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A Novel by Zsolt Alapi
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
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Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
The protagonist of this novel, Stephen, twice exiled, first from his birthplace, Hungary, and then from the United States as a Vietnam draft resistor who settles in Montreal, Quebec, becomes obsessed with W.H. Auden’s poem, 'Musėe des Beaux Arts' and Bruegel’s painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, an obsession about the nature of suffering and art that leads to his attempted suicide and to the subsequent chaos of his life. Upon his discharge from a mental institute, he attends several sessions with his psychiatrist with whom he has a comically adversarial relationship wherein they explore his false reliance on literature as the only way to define and relate to the world. Told through the first- person narrator, the novel explores the nature of suffering, of authenticity, and of the value of the written word as Stephen reflects on his past life, the dissolution of his marriage, and his abiding yet potentially destructive passion for books. After his discharge from the mental institute and while undergoing therapy and merciless self-evaluation, Stephen receives a mysterious phone call that leads him to an exploration of his failed relationships with women and a final surprise resolution to his search for meaning and redemption. Set primarily in Montreal, the novel also travels to the places of Stephen’s past: the Hungary of his childhood, Europe, the United States, and the Montreal of his youth through his memories and reflections. Despite its comic undertone, the novel explores the illusions we construct to provide value to our lives, the nature of love and the erotic, and the path towards compassion and meaning.
Critical Comment
“Alapi’s words seethe and writhe on the page; at once excoriating, funny and generous, his writing is unforgettable.”
–HEIDI JAMES, AUTHOR OF WOUNDING AND SO THE DOVES
“A novel that takes you from the flailing of coital limbs to the drip of an IV feed; from the endless sidewalks of Montreal to the cafés of Mitteleuropa. Alapi’s Stephen offers the reader a flâneur-ian excursion into pain and bliss, into guided and self-chosen therapy, into literal and emotional exile. Stephen would hear Shelley’s cry –“O World! O Life! O Time!”– and answer it with books, sex, memory, and relentless tries at loving others and oneself.”
–HAROLD HOEFLE, AUTHOR OF THE NIGHT CHORUS
“Zsolt Alapi is a very fine writer. He has a quirky and dark sense of humor that penetrates to the core of the human condition. Miss him at your peril.”
–MARK SAFRANKO, AUTHOR OF HATING OLIVIA, THE SUICIDE, AND NOWHERE NEAR HOLLYWOOD
“Sessions with his psychiatrist and cryptic discussions with femaie nurses, along with confronting unhappy and disturbing memories, serve to reveal and possibly heal his troubled psyche. He rightly wonders whether psychiatric counselling merely ensures that people like him who question and rebel are neatly tucked back within the norms of society.”
–KATHY MEZEI, EVENT, SPRING/SUMMER 2021
Podcast
Author Zsolt Alapi in conversation with journalist, publisher, and writer Peter Stockland about the enduring value of the printed Word, kicking against the pricks, political correctness, uncensored depictions of sexuality, and the mythical spirit of Montreal as a landscape for the imagination. Zsolt discusses his recently published novel, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, in the context of his own publishing history, his place in the movement The Guardian dubbed as “the new underground,” and the role of the writer as a literary “bad boy.”
https://wordwork.podbean.com/e/zsolt-alapi-on-text-sex-and-literary-life/
Author Zsolt Alapi
Author Biography
Zsolt Alapi is a short story writer, editor, and critic whose stories, articles, and reviews have appeared widely in Canada, the U.S., Great Britain, and France. Born in Budapest, Hungary, Alapi moved to Montreal, Quebec during the Vietnam War and finished his Ph.D. at McGill University. He taught literature at college and university for three decades and ran a micro-press, Siren Song Publishing, which featured writing from what The Guardian dubbed as 'The New Underground', edgy fiction that follows the path forged by the Beat and post-Beat writers of the latter part of the 20th century.
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,Zsolt Alapi, 288 pp., 5.5 x 8.5, Novel, May, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-927599-50-1 (paper) . . . $23.95
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