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Eunoia (Hardcover)

by Christian Bok (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 112 pages
  • Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd (6 Nov 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1847672396
  • ISBN-13: 978-1847672391
  • Product Dimensions: 20 x 13 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 68,481 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
"* 'Extraordinary, outrageous, irresistible - a must for verbivores.' - Gyles Brandreth * 'Amazing... impressive... It's beautiful, its funny and it's moving.' - Globe and Mail"

Product Description
'Eunoia', which means 'beautiful thinking', is the shortest word in the English language to contain all five vowels. This book also contains them all, but never at the same time. Each of "Eunoia's" five chapters is univocalic: that is, each chapter uses only one vowel. A triumphant feat, seven years in the making, this uncanny work of avant-garde literature is one of the most surprising and awe-inspiring books of the year. A challenging feat of composition and technical skill, Bok has worked this into a series of compelling narratives and rhythms.

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful thinking, fantastic engineering!, 30 Mar 2003
This review is from: Eunoia (Paperback)
Christian Bok is certainly a genius. There is simply no doubting his incredible patience and skill in putting together a technically, structurally sound piece of poetic prose.

But good grief! Was this ever a difficult book to read! Initially anyway. And then you get used to the sheer brilliance of the man and you feel compelled to read it all the way through because perversely (or maybe that's just me) you want to see for yourself that he really has done it. He really has created a poetic piece of art.

Yes there is a story and yes there are mirthful moments but really, at the end of it, you are really just shell-shocked with the literature.

Each chapter is a dedication (for want of a better word) to a specific vowel (in alphabetical order of course) and within that chapter, every single word used has the vowel in it. Yes. Every Single Word. There are slightly more random thoughts towards the end but only after all the vowels have been done.

It took Mr. Bok seven years to complete it. I am surprised it only took him seven years...

However, I feel that emotion was sacrificed for the sake of technical structure and whilst I enjoyed reading it - for the art and engineering of the language - it probably isn't going to be one of those "must read again" books.

I would definitely recommend a first read - or at least a look - at this technical marvel. But please do not expect to find anything close to metaphysical emotion or mythical metaphor.
It does not touch your soul but it certainly makes you smile!

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Vowels and more vowels - and with character!, 29 Jan 2009
By Jaywalker (Hampshire, England) - See all my reviews
This is a quirky book - a good present for anyone with an interest in Language, because each chapter concentrates on using one vowel only. It's quite some achievement to find words which hang together, all containing only the letter A, for example. It's also extraordinary how each vowel gives its own flavour and character to a word, some being geared up for action and others for more lyrical prose. It's also a very pleasingly presented book, something that book lovers would enjoy receiving. (A must for teachers wanting to show something interesting to A Level Language and Literature students!)
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12 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars So clean you can see yourself!, 14 Dec 2005
By Ken Fox (Winnipeg, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Eunoia (Paperback)
I moved toward the rubbish & filth of burroughs’ naked lunch because I knew I could never be so clean as Christian’s Crystallography … that book of ice that so ignited my poet’s jealousy … so I do dirty …

Eunoia. Many books of poetry have used five different vowels, but never so ruthlessly segregated and whipped into slavish servitude! This is tasty & perverse, even if its perversity is undermined by an overenthusiastic apartheid regime that extends from vowels and into the images themselves: he groups like-things neatly in their own categorical cages (backpacks, knapsacks and packsacks) rather than tossing them in a deep surrealist pit, stashing or cramming them up the auger of a common combine. It can be annoying.

Then he relates his story-motif substructures as “limitations” in his end-of-book explanations, depriving his readers the joy of independently discovering the cross-chapter commonalities of voyage, splurge, debauch & purge he maliciously subjects his letters & characters to. Pooh on that!

The obsession of method overtaxes its matter. Bok has beaten his letters into over-obedience, into flawlessness, converted the vilest acts of verbal perversion into such such functional transparency, such cleanliness.

Nevertheless, every vowel in this book deserves a full star – and the biggest one goes to e!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting idea
Love the idea of this - hard going to actually read it, but certainly fascinating.
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