Kathleen Spivack

Unspeakable Things is a haunting tale of the depth of depravity humans are capable of enduring and sustaining within as told through a tale that centers on a group immigrants who fled to NYC in the 1940's from Europe during WWII and the ugly, unspeakable thoughts and acts that define them. They have brought all of the unspeakable things with them, carrying them knowingly and involuntarily into their place of freedom. The irony of this book is essential - speaking so graphically, loudly, and in such detailed, beautiful prose about the unspeakable things humans harbor in their hearts, minds, and soul, how humans act and fail to act upon while believing they are doing so to protect or promote a common or their own individual humanity - and rife throughout this masterpiece.

I was wrecked for days after reading this book. Staring at such harsh, undigestible truths; witnessing each of the innumerable dark, deeply disturbing acts; I was laid bare, vulnerable, bereft. And that, my fellow readers, is a hallmark of the very best kind of book.
… (plus d'informations)

I requested this book from Netgalley in part because the author's name reminded me of my Calculus textbook. Where is my Calculus textbook? In Geoff's office maybe? I'm sure there are worse reasons for requesting a book.

So target="_top">Unspeakable Things, a book which has a Nazi transvestite pedophile mad-scientist masturbating to a picture of Adolf Hitler. I'd put that as the byline if I were the publisher: Read a description of a Nazi transvestite pedophile mad-scientist masturbating to a picture of Adolf Hitler! Limited time only!

There are musicians in this book and, as I read, I thought of the word fantaisie, as a musical term rather than a description of something unreal with dwarves and hobbits and lines and lines of italicized poetry. A fantaisie eschews the rules of strict musical form, like Marc Chagall as a symphony. I think Unspeakable Things was written to be like a word fantasie, a novel by a painting by Marc Chagall. Time, physics, consequences, logic be damned. The Gypsy King meets with one who may be the Grand Vizier of the Freemasons in the New York Public library to plea the case for his people. This is the sort of nonsense (not derogatory, just literally outside the realm of sense) Unspeakable Things engages in.

Did I like it? I don't know.

Is it well written? I don't know.

When one exists in a fantastical space, what rules of criticism apply?

I don't know.

Unspeakable Things by Kathleen Spivack went on sale January 26, 2016.

I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.… (plus d'informations)

Much has been made of the "unspeakable things" in this novel and yes, there is a doctor who abuses not only children but their mothers and all remain silent. Beyond that very clear story line, the rest of Unspeakable Things is simply too muddled to keep my attention. Musicians who believe their instruments to be alive and hold them more dear than they do their wives? A wife driven insane because? Spivack takes obliqueness to new levels. I don't need graphic depictions of horror, not at all, but I need to understand what an author is trying to say through their words and this is far too difficult in Unspeakable Things. Instead, things move at a sludge-y pace so that by 3/4 I had lost interest in whatever was being conveyed.… (plus d'informations)