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The Floating Opera (1956; "revised edition," 1967: Doubleday Anchor)
Professor Miller discusses Barth's first book as one of the great novels of ideas and as one of the greatest novels about the Quest for the Self. When The Floating Opera first appeared, it was viewed in the context of the raging controversy over existentialism. Now, with hindsight, it is regarded as one of the major pioneering works of postmodernist literature. The narrator, an attorney in a small Southern riverside town, is presumable writing an objective explanation of the most important day of his life. He tries to cope rationally with the complexity of modern experience -- in war, in the law courts and in sex. His readers gradually realize that rationalism has taken Counselor-at-law Todd far away from reality -- and from himself. The narrative is rich in local color, irony, allegory. The overall effect is to stun the reader with the universal question: Am I leading an authentic life? |
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