Here’s to difficult-to-categorize but hard-to-put-down literary novels, many of which are enjoying a new life thanks to ebook editions, which are much less likely to go out of print and leave us scrounging through dusty used book stores and haunting garage sales in search of that one novel the person we respect says we absolutely must read.

First up is Ancient History: A Paraphrase by Joseph McElroy, with a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem. Originally published in 1971, it’s long been out of print.

A tumbling dissertation on both the elements of classical history and scientific tradition and the realities of American life, Ancient History: A Paraphase is written by the main character, Cy, in an unedited frenzy. He had intended to meet and speak with the famous writer and activist Dom (or Don, he’s not really sure; it’s often suggested that Dom is a thinly-disguised Norman Mailer). Upon arriving at Dom’s apartment, though, he discovers that Dom has apparently committed suicide and his body is being taken away by first responders.

And Cy’s response is to enter the apartment and write down, at Dom’s desk, with Dom’s paper and pen, everything he’d intended to discuss with the man.

In the middle of the book, we’re disrupted; we learn when Cy takes up again that a cop and Dom’s son have entered the apartment while Cy hid from them. Further, Dom’s son has taken the first half of Cy’s manuscript, but rather than begin again, Cy picks up where he left off—though much more maniacally.

It is, like much fiction of the period, very much a metafiction. In fact, what Cy (and McElroy) mean by “paraphase” isn’t very clear—it’s often been misspelled as the more common “paraphrase.” But the repetitious quality of the writing—as Cy circles back again to the same topics—takes on an incantatory, almost Biblical, quality.

Reviewed on Lit/Rant: www.litrant.tumblr.com ( )