
The Enormous Room
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Narrated by:
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Ken Kliban
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By:
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E. E. Cummings
About this listen
The Enormous Room is a 1922 autobiographical novel by the poet and novelist E. E. Cummings about his temporary imprisonment in France during World War I.
Drawing on his experiences in France as a volunteer ambulance-driver, Cummings recounts the series of mistakes that led to his arrest and imprisonment for treason. This edition restores much of the original manuscript.
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Editorial reviews
Narrator Ken Kliban gives a definitive performance of e. e. Cummings' autobiographical novel about his temporary imprisonment in France during World War I for supporting his friend's anti-war statements. Kliban perfectly captures Cummings' mixture of intellectualism and wit as he describes the people he meets and the absurd situations he finds himself in during his four-month incarceration. The other characters are also vividly embellished with accents and mannerisms that make them stand out, and listeners will feel as though they know these people from real life.
Interesting Story But...
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Do be prepared for a lot of non-PC language as this was written just over 100 years ago and uses vernacular of the time and situation.
Interesting but need a translator
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Good story. Terrible narration
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e.e.cummings life in WWI prison camp
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― E.E. Cummings, The Enormous Room
Prison Literature as a genre is fascinating. Like war literature, there is this gap between those who have actually lived in prison and their experiences and those who imagine. Certainly the job of the fiction writer is to explore spaces unknown to most, and perhaps unknown even to the author. Science Fiction is filled with writing that follows that pattern. However, from the several novels I've read by authors who have actually been in prison (like books written by those who have actually fought in war), the experience seems to create an almost surreal or absurd view of things. E.E. Cummings who was incarcerated by the French during WWI because of letters written by his friend, portrays this absurdity of confinement in this novel, and just as Dostoevsky does in Notes from a Dead House or Solzhenitsyn does in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I could continue the list with works by Paul Bunyan, Cervantes, Marque de Sade, Chester Himes, O. Henry, Jack London, Jean Genet, Oscar Wilde, etc. I could also include the political writing and books by Napoleon, Hitler, Malcom X, Mussolini, etc.
Obviously, the political tracts written in prison (or even the religious tracts too) deserve a lot of attention, but 'The Enormous Room' has more in common with Kafka and the modernists than it does with any protest writing. It is the attempt by the trapped artist to create something from an experience. It is a scratch to explain, a scribble to remember, a set of words meant to make sense of the absurdity of the cell. This isn't a perfect book and I will be the first to admit I prefer E.E. Cummings poetry to his prose. But it is also an important marker. It is a novel that shows just how warped even good systems can get during war, and just how pleasant some captives really are. In many ways Cummings wasn't writing to right some wrong, or to expose some evil. He seemed to treat his experience in France as almost an illness, a temporary convalescence that served as a puparium. It wasn't an obvious transformation. He didn't walk in an innocent and exit an artist, but it seemed to be a vector of growth, an accelerant toward the artist.
As I write this I also think there is a natural pull of artist and prison. Does that seem harsh? Prisons represent the ultimate impulse to control for conformity. It is natural that this impulse seeks out and grabs the artist; the ultimate non-conformist. Society is always trying to keep the artist in check, and when the odd, the aberrant, the avante-garde appears too far ahead, too dangerous for the masses, it is often easier for society to just lock the odd up. I don't think this is likely to ever change. There will always be conflict between Pan and Panopticon.
The Prose of Panopticons
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Beware if you don’t speak French
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Would you try another book from E. E. Cummings and/or Ken Kliban?
Yes.What could E. E. Cummings have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
This story lacked any drama. Like watching paint dry.Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Ken Kliban?
Narrator did an OK job. He didn't have much to work.Save your money. Pass on this story.
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