Glyph: A NovelWith this wildly inventive new novel, Percival Everett has created his unlikeliest hero to date. Mute by choice, and able to read complex philosophical treatises and compose passable short stories while still in the crib, baby Ralph does not consider himself a genius-- because he is unable to drive. Plenty of others, however, want a stake in this precocious child prodigy. Among the most fiendish are Dr. Steimmel, the psychiatrist to whom his bewildered parents first take him, and her assistant Boris; Dr. Davis and her illegal chimps; and not-so-sweet Nanna, the secret agent. All have plans for Ralph, and no one wants to share the poor infant who misses his mother and does not take kindly to his new role as "Defense Stealth Operative." Throughout the ensuing nation-wide chase of which he is the center, Ralph ponders on the theories of literary form-- and comes to some surprising conclusions of his own that perhaps only a baby could dream up. A narrative to question narrative, a highly original analysis of analysis, Everett's tour de farce prompts one to acknowledge that his is the true genius. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - locriian - LibraryThingI bought this thinking it was another book... But I tried to read it still. Couldn't get through it because the baby is so douchy and none of the secondary characters make up for it. Read full review
GLYPH
User Review - Jane Doe - KirkusGrabbing academia where it hurts the most, by its swollen, unintelligible poststructuralist theories, the prolific Everett (Frenzy, 1997, etc.) uses a most unlikely foil: a genius baby who reads and ... Read full review
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Aristophanes baby Barthes believe Bill Roy Boris Chac6n Chaein child Colonel Bill color course crib devil doctor door Douglas dream ephexis eyes face fact Father Chacon fiction fictive space finally fingers front fucking g.e. moore going hand head imagined Inflato Jelloffe Jenny Jenson kind knew language laughed Laura Leibniz Linda Evangelista lips logic looked Madam Nanna mary mallon meaning Melvin mother moved never nodded novels Okay ootheca Paisley Porkstein parents peccatum Pepe Percival Everett perhaps priest pulled Ralph Roland Barthes Ronald semiosis sense shit signifier sitting smiled socrates sofa sound stared Steimmel and Davis Steimmel asked stood stop storiemes story subjective-collective supernumber talk tell thing thought told took turned Tydeus Uncle understand voice walked wall watched window woman wondered words write wrote
Bibliographic information
| Title | Glyph: A Novel |
| Author | Percival Everett |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Graywolf Press, 1999 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | Mar 6, 2008 |
| ISBN | 1555972969, 9781555972967 |
| Length | 224 pages |
| Subjects | › Fiction / Literary |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |