THE BERN BOOK: A Record of a Voyage of the Mind

by Vincent O. Carter ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1973

The Bern Book -- the autobiography of a black American who has settled in Switzerland to make for himself a career as a novelist -- ""is essentially a travel 'book,' a Reisebuch,"" which has ""reduced the experiencing 'self' to a state of consciousness."" Furthermore, Carter insists truthfully (one assumes) and naively that he hasn't altered the facts or impressions which constitute this book ""in order to poach upon the sacred domains of art."" Yet, consciously or not, the forms used to chart the protagonist's voyage are quasi-novelistic. Carter is an obsessional storyteller freed of strict demands of plot and thus permitted interstitial commentaries, philosophical asides, and even vaguely Kafka-like parables; the book however lacks the finely modulated perceptual faculties and commensurate linguistic virtuosity to justify the excursions into aesthetics or ambience. Despite this -- and the fact that the book is sometimes cluttered with hackneyed trivia -- it is episodically riveting, as when Carter is able to elevate the condition of a black American expatriate writer to the level of a metaphor for the human condition: an ""I"" (and an eye) in search of a meaningful ""Thou""; that he is a category to ""others"" -- and vice versa -- is a blindness to individuality. To this extent The Bern Book is a restatement of Invisible Man; put another way, its grasp exceeds its reach.

Pub Date: April 1, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: John Day

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION