Fare Forward: Letters from David Markson

Aug 28 ’08

Simsy—

A quick question, at your new address.¹¹⁸ Why, in your (very good) essay, do you say I called one book This Is Not a Novel because a reviewer did?¹¹⁹ Do I say that, in there? Did I, in casual conversation? I had René Magritte in mind—Ceci n’est pas un pipe—and then remembered Diderot—Not a Conte—and I’m sure (pretty sure) I named both of those in the text. But not what you say. Just curious, because it made me scowl both times I read it. (I did read it twice, honest.)

Gimme a yell in an odd moment while settling in, eh? Otherwise you are contributing to my increasing senility.

Love again—

D.

118 We’d arrived in Brooklyn.

119 This was exactly the kind of response I’d been dreading. At the time, I was positive I had a solid source for that quote — that one reviewer had called Reader’s Block “not a novel,” so David had called his next one This Is Not a Novel as a kind of sarcastic response — but now I don’t recall what my source was, and I don’t remember how I resolved this with David, either.