The Illogic of Kassel [Paperback]

A puzzling phone call shatters a writers routine. An enigmatic female voice extends a dinner invitation, and it soon becomes clear that this is an invitation to take part in the documenta, the legendary exhibition of contemporary art held every five years in Kassel, Germany.? The writers mission will be to sit down to write every morning in a Chinese restaurant on the outskirts of town, transforming himself into a living art installation. Once in Kassel, the writer is surprised to find himself overcome by good cheer as he strolls through the city, spurred on by the endless supply of energy at the heart of the exhibition. This is his spontaneous, quirky response to art, rising up against pessimism.With humor, profundity, and a sharp eye, Enrique Vila-Matas tells the story of a solitary man, who, roaming the streets amid oddities and wonder, takes it upon himself to translate from a language he does not understand.?An enjoyable journey through the mind of a magnificent Spanish author.I don't know Vila-Matas personally, nor am I planning to meet him. I prefer to read him and let his literature pervade me.An elegant and ironic writer. Vila-Matas is one of Spain's most distinguished novelists.Enrique Vila-Matas has pioneered one of the contemporary literature's most interesting responses to the great Modernist writers.Vila-Matas leads the reader through a whimsical tour of art installations and occurrences, all the while referencing authors and artists that enhance how his narrator perceives (e.g. Kafka, Walser, Roussel, Gaddis, Duchamp, Dali, and Calle).For Vila-Matas, literature is a chamber of echoes. But rather than thinking of this as a criticism, this is to be embracedone of literatures eternal beauties.Vila-Matas is a remarkable ironist, a skill he deploys throughoutA literary look at one of Europes most acclaimed art exhibitions by a Spanish author offering strange cerebral satisfactions (Village Voice).