Springer's Progress

By David Markson

Book Overview

Here comes Lucien Springer. Age: forty-seven. Still handsome though muchly vodka d novelist, currently abashed by acute creative dysfunction. Sole preoccupation amid these artistic doldrums: pursuit of fair women. Springer is a randy incorrigible who is guided by only one inflexible precept: no protracted affairs. And thus he has slyly sustained eighteen years of marriage. Enter, then, Jessica Cornford. Age: almost half of Lucien s. Lush of body and roguish of mind. Whereupon what begins as bawdy interlude becomes perhaps the most untidy extramarital letch in literature. Rabelaisian yet uncannily wise, both ribald and bittersweet, Springer s Progress is that rarest of gifts, a mature love story. It is an also exuberant linguistic romp, a novel saturated with irrepressible wordplay and outrageous literary thieveries. Contemplating his own work, Lucien Springer modestly restricts his ambition to a phrase or three worth some lonely pretty girl s midnight underlining. For the discerning reader, David Markson has contrived a hundred of them."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0916583570
• ISBN13: 9780916583576
• Release Date: May 1990
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Length: 234 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Springer's No Pilgrim!

This book was enjoyable - some of the time. It was annoying - some of the time. It was funny - some of the time. It was clever - some of the time. The only things it was about all of the time were sex, redundancy, and obsession. Summary: think about sex; have sex; drink; lie about sex; think about sex while drinking. Repeat for 234 pages. I am glad I read it and will read more Markson for the cleverness. I won't read this book again. I got it the first time.

Best of Joyce

This is a placeholder review until I finish this (possibly in an hour), but I saw an average of 3 stars because some moron gave a 1 star review and this is not the most widely read book. It should be. Every page reads like the happy moments of Ulysses. Five stars are too few, this is perfect, and yet it breaks 3 of my cardinal rules for novels. 1. Do not put the protagonist's last name in the title in some sort of lame pun (e.g. Last of the Savages) 2. The main character cannot be a writer himself (e.g. everything by Stephen King) 3. Cheating on the spouse is not to be dismissed out of hand as the only obvious course of action. And yet, who can put this down? Vote for Springer!

5 Stars Not Enough

An amazing book. As Lucien Springer lurks anent the maidens' sh**teries, so should we all. Totally unlike anything written before it, by a Lowry/Gaddis/Joyce scholar. Rewards rereadings, giving pleasure on every page. And did I mention that it's a love story? Markson will have you playing 'spot the literary reference' even as he has guessing at the inhabitants of the Lion's Head (?) Bar...and readers can't help but want to meet a Jessica for their own ramblings. A book that deserves to be read. Repeatedly. And did I mention that it's laugh-out-loud funny?