The Quest for Dr. U - H. C. Artmann

The Quest for Dr. U: Or a Solitary Mirror in Which the Day Reflects by H. C. Artmann / ISBN 9780947757564 / 116-page paperback from Atlas Press (UK) / Out-of-print, used book in good condition (no marks inside, some shelf wear -- chips on the top of front cover, remainder mark on bottom edge -- otherwise tight and clean - photos on request)

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Translated by Malcolm Green and Derk Wynand.

The Quest for Dr. U is like all Artmann’s works: protean, spanning and subverting the genres it encompasses (detective fiction, romantic novels, heroic poetry, dada-related experimentation). Its hero pursues the ghastly Dr. Unspeakable, an ultimate villain, across continents, through situations alternately bizarre and commonplace, always enmeshed in ways of writing text. Dr. U remains a mystery, perhaps he is “not I”. A wonderful modernist novel, humorous and entertaining to boot.

"…a tour de force of sheer virtuosity … a late flowering of the Austrian baroque, distinctly decadent, as Artmann is well aware, brilliantly brought off, with an elegant inventiveness peculiar to this extraordinary writer."-- Michael Hamburger in The Times Literary Supplement