Zalman Shneour – A Death: Notes of a Suicide
Out of stock
$16.00
In a Yiddish take on Notes from Underground, a dark love affair develops in an unnamed Eastern European city between the young, impoverished, violently self-loathing teacher, Shloyme―and a hungry, spiteful and unsettlingly sensual revolver. Ostensibly purchased to protect Shloyme from the pogroms sweeping the empire, the weapon instead opens a portal to his innermost demons, and through it he begins his methodical mission to eradicate any remnants of life and humanity in him and pave the way for his self-destruction. A Death takes the form of a diary that follows the Jewish calendar.
Written in Yiddish in 1905 and published with immediate success in Warsaw in 1909, A Death utilizes the influences of Dostoyevsky and Schopenhauer to depict a distinctly Jewish experience of uprooted modernity, and presents a lesser-known strand of Jewish decadent literature. This translation of his inaugural novel is Schneour’s first appearance in English since 1963. Its exploration of alienation, mental health, toxic masculinity and violence is remarkably contemporary.
Born in Shklow, Zalman Shneour (1887–1959) was one of the major figures of Jewish modernity, and was the most popular Yiddish writer between the World Wars. He wrote poetry, prose and plays in both Yiddish and Hebrew. Like many of his generation, his life was spent moving from city to city in search of literary community or escaping political turmoil: from Odessa to Warsaw to Vilne, and on to such Western cities as Bern, Geneva, Berlin, Paris, New York (where he died) and Tel Aviv (where he is buried).
Related products
-
Smokey Robinson Promo Photo
$5.00 | Print, Photo Add to cart8″x10″
GENRE: -
Luther Ingram Promo Photo [Stax Vest]
$8.00 | Print, Photo Add to cart8″x10″
GENRE: -
Jay Robert Nash – Bloodletters & Bad Men
$5.00 | Print, Book Add to cartWarner Books A narrative encyclopedia of American criminals from the pilgrims to the present. Good with noticeable shelf and spinewear along stains on front cover
GENRE: True Crime -
Earl Hines Promo Photo
$5.00 | Print, Photo Add to cart8″x10″
GENRE: -
Personal Best Issue 8
$16.00 | Print, Magazine Add to cartFinally here from Lasse Marhaug: Personal Best 8. My favorite zine around. Always a worldwide affair, a zine that felt familiar to me the first time I picked up a […]
GENRE: Experimental / Noise, Industrial / Power Electronics -
Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Promo Photo
$5.00 | Print, Photo Add to cart8″x10″
GENRE:
MORE FROM Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive VIEW ALL
-
Marguerite Young – Miss Macintosh, My Darling
$28.00 | Book, Print Add to cartThis novel is one of the most ambitious and remarkable literary achievements of our time. It is a picaresque, psychological novel—a novel of the road, a journey or voyage of […]
GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive -
Denis Johnson – Angels
$17.00 | Book, Print Add to cartThe most critically acclaimed, and first, of Denis Johnson’s novels, Angels puts Jamie Mays–a runaway wife toting along two kids–and Bill Houston–ex-Navy man, ex-husband, [...]
GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive -
The Wire – #463 September 2022
$10.00 | Magazine, Print Add to cartOn the cover… Neu! + 50 Years Of Motorik A special cover feature on the motorik rock originators Neu! to mark half a century since their game-changing debut album. This […]
GENRE: Art Rock / Krautrock / Prog / Psych, Experimental / Noise, Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive -
Intermedia, Fluxus and the Something Else Press: Selected Writings by Dick Higgins
$35.00 | Book, Print Add to cartWhat our staff has to say: “Fun book on one of the centers of the Fluxus movement. At the very least the one who helped create a written documentation of […]
GENRE: Art/Photography, Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive -
Harry Sword – Monolithic Undertow
$20.00 | Book, Print Add to cartMonolithic Undertow alights a crooked path across musical, religious and subcultural frontiers. It traces the line from ancient traditions to the modern underground, navigating archaeoacoustics, [...]
GENRE: Art Rock / Krautrock / Prog / Psych, Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive, Metal -
William T Vollmann – Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means
$17.00 | Book, Print Add to cartTwenty-three years in the making, Rising Up and Rising Down (the original, published by McSweeney’s in October 2003, spans seven volumes) is a rich amalgam of historical analysis, [...]
GENRE: Fiction/Poetry/Essays/Criticism/Transgressive