101 Detectives - Softcover

Ivan Vladislavic

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1908276568 ISBN 13: 9781908276568

Publisher: And Other Stories, 2015

Synopsis

'What kind of Detective am I? Eardrum or tympanum? Gullet or oesophagus? Pussy or pudenda? A Detective needs a language almost as much as a language needs a Detective.' In this new collection of stories, award-winning author Ivan Vladislavic invites readers to do some detective work of their own. Each story can be read as just that - a story - or you can dig a little deeper. Take a closer look, examine the artefact from all angles, and consider the clues and patterns concealed within. Whether skewering extreme marketing techniques or constructing dystopian parallel universes; whether mourning a mother's loss or tracing a translator's on-stage breakdown, Vladislavic's pitch-perfect inquisitions will make you question your own language - how it defines you, and how it undoes you.

About this title

Review:

"Ivan Vladislavic is one of a handful of writers working in South Africa after apartheid whose work will still be read in fifty years." Jan Steyn, "The White Review"
"One of the most imaginative minds at work in South African literature today." Andre Brink
Praise for "Double Negative"
"The writer Ivan Vladislavic (born 1957) has been largely unknown outside South Africa, though just recently that picture has begun to change. Vladislavic is a writer of great sophistication who specializes in short fiction ( stories )." JM Coetzee
"Vladislavic s narrative intelligence is nowhere more visible than in his way with language itself. Each section is perfectly judged; we enter incidents in medias res as though they were piano etudes and exit them before we have overstayed our welcome." Teju Cole
"Vladislavic is sensitively attuned to the uncanny phenomena that explode from the social fault lines of his city." Patrick Flanery, "Guardian"
"Double Negative listens carefully to the sound of the ebb and flow of history and transcribes it in lucid, rigorous prose; Vladislavic is no minor congener of Sebald. The shadow of a nation's evil times falls on both writers' works but Vladislavic's engagement with it is slyer, more aslant, full of calculated misdirection, although brimful of Sebaldian melancholy." Neel Mukherjee, "Independent"
"Vladislavic seeks the poetry of the city he has known and loved for 30 years He finds the human behind Johannesburg s sorry reputation." Ross Leckie, "The Times (SA) "
Praise for "The Restless Supermarket"
"A work of such immense imaginativeness, of such extraordinarily serious playfulness, comes along very rarely. Let us celebrate it." Neel Mukherjee, "Independent"
"The protagonist also happens to be a pompous git, and part of the pleasure of the book is how Vladislavic lures readers who love wordplay into sympathy and then brings them up short." Charles Boyle, "The Warwick Review"
"

Praise for 101 Detectives:
"Kafka isn t named in the catalogue of "101 Detectives," but his fingerprints are all over this book. Or do they belong to Ivan Vladislavic? One of the boldest, wittiest, and most imaginative fiction writers working today, Vladislavic packs a snub-nosed lingo and has a knack for the uncanny. He finds it in ordinary and unlikely places . . . Seeing every human action as sign, symptom, or subterfuge, Vladislavic s amazing fiction makes detectives of readers and writers alike." Laurie Greer, bookseller, "Politics & Prose"
"Vladislavic experiments with the identities and roles society proposes. He is a detective pondering meaning ("There's a pattern I'm missing, he thought. A pattern I'm missing. Or is there?" ... "Let's say the whole thing is a set-up, he thought, an elaborate sting to do away with me"). He is a South African outsider in American tentatively trying to fit in but actually repelled and overcome by casual monstrosity. He is a guest at the lavishly and artistically staged launch of the new Ford Kafka motor car. He describes a "corporate storyteller" having a bad day with the menacing recitation pod imposed upon her by Human Capital and Technology. In "The Reading," an African woman reads an account of her abduction as a child slave to a room full of civilised and casually well-meaning German liberals, each with their own concerns. Does anyone understand? Can language convey her experience? Possible universes clash and diverge. Follow Vladislavic into that very familiar anomie which is our daily life at the beginning of the third millennium." Bob Archer, bookseller, Newham Books
"Known for 'juxtaposing the banal and the bizarre, ' Vladislavic s work provides fascinating glimpses into post-apartheid South Africa as well as 'dystopian parallel universes'." "World Literature Today"
"Whether skewering extreme marketing techniques or construction dystopian parallel universes; whether mounting a mother's loss or tracing a translator's on-stage breakdown, Vladislavic's perfect inquisitions will make you question your own language - how it defines you, and how it undoes you." "Bookshy Books"
"Vladislavic has created a work of art that I have every confidence will continue to be de-constructed by reader-detectives for many years to come." "The Bookbag"
"[written in an] enjoyably imaginative writing style" "The Skinny"
"This collection has got me thinking and excited." "Lizzy's Literary Life"
Praise for the author:
"Ivan Vladislavic is one of a handful of writers working in South Africa after apartheid whose work will still be read in fifty years." Jan Steyn "The White Review"
"One of the most imaginative minds at work in South African literature today." Andre Brink
"

