Hallucinating Foucault

by Patricia Duncker

Book Overview

No work of fiction has explored the undercurrents of love between a writer and a reader as seductively as Hallucinating Foucault, a breathtaking literary debut. One of the best novels of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375701850
• ISBN13: 9780375701856
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Vintage Books USA
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

An Academic Novel for Romantic Post-Structuralists

I sat down to read _Hallucinating Foucault_ one sleepy evening and became to engrossed I could not stop reading until I finished a couple energizing hours later. Duncker makes my brain work. She brilliantly brings forth the human side of late twentieth century post-structural philosophy and post-modern literature, binding the reader into a love triangle that's both solid and ethereal. What does the reader bring to the text? What sort of relationship does the reader have with the writer? What happens if the reader really does go to seek the author--who isn't dead after all--and blends his intellectual dream with "reality"? As a doctoral student, my favorite thing about this book is that the plot has the best possible happy ending--the protag. finishes his diss. and gets a job!! This is better than Byatt's _Possession_ and up there with Winterson's _The Passion_ for me.

Thought Provoking, Refreshing and quite Enjoyable

A beautifully refreshing and creative work of art. Duncker challenges the status quo using fictitious characters struggling with real issues and societal constraints on love, creativity, and uniqueness. Duncker points out that insanity is perceived as anything that strays outside of societal norms. She also manages to make it very clear that stepping outside of societal norms is necessary to portray a more complete view of what is . . . its the diverse thought, experiences and perceptions of the whole of society that gets us closer to the truth of our collective reality. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the reader/writer relationship is portrayed in the novel. I finished this book believing that any writer worth the ink in his typewriter should hold the relationship with his reader in the highest regard and adoration. In doing so, the reader makes the writer accountable for producing work that will strengthen and glorify the relationship; forcing the writer to write from the heart and soul . . . .the center of any successful relationship.

Writer and Read- Classic(?) Love Story

Many novels can hold a reader but very few, the great rare ones, can keep the reader enthralled, fascinated, and eager for every succeeding page. This is one of those rare, beautiful works that restores faith in the power of the novel, the subtle, beguiling beauty of fiction, and confidence that amid the trash being published, there are wonderful, creative new writers. While Michel Foucault, the great French writer and philosopher, is in the title of this book, it is more about the person reading it than about anyone else. Duncker explains the relationship between the writer and the reader so clearly that she also expresses it through her own creative relationship with the person who is reading her work. Hallucinating Foucault shows how a novel can be written simply and clearly while being deeply felt, philosophical, and astounding all at the same time. A wonderful, gorgeous, meaningful book that lingers in the memory long after the final page is turned and the last pieces of the puzzle- and the puzzle here is much more intriguing than those in most of other novels that rely on puzzles- are fit perfectly in place. The title may be somewhat intimidating but from the very first page, Duncker wraps the Reader in prose that makes her book almost impossible to put down.