The Conversions - by Harry Mathews (Paperback)

About the Book

"A remarkable and unusual novel by "one of the most remarkable prose stylist presently writing in English." -The San Francisco Chronicle At a dinner party hosted by a wealthy New Yorker, a guest receives an ancient golden weapon as a prize. When the mysterious host of this party dies the next day, his fortune is left to whomever it was that received the prize at the party. The only requirement: the owner must answer three cryptic questions relating to the artifact's mysterious history. In his search for answers, He quickly finds himself entangled in the centuries-long history of a secretive religious sect, embarking on an odyssey that begins at a dinner party, and ends on the ocean floor. Along this wild goose chase, we encounter a menagerie of eccentric personalities: an ancient revolutionary in a Parisian prison, a ludicrous pair of gibberish-speaking brothers, and customs officials who spend their time reading contraband materials. The Conversions is a wildly unpredictable novel, inviting readers along in the search for answers that may never have existed in the first place"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A remarkable and unusual novel by "one of the most remarkable prose stylist presently writing in English." -The San Francisco Chronicle

At a dinner party hosted by a wealthy New Yorker, a guest receives an ancient golden weapon as a prize. When the mysterious host of this party dies the next day, his fortune is left to whomever it was that received the prize at the party. The only requirement: the owner must answer three cryptic questions relating to the artifact's mysterious history.

In his search for answers, He quickly finds himself entangled in the centuries-long history of a secretive religious sect, embarking on an odyssey that begins at a dinner party, and ends on the ocean floor. Along this wild goose chase, we encounter a menagerie of eccentric personalities: an ancient revolutionary in a Parisian prison, a ludicrous pair of gibberish-speaking brothers, and customs officials who spend their time reading contraband materials. The Conversions is a wildly unpredictable novel, inviting readers along in the search for answers that may never have existed in the first place.

Review Quotes

"At its heart, the novel is a literary puzzle that questions the nature and meaning of the holy grail as a literary convention, a historical ritual, and the legitimizing force behind kingly power. Indeed, The Conversions is an ode to illimitable meaning, an exuberant experiment in storytelling, and a surreal wonderland of the obscure-'combinatorial literature' at its trippiest." --Foreword Reviews, Starred Review

About the Author

Harry Mathews was born in New York City in 1930 and spent his adult life in the United States and in France, where he co-founded the influential journal Locus Solus with John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler in 1961. He was the first American member of the literary consortium Oulipo, alongside Raymond Queneau, Italo Calvino, and Georges Perec. His many writings, spanning novels, short fiction, poems, essays, and translations from the French, include The Conversions, Tlooth, The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium, Cigarettes, The Journalist, My Life in CIA, and The Solitary Twin. Mathews was honored by the French government as an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters and earned awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Endowment for the Arts. He died in Key West, Florida, in 2017.

Ed Park is the author of the novels Personal Days and Same Bed Different Dreams, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He lives in New York.