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The Singing Fish by Peter Markus

corpuslibris's review against another edition

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5.0

Another really interesting Calamari book that is hard to describe, but here's my attempt:

Imagine that Faulkner's Vardaman (from As I Lay Dying) grew up to become a character in a Beckett play, and that might come close to what the narrator's voice is like.

And something about its cyclical nature and the repetition reminds me of a sestina. Can one write a sestina novella? It seems perhaps Peter Markus has.

Shelftalker: "This book has been haunting me in the best way -- its rhythms get stuck in my head like a song. It's lyrical. It's broad like a myth, but visceral. And cyclical and repetitious, like a sestina, like a villanelle. Imagine Faulkner's Vardaman, now a teen with a twin, still beating away at that old fish."
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