Consciousness - by Martin Nakell (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Martin Nakell takes us on a fascinating journey....And in this journey Nakell makes us see things we have never seen before: 'without this desert everyone would die of thirst....[R]eminiscent of some of the best compositions by Philip Glass....the poem's...passages impart the sensation of negative space; they vanish into meaning.

Review Quotes

On Martin Nakell

"Martin Nakell's new book [IS] is all about Being in its most elemental...form. In a series of stunningly various lyric forms, from poetic prose to concrete poetry, Nakell meditates on what it means to be alive at this very moment in the 21st century...."

Marjorie Perloff

"Nakell's narrative [in Settlement] - his third major work of fiction to date - [is] a series of rich and profound tales..."

Douglas Messerli

"The Library of Thomas Rivka is an impressive and incredibly engaging book! Nakell's fiction is an equal complement to his poetry."

Robert Creeley

"[C]onceptual art in the shape of a book...textual art on the subject of identity...the novel [Two Fields that Face and Mirror Each Other] looks deeper into...mirrors facing mirrors until we are considering the nature of narrative itself....[J]ust when you think it's all been done in the novel, a novel of ideas can still reflect its own rich traditions even as it mirrors them in ways that are meaningful to our contemporary cultural field, where neither people nor institutions can be explained by naïve looking.

Steve Tomasula Review of Contemporary Fiction

"...it's hard to believe the whole thing is the work of Nakell's imagination. It seems Nakell cannot help but to appeal to the reader intellectually. However, it's the endearing manner by which he does so that sets him apart as a writer. Settlement confirms Nakell's emerging style, one that manages to be both compelling and rigorous."

Review of Contemporary Fiction

Its an exhausting exhilarating journey through soul-adjacent neighborhoods. Like Calvinos Marco Polo wonderingwandering through the invisible cities of the imaginary Mongol empire, our Monk discovers that every amazing place he goes is only and always a gateway to the next amazing place.

Stuaart Matranga, The Believer