Ibid: A Novel by Mark Dunn
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(Paperback - Reprint)
- Publisher: Harcourt
- Pub. Date: June 2005
- ISBN-13: 9780156031004
- Sales Rank: 332,082
- 264pp
- Edition Description: Reprint
Synopsis
Only Mark Dunn, author of the acclaimed Ella Minnow Pea, would attempt to write a novel entirely in footnotes-and succeed so triumphantly. Ibid is the off-the-wall fictional biography of Jonathan Blashette, a three-legged circus performer and deodorant entrepreneur. Dunn, a character in his own novel, is Blashette's esteemed biographer. But when Dunn's editor destroys the manuscript in an unfortunate bathtub accident, all that remains are the footnotes, which they arrange to publish in a consummate portrait of Blashette's strangely hilarious life story, one that offers some infinitely interesting morsels of American cultural history. Of course, as endnotes go, these are the tidbits, the marginalia: snippets of commentary, correspondence, court transcripts, song lyrics, and even a recipe for Boston baked beans. But in the topsy-turvy world of Ibid, the footnotes tell the truest story of all.
Biography
MARK DUNN is the author of Ella Minnow Pea and Welcome to Higby. Originally from Memphis, he now makes his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Customer Reviews
Ibid: A Novelby Anonymous
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July 06, 2007: Mark Dunn has done it again with an incredible follow up to his 'Ella Minnow Pea.' Like EMP, Ibid's story is also told in a creative manner. In this case, purely by footnotes. During the first chapter I was a little confused and wondered if this type of story telling would work, but after reading a couple of chapters I was hooked to this creative method of story telling. In a way we are getting bits and pieces of Jonathan's life but not the whole picture. In a way this is great because we are reading the 'footnotes' to his life, the stuff that the author did not deem important enough to actually be in the manuscript/story. So in a way, the 'insignificant' footnotes become incredibly important in the readers being able to understand Jonathan's life.
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