The speech of children has mutated into a virus which is killing their parents. At first it only affects Jews-then everyone. Living quietly in the suburbs, Sam and Claire's lives are threatened when their daughter, Esther, is infected with the disease. Each word she speaks - whether cruel or kind, banal or loving - is toxic to Sam and Claire. Radio transmissions from strange sources indicate that people across the country are growing increasingly alarmed. But all Sam needs to do is look around the neighborhood: in the park, parents wither beneath the powerful screams of their children. Claire is already stricken and near death. As the contagion spreads, Sam and Claire must leave Esther behind in order to survive. The government enforces quarantine zones, and return to their daughter becomes impossible. Having left his family and escaped from the afflicted cities, Sam finds himself in a government laboratory, where a group of hardened scientists are conducting horrific tests, hoping to create non-lethal speech. What follows is a nightmarish vision of a world which is both completely alien and frighteningly familiar, as Sam presses on alone into a society whose boundaries are fragmenting. Both morally engaged and wickedly entertaining, The Flame Alphabet begs the question: what is left of civilization when we lose the ability to communicate with those we love?
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A measure of the book's success is that it enforces not just a suspension of disbelief, but for a while total surrender of the faculty of reason ... The drama of parental obsolescence is sharply articulated, as is the condition of terrorised parental love --Guardian
An unforgettable experience. This is, quite simply, one of the most powerful works of fiction it has ever been my privilege to read ...
As I approached the final pages I felt tearful, nauseous, shivery, exhausted, terrified and short of breath ... It is a novel which has profound things to say about matters metaphysical but does so in a way that creates a physiological response ... The Flame Alphabet is a revelation and a castigation ... literature that makes sense of our age and will be read in ages to come --Scotsman
Ben Marcus s new novel is an eye-burning high-literary encounter with science fiction ... The Flame Alphabet is abuzz throughout with the kind of scorching prose that we d expect from such bona fide American literature hot stuff --Dazed & Confused
An unforgettable experience. This is, quite simply, one of the most powerful works of fiction it has ever been my privilege to read ...
As I approached the final pages I felt tearful, nauseous, shivery, exhausted, terrified and short of breath ... It is a novel which has profound things to say about matters metaphysical but does so in a way that creates a physiological response ... The Flame Alphabet is a revelation and a castigation ... literature that makes sense of our age and will be read in ages to come --Scotsman
Ben Marcus s new novel is an eye-burning high-literary encounter with science fiction ... The Flame Alphabet is abuzz throughout with the kind of scorching prose that we d expect from such bona fide American literature hot stuff --Dazed & Confused
About the Author
Ben Marcus is the author of three previous books; Notable American Women, The Father Costume, and The Age of Wire and String. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Believer, The New York Times, and McSweeney's. He has received a Whiting Writers Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in fiction, a grant for Innovative Literature from the Creative Capital Foundation and three Pushcart Prizes. He is an associate professor at Columbia University.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By Verve
Format:Hardcover
I like this writer, I like him a lot - so if you are also a fan you will find something in this - but if you are coming to Ben for the first time I recommend you to read his Notable American Women: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries Original) first - which offers far more and which sets out this guys stall in a way that will allow you to go with Flame here without giving up on him. This novel does however contain something of this guy's colossal literary talent and intelligence, and even something of his wit - and the premise of the first half sucks you in so hard and is so finely crafted it exaggerates the silent hiss of the somewhat disappointing second half. What to do? Give it a read, certainly worth it for the ideas alone - but I would check out his earlier work. I also recommend Jayne Joso's Perfect Architect.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
poetry concealed in a prose format with a compelling plot. Outstanding
16 May 2013
Format:Paperback
I am amazed by the talent of this man and am humbled by it. I am equally amazed that some rednecks here have the chutzpah to dismiss this work.
It has to be one of the best pieces of prose I have ever read.
Buy it. Support this guy. I got the book out of my library but I am going to stock up on his other work now.
It has to be one of the best pieces of prose I have ever read.
Buy it. Support this guy. I got the book out of my library but I am going to stock up on his other work now.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Peter Nunn
Format:Kindle Edition
Promising - but a let down - couldn't wait to finish - could have been brilliant but disappointing. Would not recommend
2 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By M. D. Holley
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Why the gratuitous overuse of f***ing in the most inappropriate places? Why the lurid description of his neighbour's toilet habits? Does Ben Marcus think creativity is directly proportional to the number of four letter words he can squeeze in, or to how obnoxious he can be? Does he think he's being 'cool'? Or is he maybe trying to demonstrate just how toxic words themselves can be (this at least would fit the plot)? I don't know, but whatever the motive it doesn't work, and comes across as juvenile, undisciplined and self indulgent.
Why the frequent little pieces of 'wisdom' thrown in, such as this priceless gem from page 240:
"... the noises a giant might make from his chest after he's been dealt his deathblow. One must fairly consider that all music is the sound a body makes as it comes to its pretty end." These additions have no purpose in the plot, do not illuminate anything about the characters. They may look incredibly intellectual at first glance but when you analyse them they are usually complete nonsense.
And why all the random irrelevant dead ends in the plot?
All this is such a pity and a missed opportunity, because the central idea of the novel is a stroke of genius, and there are one or two passages and images which I found absolutely riveting.
I found it quite a struggle to motivate myself to keep reading this book. I kept on because of the strength of that initial idea, and wanted to see what happened at the end. Suffice to say I was disappointed.
One to avoid.
Why the frequent little pieces of 'wisdom' thrown in, such as this priceless gem from page 240:
"... the noises a giant might make from his chest after he's been dealt his deathblow. One must fairly consider that all music is the sound a body makes as it comes to its pretty end." These additions have no purpose in the plot, do not illuminate anything about the characters. They may look incredibly intellectual at first glance but when you analyse them they are usually complete nonsense.
And why all the random irrelevant dead ends in the plot?
All this is such a pity and a missed opportunity, because the central idea of the novel is a stroke of genius, and there are one or two passages and images which I found absolutely riveting.
I found it quite a struggle to motivate myself to keep reading this book. I kept on because of the strength of that initial idea, and wanted to see what happened at the end. Suffice to say I was disappointed.
One to avoid.
0 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Experimental writer (The Age of Wire and String, ** but showed promise) essays genre with repellent results (this reader gave up at page 80) though not as repellent as the Lynchian(?) Eleanor Catton, whose The Rehearsal I bore with for all of ten pages (shudder). As a US reviewer commented, he doesn't understand plot - well, talk of plot in isolation and before you know it you find yourself in rather tenuous Jeffrey Archer territory, but one needs at least a feel for narrative tension - or, put another way, some care for readerly feelings. (Or are these writers addressing a readership grown jaded by exposure to too many crass movies*, who are in effect inviting repulsion?) Was it him or Catton, though, who wrote 'regarded' when they meant 'looked at'? Affected? Them?
* Old man's counsel: one movie, one book. But the horse has bolted
* Old man's counsel: one movie, one book. But the horse has bolted
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