Reviews

Enderby by Anthony Burgess

waltznn's review

3.0

Clever and tongue in cheek, "Enderby" was still difficult to get through. Though ultimately I was pleased with the book, it took me a few weeks to finish. Not much happens until he goes on the lamb, and even then it's mostly his thoughts that amuse as opposed to the actions he takes. Very slow going; definitely not one of my favorites from Burgess.

wastedyouth's review

This portrait of the artist as a gaseous poet begins with a series of hilarious vignettes of Enderby, who writes serious verse in his bathroom. Unable to relate to others by any measure of companionable social convention, Enderby involves himself in a strange transaction with a local cook (love poems delivered in a Cyrano-style agreement in exchange for the loan of a suit), finds himself the victim of minor street violence for his tart tongue and inability to present himself without antagonizing others. Though well-intentioned, the poet fumbles around, gets himself in deeper, marries a editrix/ice princess who tries to drag him back into the Roman church that he had rejected long ago, and finds himself in the hands of a therapist in a mental institution who “rehabilitates” the poetry out of the poet, leaving Enderby just another working stiff, albeit with a fecund vocabulary. After another mistaken foray into a troubled situation, he’s wrongly accused of murdering a pop star (who has plagiarized Enderby) and hides out in Tangiers, until he’s cleared by a nemesis and fellow writer (who has also plagiarized Enderby), and the poet is left alone to become reacquainted with his muse, who takes human and hottie form. This comedy on the transient nature of writerly gifts, the ease in which a man can lose his identity when he loses his muse, the larceny of minor artists, and the cold comforts of religious convention and what counts as acceptable behavior, is run through Burgess’s rich language and infinite wit. So many wonderful lines and moments. It gets bogged down a bit after Enderby goes on the run following the shooting, but it’s still great fun from beginning to end.