The Fermata
Nicholson Baker
1995 at Max's House
Synopsis
Arno Strine, a modest temporary typist has perfected the
knack of stopping time in its tracks and taking women's clothes
off. He is hard at work on his autobiography, The Fermata,
which proves in the telling to be a provocative, very funny
and altogether morally confused piece of work.
First lines
I am going to call my autobiography The Fermata,
even though "fermata" is only one of the many names I have
for the Fold. "Fold" is, obviously, another. Every so often,
usually in the fall (perhaps mundanely because my hormone-flows
are at their highest then), I discover that I have the power
to drop into the fold. A Fold-drop is a period of time of
variable length during which I am alive and ambulatory and
thinking and looking, while the rest of the world is stopped,
or paused.
Published reviews
The book is bursting with sex and beauty, wound together
profoundly and pornographically. It is bountifully Rabelaisian
and intensely refined ... I have never read anything quite
like it ... Misogynists will definitely not like The Fermata;
there is not one iota of violence towards or contempt for
women in this book ... Wildly exhilarating and confirming
... The Fermata should be celebrated.
Mary Gaitskill
Lots of nakedness, quite a few surprises ... His novels
have the brazen daring timidity of love letters you know you
will never post.
Sunday Times
Witty, dry and thought-provoking, a great addition to Baker's
unique observatory of contemporary life.
Vogue
Related resources
An
interview with the author
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