Van Gogh's Room at Arles (American Literature (Dalkey Archive))

From Publishers Weekly Elkin portrays the rich and convoluted inner monologues of individuals constrained by physical, social and intellectual circumstances. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal In "Her Sense of Timing," a professor of political geography paralyzed by a "degenerative neurological disease" (obviously the multiple sclerosis that also affects Elkin) tries to host a party without the assistance of his wife, who has just left him. In the book's title story, an inept associate professor from an obscure community college finds himself at a scholarly retreat in Arles with some of the biggest names in academe (including a crippled geographer). Inexplicably, he has been assigned the most desirable accommodations: Van Gogh's old room. Sandwiched between these two classic Elkin works is a British tabloid parody, "Town Crier Exclusive, Confessions of a Princess Manque," clearly something of a technical exercise for an author who has built his reputation on his mastery of American idioms. This well-balanced collection stands as a worthy companion to Elkin's first three-novella set, Search es and Seizures. - Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. Fiction

The author of more than a dozen novels and short-story collections, Stanley Elkin is a master of tragicomedy. His rants, jokes, and characters leave readers torn between laughter and tears and nowhere is Elkin's sense of humor more manic or more depressing than in this collection of three novellas. "Her Sense of Timing" relates a destructive day in the life of a wheelchair-bound professor abandoned by his wife at the worst possible time, leaving him to preside—helplessly—over a party for his students that careens out of control. "Confessions of a Princess Manque" is the story of an unsuspecting commoner catapulted into royalty when she catches the wandering eye of Prince Larry of Wales. And in the title story, a community college professor searches for his scholarly identity in a land of academic giants while staying in Van Gogh's famous room at Arles and avoiding run-ins with the Club of the Portraits of the Descendants of the People Painted by Vincent Van Gogh.

Publishers Weekly

All three novellas in Elkin's ( The MacGuffin ) latest collection are occasionally funny, often painful and always beautifully written. As usual with this author's work, the plot is not really the point; his main concern is his protagonists' inner landscapes, conveyed in rich and convoluted monologues. The tales themselves are simple: a wheelchair-bound political geographer, deserted by his wife on the eve of his annual class party, tries to cope in ``Her Sense of Timing''; a commoner formerly engaged to the Crown Prince of England explains the circumstances of her morganatic relationship in `` Town Crier Exclusive, Confessions of a Manque: `How Royals Found me ``Unsuitable'' to Marry Their Larry,' ''; and in the title story, a teacher from Booth Tarkington Community College (BTCC), surrounded by the stars of academe at a foundation in Arles, searches for his intellectual bearings. The characters' musings are peppered with comic asides ranging from the political geographer's attempts to formulate an answering-machine message that will deter burglars to the BTCC professor's bungled French translations (``because Madame Celli had become invisible in the laundry two horses must begin to be''). In Elkin's hands, this trio's probings into (respectively) their physical, social and intellectual constraints are very human inquiries into the ever crotchety workings of fate. (Mar.)

The author of more than a dozen novels and short-story collections, Stanley Elkin is a master of tragicomedy. His rants, jokes, and characters leave readers torn between laughter and tears and nowhere is Elkin's sense of humor more manic or more depressing than in this collection of three novellas. "Her Sense of Timing" relates a destructive day in the life of a wheelchair-bound professor abandoned by his wife at the worst possible time, leaving him to preside -- helplessly -- over a party for his students that careens out of control. "Confessions of a Princess Manque" is the story of an unsuspecting commoner catapulted into royalty when she catches the wandering eye of Prince Larry of Wales. And in the title story, a community college professor searches for his scholarly identity in a land of academic giants while staying in Van Gogh's famous room at Arles and avoiding run-ins with the Club of the Portraits of the Descendants of the People Painted by Vincent Van Gogh. Three witty and poignant novellas from a twentieth-century literary master at the peak of his craft Van Gogh{u2019}s Room at Arles is Stanley Elkin{u2019}s second collection of novellas, a razor-sharp exploration of three characters suffering under the weight of intellectual, physical, and social burdens. In the collection{u2019}s title story, Elkin writes of an insecure professor{u2019}s scholarly retreat with the most accomplished members of his field. ?Her Sense of Timing? is a story of a man who, though confined to a wheelchair, attempts to throw a party without the help of his absent wife. And in ?Confessions of a Princess Manque,? Elkin writes of the Prince of Wales{u2019}s love affair with a common woman in a parody of a sensationalist tabloid story. This ebook features rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author{u2019}s estate and from the Stanley Elkin archives at Washington University in St. Louis In a trio of novellas, a wheelchair-bound professor presides over an out-of-control student party, the spurned fiance+a7e of the Prince of England pens her expose+a7 memoirs, and the winner of a foundation grant searches for his scholarly identity among his academic peers. Her sense of timing Town crier exclusive, confessions of a Princess Manqué: "How royals found me 'unsuitable' to marry their Larry" Van Gogh's room at Arles.