As my first review did not do justice to its wonderful combination of mystery, introspection, and setting, I'm setting out to rectify it.Ĭlaire DeWitt is a detective, willing to use all means necessary-including hallucinogens, the I Ching and fingerprint analysis-to solve her cases. I have given away probably a dozen copies of this book and not one person has loved it like I do.I was a little afraid to re-read this book, because the first time through was so absolutely stunning, it was as if it was written for me. An equivalent book for me has been Nelson Algren's book Nonconformity, which likewise has had such an impact on my life and no one else seems to care about. Détection is a book that really changed Claire's life, and then she went out in the world and found out that no one gives a shit, and that is a heartbreaking place to be-a religion with no members.
But to me-I could cry just thinking about that book. This guy has the plates that printed Post Office, one of the most beautiful books in English. So, in part, that's what Détection is about: the fact that we writers put so much into our books, and we hope they will change readers lives, and sometimes they do-but then twenty years later they're at a flea market and you can't give them away. He has a whole garage full of this stuff and no one wants it. I asked if he'd tried ebay, other book dealers (this guy was not a book guy, just a very cool and smart flea market guy), everything I could imagine.
So he was selling the blocks that had printed Paul Bowles and Wanda Coleman and John Fante and Charles Bukowski, and no one wanted them. His friend worked for the printer and, long story short, saved them all from the trash. So I look and it turns out this guy has stacks and stacks of unused paper book covers (paper wrappers) from Black Sparrow Press, plus a bunch of printing blocks. And something from Black Sparrow Press, which I'm sure you and your readers will know, caught my eye at one of the booths. Well, I'm going to answer that with a story: yesterday I went to the Rose Bowl flea market here in LA.
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