Publisher Spotlight Dalkey Archive Press: Review of The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am, by Kjersti A. Skomsvold

The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am by Kjersti A. Skomsvold. Published 2011 by Dalkey Archive Press. Literary Fiction. Translated from Norwegian by Kerri A. Pierce.

The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am is a unique, quirky little book narrated by an elderly widow who is trying to find her place in the world as she enters her golden years alone and poor. She and her husband were very close and had created a tight little nest over the years, just the two of them. Mathea Martinsen is an introvert to put it mildly but she wants desperately to reach out to those around her- she just doesn't know how to go about it. She wears a watch because she hopes someone will ask her the time, but they never do. She bakes pastry to bring to a tenants' association meeting but can't resist eating them. She reminisces about her married life. She watches what's left of her life pass by.

It sounds pretty bleak, and this book does take on some dark, serious themes about aging, loneliness and how society fails to provide resources for people in her situation. The narrative is made up of her observations and private thoughts; she's blunt and naive at the same time, with little idea of how she comes across to her audience. Of course in her mind there is no audience, just herself and her keepsakes. Some of Mathea's observations will make you laugh; some will make you sad, but none will leave you unaffected.

The right reader for The Faster I Walk is someone who will like an intensely character-driven, nearly plot-free narrative, an eccentric point of view and a bittersweet ending. Books like this one are the reason I love small presses. You just don't find this kind of voice from more mainstream sources. It's a really lovely little book, one of the most unusual and delightful novels I've come across in a while.

Rating: BUY

See other posts in this Publishers Spotlight series:

• Interview with Director John O'Brien,
• Review of The Truth About Marie, by Jean-Philippe Toussaint

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Dalkey Archive Press.

Publisher Spotlight Dalkey Archive Press: Review of The Truth About Marie, by Jean-Philippe Toussaint

The Truth About Marie, by Jean-Philippe Toussaint. Published 2010 by Dalkey Archive Press. Translated from the French by Matthew B. Smith.

The Truth About Marie is a short, dense little novel narrated by the former lover of the eponymous Marie, a beautiful woman whose lover dies in her apartment. The narrative follows Marie over several locations and times; the second part takes place before the first, and details the narrator's observations of Marie's relationship with her lover.

Later on, thinking back on the last few hours of that sweltering night, I realized we had made love at the same time Marie and I, but not with each other. At a certain moment in the night-during a sudden heat wave in Paris, for three straight days in the temperature reached thirty-eight centigrade and fell no lower than thirty- Marie and I were making love in Paris in two apartments a mere half mile apart, as the crow files. We couldn't have imagined at the night's start, or later, or at any time for that matter, it was simply inconceivable, that we'd see each other that night....

There is almost no plot; the story, as it is, is entirely about the narrator's fascination with and observations of Marie. There is virtually no dialogue; the book is like an extended interior monologue, with all of the repetitions and personal motifs you'd find in someone's inner thoughts. In the first part, the narrator fascinates over the fact that he and Marie were with their lovers at the same time, in the same building; he lingers over the details of her apartment, her actions but can't get the dead man's name right. The next part takes us to an art exhibition in Japan where Marie met her dead lover.

The last part is the most intense and moving, recounting a fire on the island of Elba, replete with detailed imagery and rhythmic, poetical language. Horses figure prominently in the story; Marie's lover is a racing aficionado and the fire at Elba consumes a stable. Light, real and metaphorical, dominates the story; Toussaint's repetition of certain phrases gives the narrative a musical quality. The Truth About Marie is an unusual but wonderful little gem of a book, highly recommended for readers of literary fiction. Love stories, stories of obsession and erotic fascination may not be unusual but this little book isn't like anything you've read before.

See my interview with Dalkey's John O'Brien here and come back tomorrow for part 3 in this Publisher Spotlight series.

Rating: BUY

The Truth about Marie (French Literature)
by Jean Philippe Toussaint

I'm a Powell's partner and receive a small commission on sales. 

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Publisher Spotlight Dalkey Archive Press: Interview with Director John O'Brien

This week I'm excited to present a three-part series focusing on the Dalkey Archive Press, a small nonprofit publisher specializing in wonderful literary fiction, drama, poetry and nonfiction. Today I have an interview with its director, John O'Brien; tomorrow and Wednesday I'll have reviews of two recent Dalkey titles, The Truth About Marie and The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am. I hope you'll stay with me for this great series and get to know a fascinating publisher!



What is Dalkey Archive all about? What's its mission and background? 

I will try to make this as simple as I can, but will probably fail. I wanted the Press from the start to be international in its scope and to publisher writers who otherwise would probably never see light of day. So, these were writers from around the world, including the United States. It was clear, starting i the 1970s, that publishing in the United States was changing, and one of the changes was a gradual decrease in the number of translations being done. This trend, of course, has continued. But the Press also has a certain aesthetic taste, one that I have an enormous difficulty describing. My easy answer is that we publish what I like, but what I like is of a certain kind. But we do not look for a certain kind of book, or what's called a "Dalkey book." We read and react to manuscripts the way that readers react to a book: they find it interesting, or they don't.


What kinds of books does Dalkey publish? When a reader sees the Dalkey logo on a spine, what can he or she expect? Who are your authors?

This is tricky. There obviously is something that characterizes our books, but it's hard for me to stand back and say what it is because the choices are so personal. My own interest is, I believe, in character--which sounds very old-fashioned. But I think that character becomes far more interesting to the degree that a novel isn't burdened by plot, which confines character. There is also certain styles and structures that I relate to, and these tend to be rather distinctive ones. I don't find our books "challenging," though many reviewers do. If one is well read and knows literary history, I think our books are almost "mainstream." (I think something must have been cut off in your last question: "Who are your authors?" There are about 300 of them!)


What distinguishes Dalkey from other small presses?

There are other presses that do books similar to ours, and sometimes we even overlap. The difference may be our insistence on a certain kind of book. I have never been interested in having the Press present a wide range of tastes. There is a certain kind of writing that I like and relate to, and I am doomed to publishing only that kind of book. We also have a critical dimension to what we do, which perhaps makes us distinct. We publish, not only the Review of Contemporary Fiction and CONTEXT, but also a number of critical and scholarly books. I don't know of any other press that has this kind of profile. Finally, we have an educational dimension to what we do, which is perhaps best represented in the translation work we do with young translators; this reflects my background as a university professor.


What's your favorite Dalkey book or books?

This is nearly impossible to answer, and I'll try to limit myself to between 5 and 10, but on another day the books could be quite different. So, to try: 1) Nicholas Mosley's "Impossible Object"; 2) Gilbert Sorrentino's "Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things"; 3) Jacques Roubaud's "Some Thing Black"; 4) Dimutru Tsepeneag's "Vain Art of the Fugue"; 5) Svetislav Basara's "Chinese Letter"; 6) Patrik Ourednick's "Europeana"; 7) Vedrana Rudan's "Night"; 8) Flaubert's "Bouvard et Pecuchet"; 9) Fernado del Paso's "Palinuro of Mexico"; 10) Aidan Higgins's "Scenes from a Receding Past"; 11) of course, Flann O'Brien's "At Swim-Two-Birds." There's 11. It could easily be 100.


What are some upcoming Dalkey books we should be watching out for? 

Jean-Philippe Toussaint's "The Truth about Marie"; William Gaddis's "JR"; Gerhard Meier's "Isle of the Dead"; and Kjersti Skomsvold's "The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am."

Mr. O'Brien, thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions!

Please come back starting tomorrow for the reviews!