The Life and Memoirs of Doctor Pi: And Other Stories

by Edgar Bayley

Overview

The first English translation of a major Argentine literary figure. With an uncommon blend of elation and discretion, The Life and Memoirs of Doctor Pi takes readers on a journey of mysterious encounters, unspoken agreements, official-esque errands, and romantic escapades. Doctor Pi is an unflappable, perfectly human superhero—charismatic, artful, and with an understated swagger, master of his familiar yet impossible world. With its uncanny trust that language can capture that world in all its strangeness, The Life and Memoirs of Doctor Pi is delightful, mischievous, captivating in its suggestions of deeper literary and cultural intrigues. In the life of Doctor Pi, the familiar is rendered strange, but recognizable; the anticipated act is always fulfilled, but never as expected; and though consequences do ensue, they are never foreseeable, nor repeatable, and usually not very reasonable, either. To read Doctor Pi is to set forth on an expedition like no other—impossible to turn back from, impossible not to lose oneself in.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566568371
Publisher:	Interlink Publishing Group Inc
Publication date:	10/01/2010
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Born in 1919 in Buenos Aires, Edgar Bayley was a poet, playwright, director, translator, and essayist. He was the author of over fifteen published works in diverse genres. Emily Toder is a poet, translator, and letterpress printer.

Editorial Reviews

"There is an Argentine poetry before Bayley, and another after him"

Alberto Vanasco

"We cannot help but throw ourselves in the footprints of Doctor Pi"

Enrique Molina

"The late Argentinean avant-gardist Bayley brings a poetic precision to the short-shorts of his first English translation. Most stories feature the urbane title character, a professor, would-be ladies' man, and sometime foil, whose philosophy is best summed up in the 110-word story, "The Charmer, " which opens with "I say nothing, I think nothing..." and closes with "There is nothing but moments, a few small moments." An intellectual everyman brimming with curiosity, the doctor is frequently given to pearls of wisdom, as in "The Return": "There is no innocence where there is not love." Stories find him under waterfalls, boarding trains with highly watchable passengers, or descending mountains on his way to a date. Observations are often delightfully oblique, and the best escapades arrive unsaddled by a tidy message or punch-line surprise. Only a few stories run longer than a page; Bayley's fictions are tantalizing vignettes, amusing and often absurd, and readers will likely feel a pleasant nostalgia for the elegant humor of a bygone age."

From the Publisher

"The Life & Memoirs of Dr. Pi and Other Stories is a fantastic translation and a rollicking good read. ...Bayley is a master of word economy and concision, and it is breathtaking to watch him establish scene and advance plot in so little space."

Big Muddy