies: things get bigger if a close up is needed, there is a disembodied voice-over narration corresponding to title cards, floating mirages indicate what someone is thinking, and situations are always melodramatic or comedic (slap stick). Purilia has five castes: 1) the Umbilicans, mothers who have suffered deeply; 2) the Pudencians, young and beautiful girls, usually blond; 3) the Paragonians, their male counterparts; 4) the Vauriens, either white-skinned with mustaches and derby hats or dark-skinned wearing some bizarre garment; and 5) the Bordellians, dark-skinned, plumb, and past the first flush of youth. There are also sub-castes of little men who are "utterly incapable of adapting themselves to the mechanical contrivances of an industrial civilization." This novel certainly qualifies as pre-John Barth meta-fiction. Is Elmer Rice unjustly neglected today?