Pitch Dark (NYRB Classics)

Brilliantly written but marred by the openly racist passages, especially those in the middle section where Renata Adler changes the name of the protagonist to make it clear she is writing her own opinions. Céline too wrote a lot of racism but he kept it out of his greatest books.

An excursion into a profound mind, a non-linear chronology of the prismatic self. Beautiful. Six more words required. So, yes.

renata adler is an excellent writer just beautiful and lovely and shady like a dream. renata adler is really a national treasure. beats paulin kael anyday. not stuffy at all

The book came highly recommended, but fell very short for me; just not used to that style writing. Too confusing!

Brilliant writing, wonderfully jumbled narrative, although the parts of it cohere in the mind. Why can't people write like this anymore?

I had heard so much about Renata Adler’s books that there was no way I would not read them or at least one of them. So when “Pitch Dark” came my way, I knew I would love it. There are some books you just know you will enjoy no matter what and for me this is one of them. So you read what your instincts tell you will be a good book and you know that they will never lie. And with this belief I read “Pitch Dark” and loved Ms. Adler’s writing.“Pitch Dark” is a strange book, in the sense that it has one storyline but told in a non-linear fashion – completely fragmented and yet connects in one way or the other. The book is about a woman and her affair with a married man. I am putting it loosely but that’s what it is at the core. There is this melancholy element that runs throughout the book – of unrequited love without it becoming dramatic or sentimental. It is what it is. Adler’s writing is raw, almost like a tornado that hits you and all you want to do is run and yet stay.There are three sections to the book. The first one where Kate Ennis is told by her lover that he is leaving her or so it seems. Either way, they aren’t together. The second part of the book is on Kate taking off to Ireland and London to stay away and to get her life together and things go terribly wrong in those places as well. The third and final section is of her coming back and contemplating on getting back with her lover.There is a lot of angst in the book. There is a lot of pain and at the same time there are so many tender moments like that of a raccoon coming to its death in her house in the first chapter to her knowing that things will never be the same. Adler’s writing is sharp, witty and satirical. It is uneasy. It is also quite a surprise in most places but more than anything else it is a pleasurable read in so many places that time just flies by and you will not know when this book ended. I will most certainly reread it this year.

If you've read SPEEDBOAT and liked it , PITCH DARK will tempt you.However , you are likely to wonder , can she do it again ? The answer is no. I wouldn't describe Speedboat as a comic novel but much of it is very funny and it's crammed with sharp , perceptive observations.Pitch Dark is almost humorless( there are some funny moments in Ireland) and the novel is much more internal.In Speedboat, you do have a world outside the narrator , here barely.I also hate to say it, but the novel is whiny and gets boring.Like Speedboat ,it's not really a novel.It's a collage of fragments narrated by a woman who is clearly Adler.Adler's voice is so distinctive and brilliant that this novel justifies a reading but just barely.There is an afterword by one of my favorite writers , Muriel Spark, who seems more impressed by the book than is justified.

Renata Adler’s followup to Speedboat similarly expresses the nature of novelistic writing in its use of interiors; a difficult work in its non-linear explorations of consciousness. Depicting the unrequited love of Jane Ennis, who finds herself lost and stranded in Ireland, Adler takes us through a web of neurotic reflections. Like Speedboat, this book is more concerned with the frame then the picture, but unlike the former it fails to deliver the velocity and feeling.

Why did I read this to the end? Because Mommy told me to eat my vegetables. All of them. Even the tasteless turnips. Comparing this to turnips is doing the vegetable a disservice.

Interesting book. I was very pleased to add this to my book collection.It is well written and is in excellent condition.