April 29th was a Tuesday
Blurbology
I’m just about done reading Tom McCarthy’s Tintin and the Secret of Literature, which I picked up because I love Tintin, but whose back cover bears one of the most disconcertingly pleasant Gawker endorsements (in this case, for his novel Remainder) that I’ve ever read:
Tom McCarthy is shockingly talented… Remainder is one of those novels that you finish and turn immediately back to the beginning, to fill in the gaps you may have missed the first time around. It leaves you feeling sort of shaken and very impressed.
Of course, I had to go find this shaken, very impressed post. Kudos to the publisher for getting this quote down to its concise core, but the originals sell it even better (emphasis mine):
Young and British and (yes, this kills us) shockingly talented, McCarthy is the General Secretary of INS (International Necronautical Society), a semi-ficticous [sic] network with a semi-fictitious manifesto about death, which is kind of the ne plus ultra of pretension.ELLIPSE!
It shouldn’t work - it should, in fact, be insufferable - but Remainder is one of those novels that you finish and turn immediately back to the beginning, to fill in the gaps you may have missed the first time around. It leaves you feeling sort of shaken and very impressed. Still, conceptual artists are kind of twatty. Quit your day job, Tom.
I knew I could count on you, Gawker.
