Enter your email Address

ENTROPY
  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Side Effects May Include Monstrosity

      February 25, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      WOVEN: Bruises Around the Heart

      February 24, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Radio Days

      February 23, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Birds: The Old and the Flightless

      February 22, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Radio Days

      February 23, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Daddy Rocked the Baby, Mother Said Amen

      February 20, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: The End of the World

      February 9, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: I almost lost my calloused skin

      February 2, 2021

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      BLACKCACKLE: Cain, Knocking

      February 24, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Bird Heart for Forgiveness

      February 19, 2021

      Fiction

      New Skin

      February 17, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: Skittering

      February 17, 2021

      Fiction

      Variations on a Theme: Larger Than Life

      February 6, 2021

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      Review: To Limn / Lying In by J’Lyn Chapman

      February 25, 2021

      Review

      Review: Nudes by Elle Nash

      February 22, 2021

      Review

      Burials Free of Sharks: Review of Xandria Phillips’ Hull

      February 18, 2021

      Review

      Review: Censorettes by Elizabeth Bales Frank

      February 4, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      OOMPH! Press

      February 24, 2021

      Small Press

      Dynamo Verlag

      February 17, 2021

      Small Press

      Abalone Mountain Press

      February 3, 2021

      Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch

ENTROPY

  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Side Effects May Include Monstrosity

      February 25, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      WOVEN: Bruises Around the Heart

      February 24, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Radio Days

      February 23, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Birds: The Old and the Flightless

      February 22, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Radio Days

      February 23, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: Daddy Rocked the Baby, Mother Said Amen

      February 20, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: The End of the World

      February 9, 2021

      Introspection

      Variations on a Theme: I almost lost my calloused skin

      February 2, 2021

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      BLACKCACKLE: Cain, Knocking

      February 24, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Bird Heart for Forgiveness

      February 19, 2021

      Fiction

      New Skin

      February 17, 2021

      Fiction

      The Birds: Skittering

      February 17, 2021

      Fiction

      Variations on a Theme: Larger Than Life

      February 6, 2021

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      Review: To Limn / Lying In by J’Lyn Chapman

      February 25, 2021

      Review

      Review: Nudes by Elle Nash

      February 22, 2021

      Review

      Burials Free of Sharks: Review of Xandria Phillips’ Hull

      February 18, 2021

      Review

      Review: Censorettes by Elizabeth Bales Frank

      February 4, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      OOMPH! Press

      February 24, 2021

      Small Press

      Dynamo Verlag

      February 17, 2021

      Small Press

      Abalone Mountain Press

      February 3, 2021

      Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC

        February 12, 2021

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch
EntrofeedReview

A Raskolnikoff by Emmanuel Bove

written by Peter Tieryas August 25, 2015

A Raskolnikoff by Emmanuel Bove
Translated by Mitchell Abidor
Red Dust Books, 105 pps

In the introduction to A Raskolnikoff by Emmanuel Bove, Brian Evenson refers to a “secret history” of literature, “a stratum of books and authors without whom contemporary literature would not be possible but who have somehow been pushed to the side, neglected, forgotten.” Bove is one of those authors, a writer whose work I’d never read before this one. He wrote A Raskolnikoff as part of a series of books based on the imaginary chronologies of fictional characters. Inspired by Dostoyeksky’s Crime and Punishment, we follow a pair of wanderers, Changarnier and Violette, in a raw and emotionally unnerving odyssey. Most of the story revolves around their relationship, both to each other and the society around them. Changarnier is brutally honest with himself, so much so that he’s torn by his own ambivalence. Life’s platitudes are no comfort and his seeming apathy is exacerbated by his remorse:

“What’s left to losers like us if it’s not moving forward with the hope that something new will happen? Aren’t we the mediocrity, the sickness, the weakness of the world?”

A Raskolnikoff brought back memories of all the walks I’ve had in my life, the random encounters, obscure sights, and secondary exchanges marked by a glance or a word dripping with intimation. Changarnier’s exchanges with Violet vacillate across the spectrum and it’s their whimsical, and sometimes cold nature, that make them feel authentic, even disturbing. Their jabs of cruelty to each other imbue the story with a sense of sorrow compounded by the unrelenting pressures of society. Time and emotion are inextricably bound, Siamese twins of tragedy that culminate in murder and eschew the tropes that are setup earlier. I couldn’t help but wonder, is the murder that takes place an illusion or a type of self-annihilation, a nihilism driven by a lack of direction? This journey has no home, and Changarnier’s all too aware of it even if others aren’t:

“The beauties of life attract him, and when he finds himself before another man, one like himself yet different, it would be just as mad for him to attempt to make himself understood as it would be to understand the other.”

