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''Writing per se always struck me as terribly vulgar. To actually commit an idea to paper is a desecration of that idea, a corruption of the mind. It's not laziness. Heavens no. It's simple that I'm loathe to violate the Mallarméan purity of the blank page.
I'm the absolute worst at keeping in touch. You and I will have a great couple of years working together and as soon as life pulls us apart, I'll be in the wind. My memories as structured around the different jobs I had. I believe author Mark Leyner suffers from the same problem. Hailed as a transcendent satirist in the 90s, he spent over one decade writing anything BUT fiction and became for most readers: ''Oh yeah, Mark Leyner! Used to love him. What is that DUDE up to?'' I was myself not exactly made aware of his existence through the readers' grapevine. I was very happy to find an affordable copy of THE TETHERBALLS OF BOUGAINVILLE during my last trip in New York. The fiction of Mark Leyner comes every bit as wild as advertised, but I'm not ready to call it crazy. I'm not ready to call it great either, but it's somewhere between the two.
Jordan Harper warned me about twenty pages in, you have to let go of the idea of plot to appreciate Mark Leyner. It is there, but almost just to taunt you. THE TETHERBALLS OF BOUGAINVILLE has two and a half part. A faux-memoir, a screenplay and a forty-something pages movie review. 13 year old protagonist Mark Leyner is about to witness his father's execution, yet it seems like the least of his problems. Mark has enrolled in a screenwriting contest who could earn him as much as 250,000$ a year for the rest of his life, yet has written absolutely nothing. Not even a title. When his father's execution goes wrong and he actually survives it, Mark is inspired to write a metafictional, über-existentialist screenplay about his experience with his father's survival and the NJSDE (New Jersey State Discretionary Execution). THE TETHERBALLS OF BOUGAINVILLE ends with a finished product, but it's not exactly what Mark was supposed to deliver.
THE TETHERBALLS OF BOUGAINVILLE is nowhere near as complicated or meaningless as it's often made to be. I like to think of it as deconstruction means Eugene Ionesco. One could argue that Ionesco's humour is a sort of deconstruction in itself, but I believe THE TETHERBALLS OF BOUGAINVILLE is a proof that both concept can co-exist on the page. Mark Leyner was (and somewhat still is) hailed as a powerful satirist for his ability yo build absurd composite portraits of pop culture icons and moments. He strips pieces of pop culture from their original meaning and builds another, showing the absurdity and the alienation of consuming unrelated images on a daily basis. It's a pretty theoretical thing to do with fiction, but Mark Leyner is a theoretical writer. He aims for ideas before emotions. He does it well too, THE TETHERBALLS OF BOUGAINVILLE is chaotic and maybe a little difficult to read, but it has clarity of purpose. It's easy to understand. Here is an example of what I'm talking about:
Teth-Ba turns down an invitation to stay the weekend for a mixer with nearby Camp Bon Temps Macoutes, a Duvalierist summer camp for overweight girls, whose chubby, wild-eyed camperettes are said to be among the most licentious in the entire Lake Little Lake region, and he assumingly sets off for parts unknown.
That said, THE TETHERBALLS OF BOUGAINVILLE is a little too iconoclast for my own taste. Smashing every symbol in sight in empowering, sure, but it doesn't lead far past the absurdity of the human condition. THE TETHERBALLS OF BOUGAINVILLE sure was funny, strangely emotional in some way, but it's also an admission of failure. It wanders far past its premise and yet finds nothing. My main reason to read is to understand the human condition a little bit better each time and most novels have something to contribute in that regards. THE TETHERBALLS OF BOUGAINVILLE willingly doesn't. Once again, I can only praise the novel for its clarity of purpose, but I thought its hyperactive iconoclasm and its nihilistic endeavors became a little stale as it went along.
I've first learned about Mark Leyner through his memorable interview on Charlie Rose alongside literary BFFs David Foster Wallace and Jonathan Franzen. I believe I'm not the only one to whom it has happened too. If you try and find this interview on Google, you'll find David Foster Wallace interviews. Coincidence? I don't know, but it shows which author has left the stronger imprint on our society. I don't mean to be one of these crazy David Foster Wallace people (althought I loved the dude), but a little bit of idealism goes a long way. THE TETHERBALLS OF BOUGAINVILLE was an interesting literary experiment, yet it's condemned to not many much outside itself. My main takeaway is that whatever young Mark wants or dreams about doesn't exist and whatever exists, young Mark looks down on. It's a bleak statement for a comedy. The best comedies are supposed to be a little bleak, I suppose I expected a broaded thesis and a little less belligerence from such a cerebral novel. There is something self-destructive, an untapped potential to it, to Mark Leyner's writing really.