Notes from a Bottle Found on the Beach at Carmel

by Evan S. Connell

Book Overview

Praise for Notes from a Bottle Found on the Beach at Carmel "A unique tour de force." --The New York Times Book Review "One of the most remarkable books that I have read in a long time." --Kenneth... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0880014075
• ISBN13: 9780880014076
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

The Fever Dream of History

This is one of those rare books I come back to again and again, every couple of years, to remind myself how harrowing, haunted and alive human history is. That seems to be one of the defining qualities of Connell's amazing work, in his fiction, essays AND poetry: the ability to illuminate, even bring to life, those dark corners of the remote past that would otherwise remain as obscure as undiscovered pottery shards. Unlike the other reviewers here, I've never been able to locate the thread of a plot in the book. The style is fragmented, wonderfully epigramatic, and is in a dozen or so different voices, some of them plain-spoken, some learned, some holy, many pushing the limits of sanity. The "notes" in the bottle don't come from one source, but seem to be drawn from countless forgotten sources. Codexes, conquest narratives, treatices on alchemy and the occult, the private thoughts of the long forgotten. I have no idea how much is invention and how much the fruit of research, but it doesn't matter. The effect of his style is like being lowered into a cavern of glittering artifacts; although rather than precious metal, these shards are made up of emotional and intellectual gold. One of my favorite, repeated (chanted?) phrases in the book has become a kind of motto for me -- almost impossible to live up to, but great to attempt: "Pass by that which you do not love." When I work up the nerve, I'll get it tattooed on my arm. In the meantime, it's tattooed on my mind ... as is the rest of this amazing work.

A masterpiece.

I can do no better than to quote what Annie Dillard, in Harper's magazine, wrote about this book: "It takes the form of a spiritual journey 'towards penance and redemption,' a journey through all the fabulous and fiery cruelties of history that purge the spirit's basest dross and purify it to gold. On the page it is a dazzling series of disparate chunks. These are the 'notes from the bottle' written in increasingly apocalyptic haste by the poem's speaker, or 'note-taker...' "The tone is merciless and meticulous; the alien landscapes are spare. ... "I cannot begin to suggest the intricate tensions of the poem's complexity. After you read it once, you can get lost on any page." After an equally glowing review of Connell's Points for a Compass, she writes: "These poems are masterpieces. You could bend a lifetime of energy to their study, and have lived well. The fabric of their meaning is seamless, inexhaustible. ... their language is steely and bladelike; from both of its surfaces flickering lights gleam. Each page sheds insight on every other page; understanding snaps back and forth, tacking like a sloop up the long fjord of mystery."

Haunting...

Connell chooses to start his Notes with an excerpt from Euripedes: "There be many shapes of mystery, And many things God makes to be, Past hope or fear. And the end men looked for Cometh not, And a path is there where no man sought. So hath it fallen here." It is difficult to describe the merits of this book. It is strange and wonderful and so unlike anything else I've read. It does become less convoluted, however , if you also read his book The Aztec Treasure House. A lot of the background information is made explanatory in that book. Here are the recurring motifs in the book...if you like them, then buy this book. "Things that remain and are not diminished by time are whichever live in men's hearts or have fallen or have been thrown into the sea." "To think deeply right now would terrify me." "Each life is a myth, a song given out of darkness, a tale for children, the legend we create. Are we not heroes, each of us in one fashion or another, wandering through mysterious labyrinths?"

from beginning to end

this book held me captive from begining to end. The first page he describes the death of his brother, pulled apart while chained to horses, sort of a medievel torture. The rest of the book follows his search for his brother, in a sort of "wandering mind", best described as rantings. (I am not a poetry critic nor will I ever pretend to be, so forgive the short descriptions)This is the first book of poetry I ever picked up since reading Homer and I am stuck now, looking for something or some author that can match the magnitude of how wonderful this one was.It reads as though you have entered his mind for this fascinating trip through a bit of lunacy and mind wandering. If you like th strange and surreal, you will love this one!