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| View Larger Image | The Fountains of Neptune (American Literature (Dalkey Archive))
by Rikki Ducornet
| | List Price: | $12.95 |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 1297449 | | Studio: | Dalkey Archive Press | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 224 | | Publication Date: | December 31, 1969 | | Publisher: | Dalkey Archive Press |
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CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 3 reviews)
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Gorgeous 
This is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. Ignore the rantings of the surrealist police -- Ducornet is an original, and this book is her best.
April 17, 2002 | |
involving in a potboiler sort of way, but not 'surrealism' 
rikki ducornet shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence as hp lovecraft or bruno schulz, and certainly not with any of the surrealists. her work is ridiculously self indulgent, trashy, self consciously politically correct, whimsical, and ultimately lacking in real merit. you'll probably get interested in the story, but it's the same kind of interested you get when reading tom clancy or some other ephemeral, pulp writer. this is the literary equivalent of watching television, and amounts to what i might call 'commodified counterculture'. ducornet loves preaching against racism, which would be fine up to a point, but every other page she's having one of her flimsy, cardboard characters go off on some tirade about how awful those racists are, and how bad what they do is, ho hum ho hum!! Racism is indeed despicable and absurd, but it seems at times that ducornet is forming her own kind of racism, an anti racism racism. her books are reactionary and they try too hard to be what everyone wants. it's like having someone jump up and down with a flag saying, "look! i'm a surrealist! isn't this just like surrealism?" i doubt that breton, artaud, desnos would consider rikki ducornet anything but a dogmatic groupie, spouting their slogans and trying ever so hard to be one of them, but failing miserably. this one is particularly absurd and centers around an elderly man who slipped into a coma and regains consciousness when he is 70 or older and, big surprise, the revolutionary doctor who woke him is constantly harassed and pursued by the Third Reich!! i agree theoretically with her liberalism, but she just doesn't do it right. i'm perfectly capable of enjoying the work of a poser, and have many authors i enjoy and even revere who are less than original and who are indeed mere echoes of the authors and artists they plagiarize, but ducornet cannot even strike a pose well andit comes off so clumsy and contrived that it is hilariously bad. this woman should be writing scripts for lifetime television movies or collaborating with danielle steele on her next travesty. if you want to lose yourself in a few pleasant little castles in the air, by all means, pick up something by her right away.if you want real surrealism, buy something by rene crevel, artaud, whatever.
November 13, 2001 | |
Trip to the subconcious
"The Fountains of Neptune" is a dream-like, dense anti-novel that uses dreams and myths to discuss the perception of history, memory, and loss. Like the novels of Jeanette Winterson, "Neptune" does not rely on standard plot structure. The basic story is two-fold: young Nicholas grows up in preWWI France, a precocious nine year old living a town of eccentric storytellers. A traumatic event causes him to go into a coma. He wakes up 50 years later, after both World Wars, having spent his life in dreams. The second part of the story concerns his relationship with his therapist, Dr. K, and her attempts to rebuild his memories. But it is Ducornet's unlimited imagination and gift for fabulation that is the true star here. Her images are sharp, eerie, humorous -- and always haunted. Ducornet leads us into the labyrinth of the subconsious -- complete with its demons, half-heard conversations, and golden memories -- but leaves no trail of twine or breadcrumbs to find our way out. Phantom ships, enchanted seascapes combined with idyllic countrysides and the philosophical world the Spa where Nicholas and Dr. K have their metaphysical relationship make this one labyrinth you won't want to leave -- Minotaurs or no
December 14, 1996 | |
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