Novels in Three Lines

A great book, opening up an aspect of modern literature that needs to be much more fully explored and understood. In his celebration of the quotidian, Feneon made it clear that the real world offers all that is needed to refresh one's vision. We could not have had Rauschednberg without Feneon, though I've no idea if he ever read this brilliant, modest book. Great introductory essay by Luc Sante makes this an even more important book for anyone trying to understand why so much modern art feels the way it does.

To anyone familiar w/Charles Mudede's Police Beat column at the Stranger (to those not, it's one of the most bohemianly sensible features of Seattle's free weekly of bohemian sensibility), Fénéon has got to be Mudede's inspiration. He has the blueprint for finding the sublime in the tawdry, for finding the severe brutal beauty of the kosmos in an episode of COPS. In these grisly little bits, FF makes his claim for a spot on the pantheon of Grand Guignol, a storied company that includes Baudelaire & the great medieval master, Villon.

if you think people drowning, killing themselves, getting hit by cars, or living sad lives at the turn of the 20th century in france has the potential to be laugh-out-loud funny, then you'll maybe piss yourself when you read this book. it's not so much the content as it is Fénéon's impeccable timing that makes this book work. he turns a phrase, this guy. it's all just news blurbs, like the local stories from the usa today, but there's nothing about the execution that's even remotely similar. one example - "Scheid, of Dunkirk, fired three times at his wife. Since he missed every shot, he decided to aim at his mother-in-law, and connected." there are also some touching items.

I'm ordering two more copies of this small book to send as gifts to friends who appreciate dark humor and irony. These tersely told tales are a delight and an inspiration. Readers may never again be able to read the newspaper without picking up imaginary scissors and a pen and paper.