Insel (Neversink)

The author of this roman a clef was an artist and a poet who lived in the creative ferment of Stein, TS Eliot, the Dadaists in Europe; as well as a being a New York gallery representative. In this novel she wrote of “Insel” her fictionalized husband. He is starving, manic and pimping two black Parisian women while making love to her. She is blind and projects her greatness of spirit onto him, including her abilities as a medium. “the drift of his words swept me together with the frozen drawing along a current of quiet reverence, expressing gratitude. As under his conjurative power of projecting images, I felt myself grow to the ruby proportions of a colossal beef steak.”Halfway through the work, she realizes that part of his mysterious energetic affect on her is his drug addiction. The table turns... This is vivid, insightful, present and surrealistic writing.The English translation of Insel's german conversational bits is embedded in the writing. Exposure to Surrealism and the language of mediums may clarify and increase appreciation.

Mina Loy might be a fine poet, but there's a very good reason why this novel wasn't published during her lifetime despite her numerous attempts: the writing is awful. There seems to be an amusing story about a nightmarish artistic mooch buried in the tortured prose, but unfortunately not amusing enough to warrant the effort of digging it out.

Engrossing fictional portrait of the strange marginal surrealist Richard Oelze as viewed through Mina Loy's friendship and scrutinizing curiosity of him.

She couldn't get this published. That should have been my cue.

Very strangely written but I enjoyed the rich imagery even if I wasn't quite sure what was going on. It's like reading something written by someone on LSD. What I did relish was learning more about Mina Loy and the artist, Richard Oelze, on whom the main character, Insel, is supposedly based. This was my first surrealist novel ... very different, demanding for the reader and, I would say, an acquired taste.

Soy un admirador de Mirna Loy, todo lo que hizo, escribió o realizó a lo largo de su vida me interesó desde que conocí su obra hace años.