Tree of Codes
Jonathan Safran Foer.
London: Visual Editions, 2010. Octavo. Paper wraps. 139 pages. First edition. Near fine.
Foer's avant-garde reimagining of Bruno Schulz's Street of Crocodiles, with 139 die-cut pages, layering the original text with gaps cut out to create an original narrative within the story itself. A literary and book arts triumph.
"Bruno Schulz is regarded as one of the greatest artistic minds of the 20th century. He was killed by a Nazi officer during the war. I don’t know of a book that has a following that’s as passionate as [that of] this book . . . It’s such an unusual book. There’s a quality of the writing that makes an all-or-nothing wager. Like religion. God doesn’t “kind of” exist—he either does or doesn’t. This book is either genius or nothing. I find that wager really attractive. All really great artists, Jackson Pollack, John Cage, Beckett or Joyce—you are never indifferent to them."