"The Museum of Eterna's Novel: The First Good Novel" by Macedonia Fernandez - ****

> Originally published in 1982, Open Letter edition 2010

> Argentinian author

>. Written in 1930s and 1950s, not published until after his death per his wishes

> 50+ prologues......to readers, to critics, to characters, witty, profound, confusing,

> p.VI.. "Macedonio Fernandez was the first novelist for whom the problem pof writing was so explicitly the problem of the reader."

> p.VII..."The only things that can't die are the things that haven't begun. This is true of novels and it is true of humans, too."

> p.XIV..."The only sertainty is that Macedonio once held his living hands to these pages. It's like laying one's ear to a train track to listen for the vibrations of a train that passed fifty years ago."

>p.XV....Although "The Museum of Eterna's Novel" eludes categorization, its many prologues and self-conscious use of authorial persona often lead to its characterization as an example of proto-postmodernism. Macedonio himself would have shrugged off this label, and insisted instead that the novel is a sketch for a metaphyics wherein love conquers death."

> p.XV....."There are prologues of salutations, prologues introducing the author and the characters, prologue-letters to the critics, prologues about characters who were rejected, a prologue of authorial despair and, of course, prologues about prologuing."

> p.8..."This will be the novel that's thrown violently to the floor moist often, and avidly taken up again just as often. What other author can boast of that?"...I second that!!!

> p.35..."Every character only halfway exists, because none was ever introduced who wasn't taken by half or more from 'real life' people. That's why there's a subtle discomfort and agitation in every character's 'being', since there are several humans wandering the world that a novelist used partially for a character and who feel a discomfort in their 'being' in life. Something of them is in a novel, fantasized in written pages, and it can';t truly be said where they really are."

> LibraryThing Review: This is the perfect book for the reader who loves abstract art, who trusts that meaning and beauty are in there somewhere if only one sticks with it....this is a novel about a ranch named "the Novel".......this is a novel with 50+ prologues.....not a typo...50+ prologues. This is a novel for the reader who revels in metaphysics......the metaphysics of the written word. Did I like it? I don't know. Would I recommend it? I don't know. Was it a memorable intellectual experience? Absolutely!