tl;dr

A little too opaque and experimental for my tastes.

opening remarks

Isabel Waidner’s slim novel, Gaudy Bauble, was shortlisted for this year’s Republic of Consciousness Prize (of which I’ve read two of the six shortlisted nominees).

A quote from Olivia Lang on the back calls it “queer avant-garde.” I wasn’t aware that was a thing, but then I had no idea what Oulipo was until recently so, really, my ignorance is just that, ignorance.

knee-jerk observations

I’m either going to jive to the rhythm of this book, or my eyes are going to glaze over.  I can’t say at the moment:

Tracey Biryukov Lulip, who goes by the name Blulip, is creating a TV show called Querbird.  When the scriptwriter does a runner, Blulip tasks P.I. Belahg to find her.  Not much searching is happening at the moment, but I have learnt a shitload about gay taxonomy.

I especially like the line, “PetCycling appealed to pet owners who lacked a back garden”.

The description below happened except it was in Iceland in 2012.  I’ve no idea why Waidner has changed the dates and geographic location, I’m sure it’s significant, but the story made me laugh and sometimes that’s all that matters:

The Gist Of It

Isabel Waidner’s Gaudy Bauble is an absurdist, surreal, nonsensical and frustrating reading experience.

I wanted to like it more than I did.  I wanted to appreciate the gender-bending and the playfulness and the sartorial insanity (much is made about what the characters are wearing), and I wanted to appreciate the word salad-y prose and the utter contempt for plot or the conventions of fiction, but it all fell flat to me.  It’s not that Waidner is trying too hard to be absurd and crazy, one thing I did admire was how readable the book was in spite of the fact that Waidner ignores all the rules of narrative and structure, it’s just that the references and allusions to gay/trans/non-binary culture went over my cisgendered head.  The novel begs to be reread, and I’m sure if I did and if I took my time rather than skull it all down in an evening the language, the satire and the general weirdness would resonate.  Maybe one day I will, at the moment though I’m left bewildered and not in a good way.