The book is as much an emotional stream as it is a meditation, a contemplation riding through different stages of nonexistence. The best translations rarely draw attention to themselves and Mitchell Abidor gives us a seamless transition from French to English, evoking their air of desperation and guilt as Changarnier convicts himself of an atrocity that he may or may not be responsible for. Along the way, they meet a strange old man who regales them with the melodramatic vicissitudes of his life. Just when you think you can sympathize, that feeling morphs into anger, even disgust, and then back to more pity. The palpably plaintive scars of age wear Chargarnier down, but he refuses to let it hinder him. He keeps on walking and is relentless in his motion, driven by the kinetics of either a youthful delusion or a naive optimism.

“There’s nothing in the world that makes people as skeptical and is as difficult to revive for others as lost happiness. We describe it as we see it in our memory: that is, adorned with a sweetness it didn’t actually have, but which the passing years have given it. And yet I have to tell you that I have fallen short of reality, precisely so as not to fall into this trap, and if I wanted to depict it as it was I would be accused of exaggeration.”

It troubles me to think I’d never even have heard of Bove if not for a random notice on Facebook. Changarnier, through Bove, remains possessed by the undaunted spirit that treads forward independent of its fate and the fact that there is no final destination. The footprints remain, haunting, occasionally waiting to be rediscovered. It’s our own secrets, personal convictions, disappointments, and losses that Bove prods us with. It’s as though he reminds us, punishment doesn’t require a crime. The drive forward merits its own form of suffering.

A Raskolnikoff by Emmanuel Bove was last modified: August 25th, 2015 by Peter Tieryas
A RaskolnikoffEmmanuel BoveRed Dust Books
0 comment
0
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Avatar
Peter Tieryas

Peter Tieryas is the author of Mecha Samurai Empire (Ace and Roc) and United States of Japan, which won Japan's top SF Award, the Seiun. His work has been published in Electric Literature, Evergreen Review, Indiana Review, Kotaku, and ZYZZYVA. Read about his attempts at transmuting entropy at tieryas.wordpress.com.

previous post
Projective Industries
next post
COMICS I’VE BEEN GEEKING OUT ON

You may also like

12 Days of Gaming: Coup

December 17, 2014

Up against the wall, motherfucker: A Review of How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball

July 11, 2016

The Bell Tolls for No One by Charles Bukowski

October 27, 2015

Review: The Baudelaire Fractal by Lisa Robertson

April 16, 2020
Facebook Twitter Instagram

Recent Comments

  • furiousvexation Loved this. Killer first line and such a painted picture. Bravo!

    The Birds: a poem ·  February 17, 2021

  • Deidra Brown Wonderful, moving work!

    The Birds: a poem ·  February 15, 2021

  • Ceres Growing up in a rural area, I've observed first-hand the disparate outlooks between urban children with environmentalist parents and children raised in the country. Modern agricultural practices...

    HOW VIDEO GAMES MADE ME BIOPHILIC ·  February 13, 2021

Featured Columns & Series

  • The Birds
  • Dinnerview
  • WOVEN
  • Variations on a Theme
  • BLACKCACKLE
  • Literacy Narrative
  • COVID-19
  • Mini-Syllabus
  • Their Days Are Numbered
  • On Weather
  • Disarticulations
  • The Waters
  • Session Report series
  • Birdwolf
  • Comics I've Been Geeking Out On
  • Small Press Releases
  • Books I Hate (and Also Some I Like)
  • The Poetics of Spaces
  • Tales From the End of the Bus Line
  • Fog or a Cloud
  • 30 Years of Ghibli
  • Cooking Origin Stories
  • YOU MAKE ME FEEL
  • Ludic Writing
  • Best of 2019
  • The Talking Cure
  • Food and Covid-19
  • Stars to Stories
  • DRAGONS ARE REAL OR THEY ARE DEAD
  • Foster Care
  • LEAKY CULTURE
  • Jem and the Holographic Feminisms
  • D&D with Entropy

Find Us On Facebook

Entropy
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

©2014-2021 The Accomplices LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Read our updated Privacy Policy.


Back To Top