商品描述
A feverish and gripping novel about obsession, creation, and redemption. After being mauled and disfigured by a lion during the 1966 International Automobile Show in New York City, actress and model Nell Theobald became obsessed with legendary soprano Birgit Nilsson, stalking her from opera house to opera house across the world, before dying mysteriously in 1977.
Forty years later, a young bookseller and music journalist discovers Theobald's enticingly strange and patchy archive. He grows enamored with the scope of her life, uncovering a woman tormented by her lofty, romantic whims and her need to make art. Who haunted sordid nightclubs and rewrote entire operas by evening. Who was part of the wrong crowd and whose life grew increasingly grim because of it. So what happened to her, really?
As the unnamed narrator struggles to forge a career for himself while attempting to account for Theobald's life, he grows increasingly desperate to find any semblance of truth in a contemporary New York City complicated by surveillance and infinite layers of mediation.
Heaven's Oblivion is an operatic noir rendered in sensitive and poetic prose. Its dreamy--and at times searingly comical--tone renders the glamorous clubs and opera houses of the 1970s alongside the experimental art communities present in New York today.
Above all else, it is an exuberant meditation on the struggle to love and create art in a world that doesn't understand.
商品描述(中文翻譯)
一部關於執迷、創作與救贖，狂熱而扣人心弦的小說。
1966 年紐約市國際汽車展期間，女演員兼模特兒 Nell Theobald 遭獅子撕咬，面容嚴重毀容。此後，她便迷上傳奇女高音 Birgit Nilsson，尾隨她走遍世界各地的歌劇院，直到 1977 年神祕死亡。
四十年後，一名年輕的書商兼音樂記者發現了 Theobald 那份迷人而奇異、卻又殘缺不全的檔案。他逐漸沉醉於她生命的廣度，並揭開一名受崇高而浪漫的幻想，以及創作藝術的渴望折磨的女性。她流連於污穢的夜總會，到了晚上便重寫整齣歌劇；她身處錯誤的圈子，也因此讓自己的人生愈來愈陰鬱。那麼，她究竟遭遇了什麼？
這名沒有姓名的敘事者一邊努力為自己開創事業，一邊試圖還原 Theobald 的人生；然而，在一個受到監控與無限層次媒介化所形塑、錯綜複雜的當代紐約市裡，他愈來愈不顧一切，只想找出任何一絲真相的痕跡。
《Heaven's Oblivion》以細膩而詩意的散文，寫成一部歌劇式黑色小說。它如夢似幻、時而又尖銳得令人發笑的筆調，描繪了 1970 年代奢華迷人的俱樂部與歌劇院，也呈現今日紐約仍持續存在的實驗藝術社群。
最重要的是，這是一場充滿活力的沉思：在一個不理解自己的世界裡，人們如何努力去愛，並創造藝術。
作者簡介
Chris Molnar is a writer, filmmaker, and editor whose work has appeared in outlets including The Believer, BOMB, and Esquire. He has co-edited anthologies including Unpublishable, Archways 1, and Last Poems by John Farris. His Wild Radio video-poems with B. Kite include Gas Stations at Night and Artifacts of the Moon. He was co-founder of Archway Editions, as well as the Writer's Block, the first independent bookstore in Las Vegas, and is a founding member of Enigma Editions. He lives in New York City.
作者簡介(中文翻譯)
Chris Molnar 是一位作家、電影製片人與編輯，其作品曾刊登於《The Believer》、《BOMB》與《Esquire》等媒體。他曾共同編輯《Unpublishable》、《Archways 1》以及 John Farris 的《Last Poems》等選集。他與 B. Kite 合作創作的 Wild Radio 影像詩包括《Gas Stations at Night》和《Artifacts of the Moon》。他是 Archway Editions 的共同創辦人，也是 Writer's Block（拉斯維加斯第一家獨立書店）的共同創辦人，並為 Enigma Editions 的創始成員。他現居於紐約市。
