Nietzsche's Kisses
 | |
| Author | Lance Olsen |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Postmodern novel, Historiographic metafiction |
| Publisher | FC2 |
Publication date | February 28, 2006 |
| Pages | 244 |
| ISBN | 1573661279 |
Nietzsche's Kisses is a postmodern novel by Lance Olsen, published in 2006 by Fiction Collective Two. It is a work of historiographic metafiction.[1]
Plot
Nietzsche's Kisses is the narrative of Friedrich Nietzsche's last mad night on earth. Locked in a small room on the top floor of what would become The Nietzsche Archives in Weimar, one of the most radical and influential of nineteenth-century German philosophers hovers between dream and wakefulness, memory and hallucination, the first person, second, and third, past and present, reliving his brief love affair with feminist Lou Andreas-Salomé, his stormy association with Richard Wagner, and his conflicted relationship with Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, his radically anti-Semitic sister.
Narrative structure
The novel is written in narrative triads: a first-person section (comprising the real-time of Nietzsche's last few hours alive), a second-person section (comprising hallucinations experienced by Nietzsche), and a third-person section (comprising Nietzsche's attempt to narrativize his own life; that triadic pattern is repeated throughout the novel.
Reception
In an in-depth critical article, Electronic Book Review called Olsen's novel "quite remarkable,"[2] while Publishers Weekly said Olsen is a "fine and daring writer, equal to the material."[3]
External links
- Lance Olsen reads from Nietzsche's Kisses at The Writers Edge conference in Portland, Oregon (2007)
- Interview (2006) with Lance Olsen about Nietzsche's Kisses, by The Nietzsche Circle
- Interview (2006) with Lance Olsen about Nietzsche's Kisses, by Scott Esposito at PopMatters
References
- ↑ To hear Olsen discuss his perspective on Nietzsche's Kisses, the biographical novel, and historiographic metafiction with Jay Parini and Bruce Duffy, see the discussion at http://ias.umn.edu/2012/09/20/duffy-parini-olsen-biographies/
- ↑ "The Eternal Hourglass of Existence". Electronic Book Review. 10 October 2006. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
- ↑ "Nietzsche's Kisses". Publishers Weekly. 2 March 2006. Retrieved 4 December 2012.