Getting It in the Head: Stories
(Sprache: Englisch)
The acclaimed debut from the author of Booker-listed Solar Bones is a dark, uncanny collection of stunning breadth and audacity.
In this gothic, virtuoso debut collection, Mike McCormack dispenses nightmares both stylish and macabre. A Is for Ax...
In this gothic, virtuoso debut collection, Mike McCormack dispenses nightmares both stylish and macabre. A Is for Ax...
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The acclaimed debut from the author of Booker-listed Solar Bones is a dark, uncanny collection of stunning breadth and audacity.In this gothic, virtuoso debut collection, Mike McCormack dispenses nightmares both stylish and macabre. A Is for Ax offers an alphabetized account of the killing of a parent, while the title story tracks a chilling sibling rivalry. Others tell of a quiz on the road to Calvary, a door-to-door saleswoman trafficking in strange and menacing feats, and a self-mutilating artist pushing himself to the limit. These sly and dangerous stories, balanced on a knife s edge between life and death, showcase a young writer s mastery of wicked formal play.
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The Gospel of Knives When I opened the door and saw her standing there like an effigy, draped from head to toe in some fashion paraphrase of a chador, my mind flamed with a single, sordid thought: I wanted to get down on my knees before her in that sweetest of all acts of sexual worship and lick her out good and proper. I could see from her face the swarthy skin, the too-even set of her teeth, the retroussé nose that this was a woman of pent-up desires and trammeled passions and I fancied that I was the man to rectify all that. I glowed with confidence. Here was easy meat and it was as much as I could do to stop a predatory grin from spreading over my own teeth. However, when I invited her into my room and she spread out her collection of knives on the table I knew that I had made one of the bigger mistakes of my young and now bitter life.
I m a seller of knives, she said needlessly, arranging the gleaming pieces on the table, and I m here to sell you one of these.
I swallowed heavily, eyeing the array of steel which had so quickly covered the table. I would never have guessed that there were so many variations on the single theme of the blade.
I m sorry, I stammered, but I ve got all the knives I need. I ve got a bread knife and a set of steak knives and a short blade for peeling. I live on my own, so you can see then that I m not exactly in the market for a new one.
No, she said quietly, I think if you look closely at the circumstances of your life you will find that there is ample room in it for one extra blade. No one s life is so complete that they can afford to do without one of these knives.
I thought you were selling encyclopedias or you were some kind of a Jehovah s Witness, I said plaintively.
No, I m a seller of knives. My work is to spread the Gospel of Knives because in the beginning
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was The Knife. All other versions are fiction. My job is to spread the redemptive word of The Knife. Answer me this, what is the greatest of man s inventions?
I suppose you re going to tell me it s the knife.
Of course, there is no other answer. Taken unawares, most people say it s the wheel or fire. But they are wrong because the knife is at the source of all. When man picked up his first knife and started cutting and sawing and slicing it was the opening moment of his humanity, the instant of his divinity. Now in all my years in this ministry I ve never met a man who did not need a knife. I ve met men who have denied God s word out of face and I ve met men who couldn t sign their name and they ve all managed without any noticeable handicap. But all these people were bound together by their need for knives. And do you know why? The simple answer is that it is impossible to go through life without cutting or slicing; it wouldn t be human. If I met a man who didn t need a knife I d just pack up my bags and walk away because it would be a sure sign that I had met someone who was less than human and a waste of words. But you re human, are you not?
Yes, I suppose so.
Well, then it follows that you need one of these knives, it s unavoidable.
I ve already told you that I m full up with knives.
Have you a lover?
Yes, I lied.
Good, becau
I suppose you re going to tell me it s the knife.
Of course, there is no other answer. Taken unawares, most people say it s the wheel or fire. But they are wrong because the knife is at the source of all. When man picked up his first knife and started cutting and sawing and slicing it was the opening moment of his humanity, the instant of his divinity. Now in all my years in this ministry I ve never met a man who did not need a knife. I ve met men who have denied God s word out of face and I ve met men who couldn t sign their name and they ve all managed without any noticeable handicap. But all these people were bound together by their need for knives. And do you know why? The simple answer is that it is impossible to go through life without cutting or slicing; it wouldn t be human. If I met a man who didn t need a knife I d just pack up my bags and walk away because it would be a sure sign that I had met someone who was less than human and a waste of words. But you re human, are you not?
Yes, I suppose so.
Well, then it follows that you need one of these knives, it s unavoidable.
I ve already told you that I m full up with knives.
Have you a lover?
Yes, I lied.
Good, becau
... weniger
Autoren-Porträt von Mike McCormack
Mike McCormack is an award-winning novelist and short story writer from County Mayo in Ireland. His previous work includes Forensic Songs; Notes from a Coma, which was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award; Crowe s Requiem; and Solar Bones, which was a Times (UK) Best Book of the Year, won the Goldsmiths Prize, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He lives in Galway.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Mike McCormack
- 2021, 272 Seiten, Maße: 13,8 x 20,8 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Soho Press
- ISBN-10: 1641292253
- ISBN-13: 9781641292252
- Erscheinungsdatum: 24.03.2021
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Praise for Getting It in the Head A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
Winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature
"Funny, fantastical tales that trample inventively on the toes of sanctimonious news media, provincial pride and the 20th century itself."
The New York Times Book Review
"Sharp as knives, mixing tongue-in-cheek bog Gothic with metaphysical flourishes and lashings of ultraviolence."
The Guardian
McCormack s first collection of short stories ranges from the west of Ireland to New York to Purgatory . . . A helpless howl of protest that presages not only the end of the [twentieth] century but the end of civilisation itself.
Times Literary Supplement
Remarkable, even at the most extreme moments.
The Irish Times
"There s no denying McCormack s knack for throwing a harsh light on some of life s grimmer corners. Disturbing, audacious work."
Kirkus Reviews
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