Review of Bartleby & Co. by Enrique Vila-Matas

Bartleby & Co. by Enrique Vila-Matas

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
This book, ostensibly a collection of footnotes referring to a non-existent text about writers that choose not to write, is a decent conceptual idea, is not grabbing me. Partly because, that isn't what it is - the notes form more of a narrative than disparate references/tangents would. And I wonder if I would like it more if the convention of footnotes was removed or if it was written as actual footnotes, in small print under a dividing line at the bottom of a blank page. The structure of the book is key to the narrative though, coming up explicitly in the text and if nothing else a reminder that as a writer, I should worry less about how something is structured than what it actually says.


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