Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Books: Social-Science Fiction
UNSPEAKABLE PRACTICES, UNNATURAL ACTS by Donald Barthelme. 170 pages. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $4.95.
Donald Barthelme's game is best described as surrealist anthropology or perhaps social-science fiction. Literature today is overshadowed by audio-visual art forms that threaten to turn into total pinball-machine environments. But Barthelme, 37, continues to demonstrate that language can be a mixed-media production all by itself. He translates the chipped teacups, navel lint, prattle and random static of life into even rows of words that twitter, bong, flash and glow signals of exquisite distress.
These 15 scrupulously crafted stories, all...
Email, Password or Region is incorrect
A required form parameter was missing.
The System is currently down. Please try again in a few minutes.
Email Address is invalid
Password is blank
Most Popular »
- 50 Best iPhone Apps 2012
- Deadly Cold Grips Europe
- Your Turn, Canada: A Second-By-Second Look at Jeremy Lin Lighting Up Toronto
- What's in Your Lipstick? FDA Finds Lead in 400 Shades
- Iowa Welcomes Back China's Next President
- Rick Santorum Wants to Fight 'The Dangers Of Contraception'
- Linsanity Heads East, Linfects China and Taiwan
- Why Obama's Re-Election Fortunes Are Suddenly Looking Up
- After Whitney Houston, Musicians Say: I'm Afraid
- Why I Won't Be Boycotting Chick-Fil-A
- Harvard's Hoops Star Is Asian. Why's That a Problem?
- Iowa Welcomes Back China's Next President
- The Upside Of Being An Introvert (And Why Extroverts Are Overrated)
- Beirut: Where Valentine's Day Belongs to Another Kind of Saint
- Friends With Benefits
- With Syria's Rebels: A Visit to a Bombmaker's Factory
- Europe's Deep Freeze: Why Climate Change Is Not (Entirely) to Blame
- Study: Lead Poisoning Could Lurk in Spices
- New York City: 10 Things to Do
- Romney's Cruel Canine Vacation
More News from Our Partners
Top Stories on TIME.com
Quotes of the Day »
