Visa for Avalon (Paris Press)

Visa for Avalon (Paris Press)

Bryher, Susan McCabe (Other)
$15.00
Publication Date: September 1st, 2004
Publisher:
Paris Press
ISBN:
9781930464070
Pages:
164

Description

George Orwell meets Margaret Atwood in this stunning dystopian novel

In this chilling dystopian novel, four men and women attempt an escape to legendary Avalon after the Movement threatens the liberty and comforts they have taken for granted. Visa for Avalon takes place in an unnamed country and an unnamed time. In it, Bryher uses her knowledge of history and psychology to examine political crisis in a familiar setting. First published in 1965, it resonates profoundly today. The style is understated and tense as Bryher suggests that closing our eyes to growing restrictions and loss of liberties does not protect us. She offers a provocative commentary about the paradise of King Arthur's Avalon as well. This is a wake-up book that encourages readers of all ages and backgrounds to defend democracy.

About the Author

Bryher (1894-1983) wrote many critically acclaimed novels and memoirs during her lifetime. She was deeply involved in film, politics, and psychology. She funded Contact Editions, and edited Life and Letters To-day and the first English film journal, Close Up. She was the longtime companion of H.D., and a generous supporter of numerous writers, artists, psychoanalysts, and culture icons, including Marianne Moore, Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, and Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company.

Praise for Visa for Avalon (Paris Press)

Visa for Avalon is a testament to the power of fiction. It illuminates the truth at the heart of what is commonly called reality. This account of lives, transformed and ruined by the triumph of a totalitarian rule is a timely reminder of how moral and intellectual laziness and apathy can pave the road to the reign of terror brought on by such a system.” AZAR NAFISI, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran

Visa for Avalon is a visionary and haunting novel. Bryher wrote this book forty years ago, but it speak directly to the politics of today. It’s a warning against apathy and should be read by anyone who’s worried about civil rights.” GRACE PALEY

Visa for Avalon is a stark reminder of all that we stand to lose if we don’t protect our civil liberties. Thank you, Paris Press, for bring this long-neglected novel back into print. We need it today.” BARBARA EHRENREICH, author of NICKEL AND DIMED

Bryher’s writing is frustratingly plain at times, in the way that the chimes of a large bell can be annoying because they ring so clear and so true.” LOS ANGELES TIMES

A suggestive and beguiling fiction by one of the twentieth century’s most interest artistic figures. The Paris Press should be thanked for republishing it.” MARGARET ATWOOD, THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

Paris Press is to be applauded for reissuing Visa for Avalon.” PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

This is an inspired and timely resurrection of an incisive and provocative fable of the high cost of apathy and the insidiousness of fascism, an intriguing progenitor of Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, and readers will find the accompanying profile of Bryher equally compelling.” BOOKLIST

Bryher’s novel was timely in the cold war years when she write it, and it is timely now.” WOMEN’S REVIEW OF BOOKS

Just as the title is rich in implication, so too is the novel’s every detail and seemingly casual observation.” THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

"This subtly chilling novel is not easily laid down. With brilliant economy and suspense, it depicts a fascist movement transforming the lives of ordinary people who merely wanted to be let alone. Prescient as Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Visa for Avalon could hardly be more timely here and now." ADRIENNE RICH

. . . An enchantmenta journey and warning into the future . . . There is no one writing English fiction today who can say so much within a few magnificently chosen words.” HORACE GREGORY

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