Overview

"New from the Winner of the Writers' Trust of Canada Marian Engel Award and the Governor General's Award for English Fiction Once touted as compendiums of human knowledge, the encyclopedias and handbooks of bygone eras now read quaintly, if not comically-yet within their musty pages are often found phrases of uncanny evocative power. Scrupulously stitching such fragments together, in a sequel to the Governor General's Award-winning Forms of Devotion, By The Book is a collection of verbal and visual collages whose alchemies transform long-dead texts into tales of enduring vitality. With her visually witty full-colour artwork and stories like ""What Is A Hat? Where Is Constantinople? Who Was Sir Walter Raleigh? And Many Other Common Questions, Some With Answers, Some Without,"" and ""Consumptives Should Not Kiss Other People: A Handy Guide to the Care and Maintenance of Your Family's Good Health,"" Schoemperlen's irreverent and ironic brand of nostalgia combines vintage kitsch with comic, creepy, unexpectedly moving yarns. Praise for By The Book ""Diane Schoemperlen's By The Book is a bravura performance. Fragments, collage, assemblage, found poetry - none of the conventional words cover it for they miss the fantastic wit, the energy of humour, the divine ability to find comedic ore in the print detritus of our culture. She doesn't rescue texts; with her wicked sense of irony, she actually puts thought where there was none. She infects the banal with the virus of her own brain and makes it into art. Then she makes a picture of it-oh, dwell upon the details; there are whole novels lurking in the details.""-Douglas Glover Praise for Diane Schoemperlen ""Schoemperlen's inventive language and narrative structures encourage readers to be free 'from the prison of everyday thinking.""-New York Times Book Review ""Lovely, clever [and] imaginative.""-Wall Street Journal ""Cuttingly witty ... Schoemperlen could almost form a school of piquant and inventive fiction with Julie Hecht, Janet Kauffman, and Lydia Davis.""-Booklist ""There is no mistaking a Schoemperlen story-devoted to form, faithful to the mysteries of the everyday.""-The Globe & Mail"

Full Product Details

Author:   Diane Schoemperlen
Publisher:   Biblioasis
Imprint:   Biblioasis
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 22.80cm
Weight:   0.566kg
ISBN:  

9781927428818

ISBN 10:   1927428815
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   16 October 2014
Audience:   General/trade ,  General ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable  
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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTIONBY THE BOOK OR: ALESSANDRO IN THE NEW WORLD: AN UNLIKELY TALE OF TIME TRAVEL, TRANSLATION, AND TRAGIC LOVEA NERVOUS RACE: 222 BRIEF NOTES ON THE STUDY OF NATURE, HUMAN OR OTHERWISEWHAT IS A HAT? WHERE IS CONSTANTINOPLE? WHO WAS SIR WALTER RALEIGH? AND MANY OTHER COMMON QUESTIONS, SOME WITH ANSWERS, SOME WITHOUTA BODY LIKE A LITTLE NUT: IN WHICH THE BOTANIST LOOKS FOR LOVE IN THE WILD, APPROPRIATES THE ALPHABET, WAXES POETIC, SUCCUMBS TO DESPAIR HISTORY BECOMES AUTHENTIC OR: THE QUESTION OF THINGS HAPPENINGCRY HAVOC AND LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR: A HANDBOOK FOR THE ADVANCED STUDY OF SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHSCONSUMPTIVES SHOULD NOT KISS OTHER PEOPLE: A HANDY GUIDE TO THE CARE AND MAINTENANCE OF YOUR FAMILY'S GOOD HEALTHAROUND THE WORLD IN 100 POSTCARDS: IN WHICH THE GEOGRAPHER MAKES A SURVEY OF THE WORLD, FINDS IT WANTING, COMES TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOMEA NOTE ON THE ILLUSTRATIONSACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 316

Reviews

Praise for By The Book By the Book suggest[s] ways old texts might speak to us today, chopped up, reordered, tweet-ready. Schoemperlen works in a tradition that recalls, in addition to [Jonathan] Lethem and [David] Shields, the cubist fictions of Lydia Davis, David Markson and Padgett Powell. The most effective stories here affirm the notion ... that 'the beauty of a fragment is that it still supports the hope of a brilliant completeness.' --Mark Sarvas, The New York Times Sunday Book Review [Schoemperlen] breaks her readers out of the present to give them more insight into who they are and how they live... A meditative, poetic journey ... --Stacey May Fowles, The Globe & Mail One of the reasons for the popularity of Schoemperlen's inventive work ... is that she seems to be having so much fun creating it. ... Schoemperlen wants us to consider the randomness, absurdity, and militant certainties not only of another era's texts and images but of our own. --The Toronto Star The stories are illustrated by beautiful, hand-assembled visual collages ... [which add] a levity of spirit that would be missing if the book were nothing but text ... By the Book contains rewards aplenty for the reader adventurous enough to engage it on its own unique terms. --Winnipeg Review By the Book is a witty, imaginative, and sometimes whimsical journey through words and pictures. --This Magazine Strangely appealing ... an extremely clever and often graceful collection that rewards the curious reader. --Kirkus Reviews Charming and cool ... Schoemperlen's re-mixed antique illustrations delight the eye, and yet also provoke laughter, close study, and further examination ... By The Book is unusual, witty, and whimsical. Add to that the high production value of the volume itself ... and you have a terrific gift for a book, art, or ephemera lover. --Fine Books & Collections Magazine Praise for Diane Schoemperlen Beautifully written and brimming with complexity. --Boston Globe One of the most charming novels you're likely to read this year. --New Orleans Times-Picayune A book about believing in something bigger than oneself and putting faith in what we can't fully know ... a look at the search for meaning. --Philadelphia Inquirer A thoughtful and intelligent writer. Readers who enjoy unconventional fiction will find food for thought here. --Publishers Weekly Highly intelligent and unique. --Library Journal A holy hoot. --Elle

Praise for By The Book Strangely appealing ... an extremely clever and often graceful collection that rewards the curious reader. --Kirkus Reviews Praise for Diane Schoemperlen Beautifully written and brimming with complexity. --Boston Globe One of the most charming novels you're likely to read this year. --New Orleans Times-Picayune A book about believing in something bigger than oneself and putting faith in what we can't fully know ... a look at the search for meaning. --Philadelphia Inquirer A thoughtful and intelligent writer. Readers who enjoy unconventional fiction will find food for thought here. --Publishers Weekly Highly intelligent and unique. --Library Journal A holy hoot. --Elle

Author Information

Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Diane Schoemperlen has published several collections of short fiction and three novels, In the Language of Love (1994), Our Lady of the Lost and Found (2001), and At A Loss For Words (2008). Her 1990 collection, The Man of My Dreams, was shortlisted for both the Governor-General's Award and the Trillium. Her collection, Forms of Devotion: Stories and Pictures won the 1998 Governor-General's Award for English Fiction. In 2008, she received the Marian Engel Award from the Writers' Trust of Canada. In 2012, she was Writer-in-Residence at Queen's University. She lives in Kingston, Ontario.

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