Insel"He has an evening suit, but never an occasion to wear it, so he puts it on when he paints his pictures." "Insel," the only novel by the surrealist master Mina Loy, is a book like no other--about an impossible friendship amid the glamorous artistic bohemia of 1930s Paris. German painter Insel is a perpetual sponger and outsider--prone to writing elegant notes with messages like "Am starving to death except for a miracle--three o'clock Tuesday afternoon will be the end"--but somehow writer and art dealer Mrs. Jones likes him. Together, they sit in cafes, hatch grand plans, and share their artistic aspirations and disappointments. And they become friends. But as they grow ever closer, Mrs. Jones begins to realize just how powerful Insel's hold over her is. Unpublished during Loy's lifetime, "Insel"--which is loosely based on her friendship with the painter Richard Oelze--is a supremely surrealist, deliberately excessive creation: baroque in style, yet full of deft comedy and sympathy. Now, with an alternate ending only recently unearthed in the Loy archives, "Insel" is finally back in print, and Loy's extraordinary achievement can be appreciated by a new generation of readers. |
Contents
EDITORS NOTE | 7 |
INSEL | 19 |
AFTERWORD by Elizabeth Arnold | 179 |
Copyright | |
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alive Arthur Cravan artist assured astral avant-garde beautiful became become began brain cafe cerebral clochard Colossus couch dead death Dôme door dropped ELIZABETH ARNOLD empty eyes F. T. Marinetti face fearful felt fingers flat floated friends gallery gave girl gray grew hand head heard hung idea impression inquired Insel Irma Joseph Cornell Julien Levy laughed leave light living look Loy's note Lutetia Mädchen magnetic Marcel Duchamp Max Ernst ment mental Mina Loy mind mist Mlle Alpha Natalie Barney negresses never night normal obsession once one's pain painted Paris phosphorescence picture poems rays remember returned Richard Oelze round seemed shoulder sitting smile staring strange studio subconscious suddenly surrealism surrealist tell thing thinking thought tion told took turned voice walk watch will-o'-the-wisp woman women wonderful Worpswede