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A review by danarbello
The Fermata by Nicholson Baker
5.0
When criticized as a misogynistic rape fantasy novel I believe one fails to read the book in the context of Nicholson Baker and his style and other works. One fails to hear what the prose is painting. Baker doesn’t justify or forgive Arno’s (the book’s anti-hero) actions. Baker presents Arno, as if the words are merely an unbiased portal into a mind that truly believes it is alone.
Arno is not a hero, and though he makes leaps and bounds in his mind to forgive his obviously rapey actions, he also feels remorse (cleaning up after his deeds, later writing/recording erotica to desperately elicit reactions/interactions with his “objects” of affection). He is driven by his sex drive like a blind and thirsty animal, but as we read on we find that he is still yearning for real intimacy. We see the acts of molestation and harassment poisoning him.
All throughout I doubted whether he actually held the power to stop time. Arno, surely, must be a hallucinating mad man, running around town naked and cumming on everyone. But you aren’t supposed to be a normal citizen when reading this: you are to be Arno himself, his soul stuck in a fleshy, animal brain. Driven to fuck and suck and take. And ultimately learn that we are not alone in our gross, messy, complicated inner minds.
Arno is not a hero, and though he makes leaps and bounds in his mind to forgive his obviously rapey actions, he also feels remorse (cleaning up after his deeds, later writing/recording erotica to desperately elicit reactions/interactions with his “objects” of affection). He is driven by his sex drive like a blind and thirsty animal, but as we read on we find that he is still yearning for real intimacy. We see the acts of molestation and harassment poisoning him.
All throughout I doubted whether he actually held the power to stop time. Arno, surely, must be a hallucinating mad man, running around town naked and cumming on everyone. But you aren’t supposed to be a normal citizen when reading this: you are to be Arno himself, his soul stuck in a fleshy, animal brain. Driven to fuck and suck and take. And ultimately learn that we are not alone in our gross, messy, complicated inner minds.