Theseus, His New Life - A Novel

Informationen zum Autor Camille de Toledo Klappentext "A mesmerizing, poetic autofiction about the quest to find meaning in family tragedies, and a sense of self after loss. In 2012, Theseus heads east in search of a new life, fleeing the painful memories of his past: the suicide of his older brother, the death of his mother, shortly followed by the death of his father. He takes three boxes of archives, leaving everything in disarray, and boards the last night train with his children. He thinks he's heading toward the light, toward a reinvention, but the past quickly catches up to him. With a stunning mix of poetry and prose, Camille de Toledo beautifully captures the conflicting urges to look back at or away from our complex histories, made all the more poignant through the scattered contents of Theseus's archives-black-and-white photos, fragments of handwritten notes"-- Leseprobe March 1, 2005 PARIS a father unknots alone the rope his son has used to hang himself, I am in a taxi crossing the river, I know nothing of what is happening, but the message on my voice mail says to hurry, and it’s a voice of terror, the father’s; I run from the taxi, enter a code on the keypad, fumble it; hanging is an archaic action unlike jumping out a window, the rope comes to us from the past, I’ll return to this; but for now I bolt up the staircase, the treads are worn, the door to the third floor is open, I see my father sitting; in a corner, the brother stretched out   now everything is falling and life is accursed the intuition I have had since childhood is finally confirmed; I believe it now, at least I have the sense that everything that’s happening, the brother, the father sitting, that everything is proceeding in obedience to a law, an equation; the brother sprawled, my approaching him; in that moment, a cry arises from me to wrench him from death, from those who let their pains and secrets seep from body to body, year to year; and simultaneous with the cry arises the memory of our childhood, but the brother stays put on the red floor tiles; nothing wakes him, nothing can be repaired; a line is cut between the dead brother and the father, the mother, the brother who are still alive; and one image is missing, I’ll search for it a long time; the image of the brother hanging   now everything is falling and life is accursed and the image he leaves behind, the image that will haunt all who are left to restart their lives, is a devouring wound; then the firemen arrive, the mother, whom the father informed; her face when she enters is not something you remember; his face when they carry out the body is not something you look at; you look at nothing; you’re with the father and the remaining brother; and this is where the block of feelings forms into a knot for the time that comes after; something clots in the heart, travels the bloodstream through the skin; a chemistry of fears whose effects will need deciphering if the future is to be woven of anything but ruins; what’s left here is the father, the mother, and between them a fissure where the living brother breathes; the body of the dead brother, whose shoulders bore the burden of time, is carried off; the father, the mother, at this moment are not talking; there’s silence and what is audible in silence; because when someone dies, it all turns into a morass of faults and remorse from which each tries to escape   now everything is falling and life is accursed I realize that from now on life will be cut in two; and maybe I knew it from the start? maybe there is a coherence to everything that has happened? I’m going to have to hold it together, in the footsteps of the older brother, to carry this scene; the brother who is no more; from now on, I’ll be the one remaining; and the days pass; visits from the family, from friends, are organ...

Product details

• Authors: Camille de Toledo, Willard Wood
• Publisher: Other press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 10.01.2023
• EAN: 9781635422108
• ISBN: 978-1-63542-210-8
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 132 mm x 202 mm x 21 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature