Five Strange Languages

A Short Introduction to Anneliese is the second volume in author James Elkins' multi-volume mega-novel Five Strange Languages being published by Unnamed Press, all of which trace the final year of Samuel Emmer's life before he disappears. When Samuel Emmer meets unemployed biologist Anneliese Glur for dinner during his stopover in Frankfurt, he has no notion of what to expect. Anneliese is an old friend and former colleague of his boss, and he agrees to dinner for no other reason than he has nothing better to do. As it turns out, Anneliese is a torrent of observations, digressions, theories, hypotheses, and resentments. She complains about her niece, who lives with her and her brother Paul, and about their uncle Hans, whose dementia haunts Anneliese's concerns about the state of her own mind. She deconstructs the "awfulness" of language, calling it an ill-fitting suit, and challenges the validity of memory. Most surprising is what Samuel comes to realize by the end of this strange dinner: that the insufferable but deeply compelling Anneliese is conducting a kind of interview with him – the purposes of which are not entirely clear. A month later, back home in Guelph, Samuel finds himself on the phone with Anneliese, listening to her once again. Her monologues are wild, seemingly endless, often laugh-out loud funny, and occasionally repellent; but nothing is random, for Anneliese Glur is systematically introducing Samuel not just to her work, but to a breakdown in her mind, which she describes as thirteen distinct problems in her thinking. She is fascinated by long books, and she tells Samuel what she thinks of dozens of books including epic poems, encyclopedias, Joyce, Proust, Aquinas, Velikovsky, Roussel, Wallace, Murnane, Sade, Gibbon, Schopenhauer, and Ossian. She is no longer sure that she is sane, and she needs Samuel to read her book – a comprehensive theory of the essence of life, that transcends category or definition – to see if it makes sense. But first, through a series of long conversations, she introduces him to the world of her mind. A Short Introduction to Anneliese has notes, which comprise a separate narrative at the end of the novel, written by Samuel in extreme old age (whom readers will recognize from Weak in Comparison to Dreams). This Samuel scarcely remembers Anneliese. Instead, her way of talking sounds to him like music. Her startling ideas have evaporated, leaving only melodies.

For years, Samuel Emmer has monitored bacteria levels in drinking water for the small city of Guelph. He is content to focus on dangerous life-threatening single-celled organisms as his grasp on his own life recedes-and with it, family and friends. To be sure, it is more than a little surprising when Samuel learns that he has been appointed to the city's Zoo Feasibility Committee. Even more so, that he is being tasked with interacting not just with animals, but human beings. His assignment: travel to zoos around the world and gather information on the stereotypical behavior of animals in their enclosures-the city of Guelph aspiring commendably, if naively, to a cruelty-free habitat for its animals. It is in Tallinn, Estonia, that the dreams start for Samuel. He is in a vast wooded landscape; there is a fire burning in the distance; and it is coming his way… Weak in Comparison to Dreams, by the historian and art critic James Elkins, is like no other novel you have ever read, even as certain inspirations, from Sebald to Tokarczuk, are clear. With an astounding breadth of knowledge and playful courage, Weak in Comparison to Dreams reignites our love for the ambitious novel with experimentation that never lacks intention, and whose empathetic scope explores the deepest aspects of our individual humanity.