A novel that captures the glancing intersections of a loose group of
artists and lawyers, restaurateurs, philosophers, wine-makers, and
boxers.
Having dinner at the Triennale, Massimiliano is cooking Pho. He bought
the ingredients a few days ago on his way back from Vietnam. The
building was built in 1933, Malou went there as a child with Jacqueline,
the fascist architecture and the name Triennale remained. A building
named "every three years." Massimiliano was born on December 6th, the
same day as Malou...
--from Vzszhhzz
Composed between destinations, in airplanes, trains, museums, and bars
over three years, Jeanne Graff's Vzszhhzz captures the slight
intersections of a loose group of artists and lawyers, restauranteurs,
philosophers, wine-makers and boxers whose lives are conducted almost
entirely in a second language. A loose chronicle masquerading as a
novel, Vszhhzz--like Michèle Bernstein's All The King's Horses, the
Bernadette Corporation's Reena Spaulings, and Natasha Stagg's
Surveys--couches Graff's sharp observations in a laconic and ambient
style. By not saying too much, Vzszhhzz says everything about the
relation to time, cities, weather and smog that has become the lingua
franca of a creative and transient life.
There's an art of writing amidst the energies and languages of others,
and Graff's ear for existential specificity finds momentum in even the
most glancing encounters. Always on the move, Graff's phototropic texts
incline toward human heat, hallucinating characters upon contact.
--John Kelsey
