A brilliant comedy in the form of letters exchanged between a husband, living in Miami of the not-too-distant future, and a wife, living in Italy of a not-too-remote past, as they try to trace the whereabouts of a treasure supposedly lost off the coast of Florida in the 16th century.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Glimmung
Format:Paperback
Zachary McCaltex, a Miami librarian, corresponds with his new Southeast Asian wife, Twang Panattapam in Rome, as they search for clues to the whereabouts of a sixteenth-century treasure ship wrecked off the coast of Florida...but this brief synopsis tells you nothing very useful about The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium. It's an odd novel, first published in 1971, and the more you think about it, the odder it becomes. Mathews writes to arbitrary (and unknown) constraints in the manner of Raymond Roussel, so that could lead us anywhere. Communication is a big problem: Twang's English is rudimentary (it gradually improves) and her own language Pan is obtuse ("Weï weï lemö slop. Wo-woe the mysyry of love, we say. But it has no so bad a soun be-cause weï is "a-las" and "sadness", OK, but all-so "to-laugh") whilst Zachary has a knack for misinterpreting almost everything he sees. The letters tell of secret societies, Italian Renaissance plots, a fantasy carnival, con-men and grifter slang...with a possibly revelatory index at the end. As Twang says "Hwat is to-persieve and to-think?" Personally, I have no idea hwat to-think...but no matter. The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium is a wonderfully strange novel that deserves to mystify more people.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.5 out of 5 stars
4 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inventive Fiction at its Best
1 April 2009
By Sturmey Archer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
In a sense, society can be considered the connections between individuals, instead of the individuals themselves. This book explores one such connection, in the form of a series of letters between a married couple. Their connection is exposed as a frail and tenuous thing, buffeted by confusion, frustration, and yearning. Make no mistake though, this is not simply a novel about a relationship. This is avant garde literature of the highest rank. Mathews' wordplay is exceptional and he spins tales, in turn tragic and comic, in and out of the main narrative. The plot is less an arc than a contrail, tightly focused at one end and disturbingly hazy at the other. This is an exceptional novel for lovers of language who like their fiction unconventional. Also, I give Mathews high marks for one of the most imaginative uses of a title for a novel I've ever encountered.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
fun, intelligent... and a great read
9 Jun 2004
By picotheman
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Probably the only work ever to use the title as a major plot point/punchline (and a damned effective one, at that), Mathews' novel turns the epistolary genre on its head, with a bizarre love story cum treasure hunt, all wrapped into a tight package of slapstick comedy, mystery, history, culture, and linguistic peculiarities.
For those of you unfamiliar with Mathews' work, he's a member of the Oulipo, a group (or groups) of writers, mathematicians, poets, painters, etc., etc. - who both rescue stylistic constraints from the past and create new ones of their own. So you can always expect that their works will be impeccable structured, rich in detail, language play, and erudition. On top of that, at least one of the characters (Twang) is beautifully written, with a wealth of puns and a generous heap of charm.
There are two minor concerns with the novel that forced me to downgrade it to 4 stars, instead of a perfect five. The first is that the big plot twist, while necessary to set up the game of gross misjudgments in the second half of the novel, comes across as a bit contrived. The second is that the style, while often flexible, fascinating, and outright hilarious, is sometimes uneven - there's none of the assuredness in his writing that you'd find in Cigarettes, for example.
Still, a great read, and highly highly recommended. I wish Mathews and the Oulipo gang were more widely read.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Erudite and unusual
15 Sep 2002
By noleander
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This novel is about a man and woman hunting for sunken treasure of gold. The style is a bit abstruse and intellectual, and is not intented for mass audiences. Yet if you pay attention and are persistent, you will find lots of witty lines and some rather poetic phrasings. It is a very unusual book ... the best comparisons I can think of are Fowles' "The Magus" or Umberto Eco's stuff. And maybe John Barth. Stick with it, the ending will surprise you.
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3.5 out of 5 stars
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