American novelist and poet Kenneth Fearing (1902-1961)

Clark Gifford’s Body is a forgotten classic of postmodernism, a novel not well received at the time of its first publication in 1942 and virtually unknown ever since. Thank you New York Review Books (NYRB) for this 2006 edition which includes an informative introduction by critic Robert Polito. And let me tell you folks, if you are interested in reading political noir in an experimental fictional style, this is your one-of-a-kind book.

As a way of underscoring "postmodern" and "experimental" below are several postmodern, experimental features of this story revolving around and hovering over one central event - the attack and takeover of a series of radio stations by Clark Gifford and his anti-government followers, a takeover leading to twenty years of war:

Reaction Against Established Forms
Rather than telling the story in conventional start-at-the-beginning-and-move-forward linear progression, the novel hops and shifts back and forth in time, covering reflections, reports and events before, after, and during the attack, ranging from thirty years prior to thirty years after as well as including more than two dozen first-person narrators from military officers and executives to town residents and those actual participants in the attack.

Incorporates Many Varieties of Texts Directly
Among the novel’s thirty chapters, we have a written proclamation, a letter, a monthly magazine article, a series of press service flashes and three different newspaper articles. Chapters focus anywhere from years before the attack to years following the attack. To take but one example, here is a quote from a monthly magazine: "What sort of man was he, this Clark Gifford who plunged a continent for twelve long hours into the abyss of terror and despair? What lay behind the philosophy that waked children screaming in their beds, set housewives to shuddering, and caused even strong men to falter -and as casually as you or I would push the button of a light switch secure in the safety and sanctity of our own home?"

Erosion of Boundaries Between Subjects Usually Studied Separately
One would find it nearly impossible to approach Clark Gifford’s Body from distinct, self-contained perspectives, since, when it comes to history, social theory, philosophy or political science, the novel is an undifferentiated postmodern jumble. Here is a bit of philosophy from one General F. Johan Esteven: "I have no sympathy whatsoever with the terrorist methods employed by "Colonel" Gifford. In my opinion, Gifford should be tried by court martial and shot." Ha! Now that's very generous of you, General Esteven! Why not save the state some money and simply shoot Clark Gifford?

Postmodern Experience of Space and Time and the Leveling of Differences
With all the shifting back and forth through time and place, a reader has the sense people and events of this novel are coated with a layer of hazy gray fog; there is the buzz of sameness about it all. Where are we? What was the year of the attack? Sure, there are a couple of sports references, a general is off playing golf, a standard fare kind of guy muses on how fall is the season for football, but there is nothing more specific. Welcome to postmodern country, a bland-land and flatland, to be sure; we could be anywhere at any time, since, after all, no one location is any different from all the others.

Pastiche Rather Than Parody
Here is literary critic Fredric Jameson on the use of pastiche in postmodernism: “Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique style, the wearing of a stylistic mask, speech in a dead language, but it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without parody’s ulterior motive, without the satirical impulse, without laughter, without that still latent feeling that there exists something normal compared to which what is being imitated is rather comic.” This description fits Fearing’s novel like a custom made suit, a novel for the most part both humorless and free of satire, a novel that does anything but suggest there is an alternative, more "normal" culture and society anywhere else in the world.

All in all, there was something strangely compelling about Clark Gifford's Body that made me want to keep turning the pages. Perhaps it was the constant freshness of perspectives, each chapter offering a new voice, a different mode of communication, a new narrator with new expectations and challenges interlaced with all the other characters. But, whatever the reasons, this was an intriguing read, one with its own unique flare and a book I would wholeheartedly recommend.

Kenneth Fearing was a novelist ahead of his time. He was also a sensitive artist who suffered difficulty both as a child and then as an adult who eventually turned to alcohol. Other than his crime noir novel, The Big Clock, also republished by New York Review Books, Fearing’s fiction and poetry are all but forgotten.