Quatre Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus
by Søren Gauger

Description

A slim volume of story-telling delights. From the Foreword: “Søren Gauger’s stories are metaphysically contoured against his protagonists, so that when they try to gain a foothold, they always slip: it is this contour of entrapment that makes Gauger’s universe so engaging; a universe that seems to be contracting rather than expanding, as elements soar inward. These are comedies of custom and trauma, of hollow reproductions of ritual without origin, set in a universe on the brink of imploding.” (T. Raphael Rivlin, Montreal)

Comments:

“The contents [of this book] are intensely cerebral, à la Beckett, and sometimes seem to verge on the autistic. I enjoy the way Gauger slips in and out of internal monologue, the slippery punctuation he uses to this end.” (Marc Kipniss)

“Søren’s work is intelligent, concerned with narrative devices and ontological matters dear to me. “Water-marks” would certainly have pleased Borges. The prose is appropriately dry and measured, with ascensions of lyricism whose contrapuntal effect is to broaden the subject, suddenly, into metaphysical realms, and to provide a human dimension to the argument.” (Norman Lock)

Excerpt:

(from “Water-marks”)

The River S. flows like no other. From one point, a V-shaped yawn where the land adjoins the ocean, to the other, a circular basin dotted with the snowy backs of swans adrift, the river is a perpetual intercourse of swift movement… for the river, movement is capital. At a certain place along the glittering trail of this river, which has been praised by a historical assembly of artists and statesmen, and not in order to suit patriotic designs, as premiere among rivers in terms of vigour and robustness, at this certain place, which may seem no more than an arbitrary dappling of huts and a single main street on which wild dogs prowl at all times, at exactly this place the river curves slightly. Naturally, an abundance of theories have cropped up as to why the river should twist at this spot precisely and not at any other during its inexhaustable journey, indeed the hydro-riddle can be said to have opened the flood-gates for such a wealth of discussion that it might more properly be considered a field of inquiry unto itself.