This Storyline Captivates Me!


The Translation of Dr Apelles: A Love Story by David Treuer

Washinton Post review

From Boldtype:

Synopsis

Does a story exist if no one reads it? In this remarkable novel, a Native American scholar finds himself intertwined in two stories: an obscure manuscript he’s translating and his own neglected life.ReviewWhat becomes of an unread book? The US publishing industry alone produced 172,000 individual titles last year.

For its part, David Treuer’s third novel has an Amazon sales rank — not the most scientific of indicators, but a harbinger of a book’s commercial fate nonetheless— of 238,138, as of this writing.The anxiety of being unread lies at the heart of The Translation of Dr. Apelles, much of which takes place in a vast repository for forgotten books exiled from overflowing libraries. Dr. Apelles is a lonely bachelor, an Indian in a very white world, who catalogs the new arrivals so they can theoretically be retrieved should anyone wish to read them, though no one ever has. But Apelles is also a scholar and translator of Native American texts, who spends every other Friday in an archive of similarly unread stories, where he one day comes across a manuscript in a language that only he knows.

It is a love story, about two foundlings who grow to share one heart.The novel follows both Apelles’s translation and his own love story, with his beautiful co-worker at the repository, Campaspe. But love, like a good novel, is never simple, and Campaspe’s desire to know more of Apelles than he’s giving her results in her stealing his translation. What had been a novel about stories becomes a book about itself — metafiction of the most effective, and affecting, sort.

David Treuer is Ojibwe, and his recent collection of essays implores that readings of Native American literature focus on the literature itself rather than notions of identity and authenticity. Treuer writes about Indians, but the only tradition he’s concerned with is the literary one. The most appropriate reference points of this remarkable work are Borges, Calvino, and Classical myth; it paves the way for a new type of Great American Novel, one that doesn’t care about being “Native,” or even “American.” But will anyone read it?- Chris Parris-Lamb
Spread the love

More Articles for You

Latina/o Bloggers, Content Creators, Influencers: This Is Your Year

The Latina/o Bloggers Group is back and ready to uplift you. Join the community to tap into resources, connect with like-minded creators, and be part of something bigger than just a platform. Let’s rewrite the digital narrative together.

Spread the love
— Featured —

Nosferatu Reimagined: Mythology, Symbolism, & Storytelling in the Digital Age

When F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu first graced the silver screen in 1922, it set the stage for a century of fascination …

Spread the love

What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About Death, Technology, and Social Change

In a world where technology seems to dominate every facet of our lives, there’s something profoundly humbling about turning back …

Spread the love

Beyond Bread: Bakers in the Family, Pan de Agua and Casabe

I can picture us. Two, little rail-thin girls with long braided hair down our backs, holding hands as we walked …

Spread the love

How to Pull Back the Curtain: Heroes, Flaws, Boundaries and Creativity

I think a lot about exposure. I guess it comes with the territory of being a writer, and a communications …

Spread the love

Curating Caribbean Heritage: A List of Must-Read Books

This is how I honor and celebrate the diversity and richness of the islands and their cultural diasporas, reflecting on …

Spread the love