Ten Novels That Make Palavering into an Art Form
(This essay about Bohumil Hrabal’s work equates palavering with “poetic chatter or anarchic small talk,” and that definition will do quite nicely. Hrabal was a master of the form, and any of his novels might have suited this list. I simply chose my favorite, I Served the King of England, along with nine others by different authors that proceed by similar means, unreeling for however many pages out of a spool of their own talk. I’ve arranged my choices alphabetically by author.)
Beyond the Great Indoors by Ingvar Ambjørnsen
The Voice of the Moon by Ermanno Cavazzoni
Prehistoric Times by Éric Chevillard
I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal
What Is This Buzzing? Do You Hear It Too? by Luigi Malerba
After Claude by Iris Owens
American Genius, A Comedy by Lynne Tillman
Mac’s Problem by Enrique Vila-Matas
The Appointment by Katharina Volckmer
All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka
— May 26, 2021