Reach

By Don Bajema

Published by Henry Rollins This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1880985195
• ISBN13: 9781880985199
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: 2 13 61
• Length: 148 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Capitolism, osmosis, and the desire to find the meaning

"Why osmosis?" Is the simple question poised at the beginning "Reach," a spellbindingly off-kilter questioning of man's desire of language that ranks as a Stephen Jay Gould-level entry into the forum of critical research. Why is osmosis called such, and why do we feel the need to give these things a name at all? A deep, insightful study follows, including a grand deconstruction of the history of language and its uses. It caused me to make an attempt to abandon language entirely for a day (as discussed in Ch. 6) in order to see what the common reaction around me was. That experience and this book have taught me to appreciate language in an entirely new light. The only (minor) quibble I have is the seemingly gratuitious tale two-thirds of the way through concerning Eggers' experience with a wandering chipmunk who began to respond to the name of "Buddy Hackett." It's a rather pointless (and, at 22 pages, overlong) story that doesn't fit in at all in the context of the rest of the book.

An enchanting pathological voyage

This compendium of lore resulted from an enormous collaborative project between many Buddhist scholars between 1989 and 1999, and it is a unique archive of the post-sixties development of one particular literary aesthetic. The best word-bite description I can think of is "Burmese Tantric Journey," but this fails to reflect the ghostly and eclectic quality which persists throughout the stories. Such devices as hyperbole, double-entendre, Iambic Pentameter, onomonapizza, and hubris interact with a wide range of voices and Egger's honey-tipped pen stylus to create a dozen widely varying yet unified short stories which seem to relate a tale that can't quite be comprehended by the conscious mind. Youth, death, charity, ancient grief, and eternal play are themes that these characters have developed over their years of collaboration. A few of the stories are quasi-epic poems in an almost cryptic and disguised traditional sense, but their placement within the context of the book gives them the feel of recently discovered treasure- a trove of gold and emeralds and mother-of-pearl encrusted cutlasses found in an old treasure chest (kind of like the Shah's gift of an emerald encrusted dagger to the Emir of Iraq in 1933), inspected with curiosity and reverence, and returned to history. The less traditional stories read like harbingers of despair bound to evoke memories in the next millenium. They work together to produce a body of wit with charm, breadth, and playfulness. The most impressive feature of "Reach," though, is that it responds well to any depth of attention - it will complement Yothic studies and Aranyaprathet adventures equally well.

EGGERS HAS HAND

Editor savant and New York media darling David Eggers caused many a ripple with his hip quarterly McSweeney's, and Eggers' neo-ironic memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is shaking the book world. Now his early brilliance is unearthed in this haunting work from Eggers' earlier and less famous years.As regular McSweeney's readers know, Eggers has quietly entertained a second career as an iconoclastic designer and illustrator whose technically attentive if curious drawings adorn every page of the McSweeney's website, and presumably the printed version as well, which is yet unavailable for preview by me. Eggers' stark, assured line is all too evident in his bewitching cover illustration for Don Bajema's 1996 novel REACH. While that title couldn't have given Eggers much to work with, he admirably rose to the task, providing a drawing of a hand which does nothing but reach, a second hand dramatically grasping the wrist of the first. The angry beauty of Eggers' hand inexorably makes one curious as to the tome's contents, and yet halts any potential interest in what might lie beyond the edges of the cover. Apparently produced shortly after the collapse of Eggers' satirical bimonthly Might, the cover for REACH encompasses something of a schizoid period in Eggers' evolution as an artistic maverick, and accounts for much of the dramatic style changes that marked his renewed splash with McSweeney's. Are there more lost masterpieces to be found from Eggers' formative decade? Indications are uncertain, and Eggers isn't telling. Regardless, REACH (the cover) will be remembered as one of the most compelling fiction cover designs of the '90s, destined to endure into the Oughts and beyond as an utterly indispensible apocrypha in the David Eggers canon.

STUNNING

Don Bajema's Reach is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. Protagonist Eddie Burnett is depicted in raw and emotive detail. Nothing is held back. Like all great art, this book stands on its own and too much analsys is a disservice. It must be read and experienced. The publisher's website has excerpts of this book (and many other fine writings) avaialable for reading to sample Bajema's unforgettable prose.

Gloriously Refreshing

Not since John Fante has a man single handedly described the exact definition of existentialism while making it interesting. The overall draw of his individualized description is like a tractor beam. It will draw the reader in and never let go. There are so many subjects that he talks about in this book, that it would be way too much to list them here. He can give you feelings of horror, surprise, laughter, anguish, and amazment all in a few pages. A masterpiece.