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    Circus: or, Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Circus: or, Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Circus: or, Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes: A Novel
    Ebook262 pages3 hours

    Circus: or, Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes: A Novel

    By Wayne Koestenbaum and Rachel Kushner

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

  • Soft Skull is reissuing Koestenbaum’s first novel Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes with a new title, Circus
  • A story of art and obsession pushed to the extreme, Circus received glowing critical reviews; Kirkus described it as the “mad genius of Pale Fire with the florid outlaw sexuality of Jean Genet.”
  • Circus was extremely well-received by critics and contemporaries alike, but its arrival was under-publicized. Koestenbaum is a cult figure and a critically-acclaimed and award-winning poet, cultural critic, and novelist in the vein of Lynne Tillman, and we’re excited to introduce this book with his enthusiastic reading base and beyond
  • Soft Skull, under the editorial leadership of Yuka Igarashi, is committed to reissuing key titles from the backlist to introduce them to new readerships. From Maggie Nelson's Something Bright, Then Holes to Jillian Weise's The Amputee's Guide to Sex, these reissues have an iconic trade paper original packaging and are intended to be provocative and accessible.
    • LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSoft Skull Press
    Release dateJul 9, 2019
    ISBN9781593765637
    Unavailable
    Circus: or, Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes: A Novel
    Author

    Wayne Koestenbaum

    Wayne Koestenbaum is a distinguished professor of English, French, and comparative literature at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. His twenty books include Camp Marmalade, Notes on Glaze, The Pink Trance Notebooks, My 1980s & Other Essays, Humiliation, Andy Warhol, Jackie Under My Skin, and The Queen’s Throat, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. For more information, visit waynekoestenbaum.com.

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    Reviews for Circus

    3.5/5

    4 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      From the beginning there isn't much doubt how this book will end. Getting there is the story. Theo Mangrove is a fallen HIV positive classical pianist obsessed with including Italian circus performer Moira Orfei in his comeback performance. Along the way he has sex with, or reminisces about having sex with, practically everyone he meets. The book is a series of notebook entries and letters that may or may not be between Theo and Moira. One by one his lovers, friends and family members drop away until Theo is left alone with his letters.
    • 2/5
      More a poem than a novel. Really nice turns of phrase and a unique subject trapped in a crappy story about nothing told by a narrator who we have no reason to root for. The only emotional channel into Theo is his choice of pieces for the Aigues-Mortes program.