Out

320 Pages·1973·22.2 MB·English

by  Sukenick, Ronald

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a novel by
RONALD
SUKENICK
$7.95
RONALD SUKENICK
Out is a novel of immense energy.
Sukenick's characters flash into and out
of presence; episodes impel themselves
so stronglythat they are self-obliterating.
This is an experiment in narrative and
language; at the same time it is an ex-
tremely accurate, persistently funny por-
trayal of the psychic overload we all
reached at the end of the sixties.
Sukenick engages the full range of con-
temporary fantasy—revolution, conspir-
acy, pastoral nostalgia, Indian wisdom,
demonic secret societies, and sexual ex-
travaganza. These do not merely occur
in the narrative but occupy it. Singly and
in various rapid combinations, they add
their manic energies to the book's accel-
eration.
Out begins in New York City, in full urban
congestion. Its first characters are mov-
ing across a ledge with sticks of dyna-
mite in their mouths—members of the
total conspiracy. ("You're either a part
of the plot or the counterplot. Every-
body's got to be one orthe other.") They
move toward meets—occasions when
they'll bundle their individual dynamites
together and blow something up. The
central character begins the novel as
an arranger of these meets, conspirator
and novelist. The novel moves outof New
York and across the country toward the
Pacific. The first moves occur with nar-
rative furniture and transitional card-
board boxes, but as the book gathers
speed and distance, these fall away.
Out moves across the white space of its
own pages,as well as acrossthe country.
The blank space expands until, at the
edge of the ocean, the language dis-
appears into blank space.

OUT-
Other books by Ronald Sukenick
WallaceStevens: Musing the Obscure
Up
TheDeath of theNovel and OtherStories
T
Roia&ldl Syk®ia5ck
SWALLOW PRESS
the
inc.
CHICAGO
©
Copyright 1973 byRonald Sukenick
Allrights reserved
Printed in the United StatesofAmerica
First Edition
FirstPrinting
Publishedby
The Swallow Press Incorporated
1139South WabashAvenue
Chicago,Illinois 60605
This book is printed on 100% recycled paper
ISBN (cloth) 0-8040-0630-X
ISBN (paper) 0-8040-0631-8
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 72-96165
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following magazines in
which sections of this novel first appeared:
Chicago Review; Fiction; Fiction International; Massachusetts
Review; NorthwestReview; PartisanReview.
1)0"
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011
http://www.archive.org/details/outOOsuke