What's memorable is less the sex and the sex toys (including the "Monasticon," in the shape of a monk holding a vibrating manuscript) than Arno's wistful recollections of intimacy: the noise, for instance, of his ex-girlfriend's nail clipper, "which I listened to in bed as some listen to real birdsong." Like Baker's other books, The Fermata gains little from synopsis. Anyone who can stop time and refer in self-delight to his "chronanisms" can't be all bad! Arno uses this gift not for evil or material gain (he would feel guilty about stealing), though he does undress a good number of women and momentarily place them in compromising positions - always, in his view, with respect and love. His "Fold-powers" are easier he can stop the world and use it as his own pleasure ground. His narrator, Arno Strine, is a 35-year-old office temp who is writing his autobiography. The Fermata is the most risky of Nicholson Baker's emotional histories.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |