Mobile / Michel Butor ; introduction by John D'Agata ; translation by Richard Howard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Butor, Michel.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Howard, Richard, 1929-2022.

Standardized Title:

Mobile. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

United States--Fiction.

United States.

Genre:

Fiction.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

ix, 319 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

First Dalkey Archive edition.

Place of Publication:

[Normal, Ill.] : Dalkey Archive Press, 2004.

Summary:

Considered by many to be his greatest book, Michel Butor's Mobile is the result of the six months the author spent traveling across America. The text is composed from a wide range of materials, including city names, road signs, advertising slogans, catalog listings, newspaper accounts of the 1893 World's Fair, Native American writings, and the history of the "Freedomland" theme park. Butor weaves bits and pieces from these diverse sources into a collage resembling an abstract painting (the book is dedicated to Jackson Pollack) or a patchwork quilt that by turns is both humorous and quite disturbing. This "travelogue" captures--in both a textual and visual way--the energy and contradictions of American life and history.

Notes:

"Originally published in English by Simon and Schuster, 1963"--T.p. verso.

ISBN:

156478343X

OCLC:

53986996