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allyens's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
nhcfriedman's review against another edition
2.0
"I read Dampfboot's novel although he had nothing to say. It wasn't rave, that volume; we regretted that. And it was hard to read, dry, bread-like pages that turned, and then fell, like a car burned by rioters and resting, wrong side up, at the edge of the picture plane with its tires smoking. Fragments kept flying off the screen into the audience, fragments of rain and ethics. Hubert wanted to go back to the dog races. But we made him read his part, the outer part where the author is praised and the price quoted. We like books that have a lot of dreck in them, matter which presents itself as not wholly relevant (or indeed, at all relevant) but which, carefully attended to, can supply a kind of 'sense' of what is going on. This 'sense' is not to be obtained by reading between the lines (for there is nothing there, in those white spaces) but by reading the lines themselves—looking at them and so arriving at a feeling not of satisfaction entirely, that is too much to expect, but of having read them, of having 'completed' them." (pp. 105–106)
This passage is more or less about Snow White itself, although it doesn't quite live up to Bartheleme's aspirations. In his later work he showed that this kind of everything-but-the-kitchen sink approach can form a coherent and even emotionally rich narrative, but at this point early in his career, he seems to be unable to sustain beyond the length of the very short stories for which he is best known.
This passage is more or less about Snow White itself, although it doesn't quite live up to Bartheleme's aspirations. In his later work he showed that this kind of everything-but-the-kitchen sink approach can form a coherent and even emotionally rich narrative, but at this point early in his career, he seems to be unable to sustain beyond the length of the very short stories for which he is best known.
chrischris's review against another edition
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I don’t get it
danmacha18's review against another edition
3.0
14th book of 2022
If you are looking for an accessible entry into literary postmodernism, look no further than Donald Barthelme’s Snow White, but look farther if you are far-sighted. Snow White is a jumble of words, phrases, lines, and perhaps meanings. And fun if you consider experimentation with language and fairy tales fun or I guess important. I’d read it again. I don’t know what to say, so I’m just going to include the many postmodern aspects of this text:
If you are looking for an accessible entry into literary postmodernism, look no further than Donald Barthelme’s Snow White, but look farther if you are far-sighted. Snow White is a jumble of words, phrases, lines, and perhaps meanings. And fun if you consider experimentation with language and fairy tales fun or I guess important. I’d read it again. I don’t know what to say, so I’m just going to include the many postmodern aspects of this text:
- Dan speculated that Bill’s reluctance to be touched is a physical manifestation of a metaphysical condition that is not anxiety
- “Oh I wish there were some words in the world that were not the words I always hear!” Snow White exclaimed loudly.
- Clean buildings fill your eyes with sunlight, and your heart with the idea that man is perfectible.
- When we sing the father hymn, we notice that he was not very interesting. The words of the hymn notice it. It is explicitly commented upon, in the text
- Each day just goes so fast, begins and ends
- Think what that means. It means that at any moment I can pierce your plenum with a single telephone call, simply by dialing 989-7777. You are correct, Mr. Quistgaard, in seeing this as a threatening situation. The moment I inject discourse from my universe of discourse into your universe of discourse, the yourness of yours is diluted.
- “I’ll just lean it up against your wall for a moment.” Paul leaned the new thing up against the wall for a moment.
- “I wanted to be great, once. But the moon for that was not in my sky, then. I had hoped to make a powerful statement. But there was no wind, no weeping. I had hoped to make a powerful statement, coupled with a moving plea. But there was no weeping, except, perhaps, concealed weeping.”
- “That is the way I have the situation figured out anyhow. That is my reading of it. That is the way it looks from where I stand”
- “Now, looking out over this green lawn, and these fine rosebushes, and the falling Dow-Jones index and the screams of the poor, I am concerned. I have many important things to worry about, but I worry about Bill and the boys too. Because I am the President. Finally. The President of the whole fucking country. And they are Americans. Bill, Hubert, Henry, Kevin, Edward, Clem, Dan, and Snow White. They are Americans. My Americans.”
- “I admire the way you are what you are, rocklike in your immutability. I also admire the way you use these Pontiac convertible seats for chairs in your house. But mine is uncomfortable. Only because I am glued into it with several pounds of epoxy glue.”
- “And with the very world itself, for not being able to supply a prince. For not being able to at least be civilized enough to supply the correct ending to the story.”
- He had a hair style that, I don’t know, some of you may not like.
stewreads's review against another edition
5.0
Bartheleme does things with language that most authors could never dream of, and he manages to be absolutely hilarious at the same time. This is my first time reading a novel of his, and having previously only read his short story collections, I was nervous that he wouldn’t be able to maintain his charm for an entire full-length book. This one absolutely puts my fears to rest; it was brilliant.
jannie_mtl's review against another edition
2.0
Too po-mo for me. Had to read wikipedia outline of Snow White to try to get a glimmer...
innae's review against another edition
1.0
WHAT THE HELL?? I have no idea where this story was going, or where it started, or how it pertains to the fairy tale of Snow White (other than she is a "character" in the story) -- there are "Characters" who randomly appear and disappear just as quickly -- there is no development of the characters we are supposed (maybe) to know about. I think this was written by an author who was on drugs, and I find it fairly reminiscent of A Scanner Darkly by Phillip K Dick -- which I didn't like either.