Praise for 101 Detectives:
-Kafka isn't named in the catalogue of 101 Detectives, but his fingerprints are all over this book. Or do they belong to Ivan Vladislavic? One of the boldest, wittiest, and most imaginative fiction writers working today, Vladislavic packs a -snub-nosed lingo- and has a knack for the uncanny. He finds it in ordinary and unlikely places . . . Seeing -every human action as sign, symptom, or subterfuge, - Vladislavic's amazing fiction makes detectives of readers and writers alike.- - Laurie Greer, bookseller, Politics & Prose
-Vladislavic experiments with the identities and roles society proposes. He is a detective pondering meaning (-There's a pattern I'm missing, he thought. A pattern I'm missing. Or is there?- ... -Let's say the whole thing is a set-up, he thought, an elaborate sting to do away with me-). He is a South African outsider in American tentatively trying to fit in but actually repelled and overcome by casual monstrosity. He is a guest at the lavishly and artistically staged launch of the new Ford Kafka motor car. He describes a -corporate storyteller- having a bad day with the menacing recitation pod imposed upon her by Human Capital and Technology. In -The Reading-, an African woman reads an account of her abduction as a child slave to a room full of civilised and casually well-meaning German liberals, each with their own concerns. Does anyone understand? Can language convey her experience? Possible universes clash and diverge. Follow Vladislavic into that very familiar anomie which is our daily life at the beginning of the third millennium.- Bob Archer, bookseller, Newham Books
-Known for 'juxtaposing the banal and the bizarre, ' Vladislavic's work provides fascinating glimpses into post-apartheid South Africa as well as 'dystopian parallel universes'-. World Literature Today
-Whether skewering extreme marketing techniques or construction dystopian parallel universes; whether mounting a mother's loss or tracing a translator's on-stage breakdown, Vladislavic's perfect inquisitions will make you question your own language - how it defines you, and how it undoes you.- Bookshy Books
-Vladislavic has created a work of art that I have every confidence will continue to be de-constructed by reader-detectives for many years to come.- The Bookbag
-[written in an] enjoyably imaginative writing style- The Skinny
-This collection has got me thinking and excited.- Lizzy's Literary Life
Praise for the author:
-Ivan Vladislavic is one of a handful of writers working in South Africa after apartheid whose work will still be read in fifty years.- Jan Steyn The White Review
-One of the most imaginative minds at work in South African literature today.- Andre Brink
Praise for 101 Detectives:

"Kafka isn't named in the catalogue of 101 Detectives, but his fingerprints are all over this book. Or do they belong to Ivan Vladislavic? One of the boldest, wittiest, and most imaginative fiction writers working today, Vladislavic packs a "snub-nosed lingo" and has a knack for the uncanny. He finds it in ordinary and unlikely places . . . Seeing "every human action as sign, symptom, or subterfuge," Vladislavic's amazing fiction makes detectives of readers and writers alike." - Laurie Greer, bookseller, Politics & Prose

"Vladislavic experiments with the identities and roles society proposes. He is a detective pondering meaning ("There's a pattern I'm missing, he thought. A pattern I'm missing. Or is there?" ... "Let's say the whole thing is a set-up, he thought, an elaborate sting to do away with me"). He is a South African outsider in American tentatively trying to fit in but actually repelled and overcome by casual monstrosity. He is a guest at the lavishly and artistically staged launch of the new Ford Kafka motor car. He describes a "corporate storyteller" having a bad day with the menacing recitation pod imposed upon her by Human Capital and Technology. In "The Reading," an African woman reads an account of her abduction as a child slave to a room full of civilised and casually well-meaning German liberals, each with their own concerns. Does anyone understand? Can language convey her experience? Possible universes clash and diverge. Follow Vladislavic into that very familiar anomie which is our daily life at the beginning of the third millennium." Bob Archer, bookseller, Newham Books

"Known for 'juxtaposing the banal and the bizarre, ' Vladislavic's work provides fascinating glimpses into post-apartheid South Africa as well as 'dystopian parallel universes'." World Literature Today

"Whether skewering extreme marketing techniques or construction dystopian parallel universes; whether mounting a mother's loss or tracing a translator's on-stage breakdown, Vladislavic's perfect inquisitions will make you question your own language - how it defines you, and how it undoes you." Bookshy Books

"Vladislavic has created a work of art that I have every confidence will continue to be de-constructed by reader-detectives for many years to come." The Bookbag

"[written in an] enjoyably imaginative writing style" The Skinny

"This collection has got me thinking and excited." Lizzy's Literary Life

Praise for the author:

"Ivan Vladislavic is one of a handful of writers working in South Africa after apartheid whose work will still be read in fifty years." Jan Steyn The White Review

"One of the most imaginative minds at work in South African literature today." Andre Brink

About the Author:

Ivan Vladislavic is the author of several collections of stories and acclaimed novels including Double Negative (And Other Stories, 2013), The Restless Supermarket (And Other Stories, 2014), 101 Detectives (And Other Stories, 2015) and The Folly (And Other Stories, 2015). Vladislavic has written extensively about Johannesburg, where he lives. Portrait with Keys (Portobello Books, 2006) is a sequence of documentary texts about the city. His work has won many awards, including the South African Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the Alan Paton Award for non-fiction and Yale University's Windham-Campbell Prize. He is a Distinguished Professor in Creative Writing at the University of the Witwatersrand.

About this edition

• Publisher: And Other Stories
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1908276568
• ISBN 13: 9781908276568
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320