Eunoia: The Upgraded Edition

I have taught this book on several occasions. The word play is often breath taking. Here's an interesting incident from the first time I taught the book to a graduate class in English: I'd assigned it, and we were due to discuss it that afternoon. So I asked them, "Well, what did you think of it?" Nobody raised a hand. "Oh, come on," I said. "DId you all get to read it?" They all nodded and looked dour. "Oh, come on," I said. "Here, let me read it some of it to you." And I began to read them the text from the relatively short pages. "Awkward grammar appals a craftsman. A Dada bard as daft as Tzara damns stagnant art and and scrawls an alpha . . ." When I'd gone on for two pages, one of my brightest students raised his and so I looked up from the book and answered him with raised eyebrows. "Yes . . .?" Very gravely the young man said, "You didn't tell us it was funny . . . !" I was very surprised that you had to tell someone that, but some works—such as Finnegans Wake—are basically verbally playful, and when the reader can catch the voice, become highly enjoyable. Get this book and read it—preferably out loud. You will have fun!

I heard about this, read parts online, wanted to check it all out. Definitely an interesting experience in constrained writing. Fun stuff.

Christian Bok is amazing. I've never seen a lucid narrative so densely packed with sound and rhythm. As an example, from "Chapter E": "When Helen feels these stresses, she trembles. She frets. Her helplessness vexes her. She feels depressed (even when her cleverest beekeepers fetch her the freshest sweets)." etc... this goes on for a long, long time. NOTE: each word in "Chapter E" is restricted to only using the vowel E. The same is true for all the vowels. E, A, I and O are interesting narratives. Not much is said, but each tells a story. However, U is just weird, and much more difficult. I see this book as an amazing, nearly genius level display of skill and talent, a true monument of intellect. While I expected each vowel (from listening to Christian Bok on youtube), I didn't know there were extra pieces, including some translation of Arthur Rimbaud from the French, some poems FOR Rimbaud, and other tidbits.. none of which is as interesting as the vowel chapters. While, there is lots to say about this amazing, titanic work, another thing has to be said - I don't like it that much. I can appreciate the work. I can marvel at the effort involved and what it is doing. At the same time, listening to it and reading it just isn't that fun or enjoyable. I can still recommend it - it is something that people who read and enjoy poetry should experience.

BOOM! Thats the sound of my mind exploding. How does Christian Bok even create something this powerful in the first place. If you haven't given it a chance now is the time. Perfect for helping you questions the English language, societies understanding and your own ability to communicate. Once you have read this you will want other copies to hand out to friends, house guests, and strangers. Thank you Christian Bok.

If someone told me you could write an entire chapter using any consonants, but only a single vowel, I wouldn't have believed it. The author achieves this brilliantly, writing five chapters in verse--each focused on words containing only a, e, i, o, or u. You might expect jibberish, but the result is magically coherent and entertaining.

Bok’s book blossoms. Bok, no moron, croons cool words, not comforts or good odors.

Yeah seriously: how can you buy this book and not give it 5 stars? I have the hardcover, and it's a beautifully printed book. As for the contents, just try to outplay Mr. Bok at his own game. Great stuff.

interesting

I utterly adore this book. Christian Bök's Eunoia is a playful example of what you can do with and without each of our five vowels. Each vowel has its own chapter, in which it has a starring role - in that no other vowel appears. At all. A univocal lipogram. You might think that this would result in a short or nonsense book. Not at all - there are genuinely 69 pages of this, before the final section (OISEAU) with some shorter riffs on the theme of alphabetic constraints. `Eunoia' is a beautiful word. It is English, and it means `beautiful thinking'. This is indeed beautiful thinking, but neatly the word is also the shortest English one to contain all five vowels. You'll understand then the French title for the second part of the book - which is actually a tribute to the Oulipo tradition it owes so much to. If restricting yourself to only using one vowel sounds like too much hard work, you may be surprised that this was not the only constraint. Here are the subsidiary rules: "All chapters must allude to the art of writing. All chapters must describe a culinary banquet, a prurient debauch, a pastoral tableau and a nautical voyage. All sentences must accent internal rhyme through the use of syntactical parallelism. The text must exhaust the lexicon for each vowel, citing at least 98% of the available repertoire (although a few words do go unused, despite efforts to include them: parallax, belvedere, gingivitis, monochord and tumulus). The text must minimise repetition of substantive vocabulary (so that, ideally, no word appears more than once). The letter Y is suppressed." It's like the Ultimate Alphabet in verse - and it's amazing. You must read it.

Great book. Wonderful concept and it is mind-boggling to think that this as even possible.

A quirky exercise in lingustics. For specialists in linguistic quirks. In one chapter, every vowel is A. Then E in the next chapter, then I, O and U in successive chapters.

One of the most brilliant books you will ever read. The "I" chapter is my favourite.

If you love words this book is a hoot. Kudos to the writer.