The novel is narrated in an easy, flowing style...It is, in part, 'experimental' -- with descriptive lists rather than full-blown exposition, an epistolary selection, and the interposition of often cartoon-like illustrations...Despite this, and some abrupt twists and turns along the narrative way, Tripticks reads very well...It is part reminiscence, part easygoing rant... Most of the time there's no need for so much explanation: the episodes themselves and the narrator's comments and asides are clear enough...Still, it is hardly a fault, balanced by a great deal else that is nowhere as serious...Altogether Quin has fashioned a novel that works very well...An enjoyable read.
First published in 1972, British author Ann Quin's Tripticks now makes its U.S. debut...Disjointed and surreal, it evokes some of the more experimental Beat writers as it tracks its narrator's trip across America...30 years later, this book still feels fresh and exciting and should win her some new fans.
A narrator without much personality but plenty to say makes a dash across America in this postmodernist screed from the late and mostly forgotten stylistic rebel...British author Quin, who died in 1973, gets another of her four novels resurrected to little purpose...Quin does have a style all her own, that’s for sure...While her writing has little linear logic, and there’s a little too much cutting-and-pasting going on, her voice manages to speak quite clearly through the sly little quips, puns, and non sequiturs the narrator lobs off of every paragraph...And unlike those who would be her peers today in the realm of pomo literature, Quin doesn’t seem interested in shocking the reader with outdated ideas of the profane...A warm and funny talent gets lost in all the meandering—a talent that even the random illustrations slapped into the text are unable to enliven...Might enjoy some interest from serious students and teachers of the avant-garde, but otherwise will probably sink without a trace.
