PATCHWORK

Comitta’s found-text novella tells the story of one man’s peculiar quest.

There’s an art to repurposing the prose of other writers and transforming it into a distinct work all its own. As the author explains in an afterword, “Through a process of collage and constraint, I have gathered fragments from hundreds of novels and arranged them into a story of love and loss, suspense and snuff boxes.” At certain points here, the literary device is more obvious than in others: The opening and closing chapters both declare their status as collages. The protagonist’s search for a lost snuff box and a duel at the climax each mark this book as being set in an archaic time. Comitta’s source material is wide-ranging, with repurposed prose from authors ranging from Bram Stoker to Ishmael Reed to David Eddings. At times, prose itself slips away, with certain chapters making use of diagrams and illustrations to keep the narrative moving forward. Early on, Comitta splits the action into two columns, offering the reader two different outcomes, one of which ends the book relatively early. The chapter titles make for entertaining reading, including “Being the Events of the Following Morning Told in the Form of a Run-On Sentence” and “Being the Discreet Dreams of the Bourgeoisie.” Comitta displays a sense of puckish humor throughout: One chapter highlights sentences in which the word “ejaculated” is used to describe speech; another is told in the manner of a medieval ballad. This heady literary experiment demonstrates that high-concept literature can also be very entertaining.

An intellectual exercise crackling with madcap energy.