Evan Dara Resources

One of the goals of the Evan Dara Affinity is to promote the novels of this misprized author and spark conversations and research about his work.  To further this aim, we will use this page to point the curious reader in the direction of those who’ve written about Dara, including reviews, books and articles, and online discussions/resources.  Comments and suggestions are warmly welcomed.

Books and Articles

“American Book Review :: 100 Best Last Lines from Novels.” Americanbookreview.org. n.d.  <http://americanbookreview.org/onehundredlines.asp>

Stephen Burn. (Ed.). (2017). American Literature in Transition, 1990–2000 (American Literature in Transition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316477069

Evan Dara, “Gone Lawn 11 : Evan Dara.” Journal.gonelawn.net. n.d. <http://journal.gonelawn.net/issue11/Dara.php> (An extract from The Easy Chain.)

John Blair Gamber, Positive Pollutions and Cultural Toxins (University of Nebraska Press, 2012)

Green, Daniel. “Giving Voice: On The Work Of Evan Dara”. The Reading Experience, 2020, https://www.thereadingexperience.net/tre/2020/05/giving-voice-on-the-work-of-evan-dara.html. Accessed 26 May 2020.

Jeremy Green, Late Postmodernism: American Fiction at the Millennium (Palgrave, 2005)

Jeremy Green, “Unknowable Communities: Postmodern Utopianism in Evan Dara’s Lost Scrapbook,” American Comparative Literature Association Convention, Boulder, CO, March 2001

Charles B. Harris, “At Play in the Fields of Formal Thinking” Musing the Mosaic (SUNY Press, 2003)

Steven Moore, William Gaddis, Expanded Edition, 2nd ed. (Bloomsbury, 2015)

Patrick O’Donnell, The American Novel Now (Blackwell, 2010)

Edited James Peacock, Tim Lustig. Diseases and Disorders in Contemporary Fiction: The Syndrome Syndrome (Hardback) – Routledge.” Routledge.com. 28 Oct. 2016.  Stephen Burn contributes an essay called “Mapping the Syndrome Novel,” which includes this mention of Dara:

Similarly, even in its incomplete form, David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King seems to be modeled around what Wallace calls “Random-Fact Intuition” syndrome (2011, 118). Just as the novel presents a willfully centrifugal narrative that is periodically fragmented by interpolated stories and intrusive screeds of data, so RFI syndrome is characterized by “psychically intuited and intrusive facts” (118, 119). Evan Dara fits less comfortably into a post-postmodern framework, but The Lost Scrapbook‘s distributed set of narrative nodes seems to be designed to imitate a neural net. While less straightforwardly built around homologies between form and content, Dara’s The Easy Chain can hardly be called conventionally structured in its exploration of “Zinkofsky’s Syndrome […] a benign dysfunction of the semanto-neurological system thought to be triggered by exquisite sensitivity to social nuance” (Dara 2008, 96-97).

Emmett Stinson, Satirizing Modernism: Aesthetic Autonomy, Romanticism, and the Avant-Garde, (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017)

Strecker, Trey (1998). Ecologies of Knowledge: The Encyclopedic Narratives of Richard Powers and His Contemporaries. The Review Of Contemporary Fiction, 67.  (“Novelist Richard Powers and contemporaries William T. Vollmann, David Foster Wallace, Evan Dara and Bob Shacochi build upon the turmoil of the millennium to advance their sociopolitical vision of global survival by redefinition. They send us back into the world reconsidered to counter the effects of humankind’s impact. Their novels are not as Edward Mendelson asserts, encyclopedic narratives, but narrative ecologies.”)

Courtney Traub, (2016) Non-Anthropocentric Narrative Strategies in Recent Experimental US Fiction. Literature Compass, 13: 515–529. doi: 10.1111/lic3.12337.

Courtney Traub, (2015). Romanticising crisis: digital revolution and ecological risk in late postmodern American fiction. DPhil. University of Oxford.

Reviews

The Lost Scrapbook

Derik Badman “The Lost Scrapbook by Evan Dara » Madinkbeard | Derik Badman.” Madinkbeard.com. 9 Nov. 2004.  <http://madinkbeard.com/archives/the-lost-scrapbook-by-evan-dara>

Terrell Dixon, “The Literature of Toxicity,” American Book Review,  <http://litline.org/abr/issues/Volume17/172.html>

“The Lost Scrapbook.” Kirkus Reviews. 20 May 2010.  <http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/evan-dara/the-lost-scrapbook/>

Tom LeClair, “Voices from an American Nightmare”, Washington Post Book World, 9 June 1996

“The Lost Scrapbook.” PublishersWeekly.com.  <http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-57366-006-8>

Emmett Stinson, “Book Review: The Lost Scrapbook.” Emmettstinson.blogspot.com. 1 Dec. 2016.  <http://emmettstinson.blogspot.com/2010/11/book-review-lost-scrapbook.html>

El Cuaderno Perdido

Javier Vayá Albert. “‘El cuaderno perdido’, lo infinito en lo finito | La Huella Digital.” Lahuelladigital.com. 16 Oct. 2015. <http://www.lahuelladigital.com/el-cuaderno-perdido-lo-infinito-en-lo-finito/>

Canino. “[Todos a una] Nuestros libros favoritos de 2015 – Canino.” Canino. 26 Dec. 2015. <http://www.caninomag.es/todos-a-una-nuestros-libros-favoritos-de-2015/>

Joan Flores Constans. “El cuaderno perdido | Revista de Letras.” Revista de Letras. 31 Aug. 2015.  <http://revistadeletras.net/el-cuaderno-perdido/>

N.a. “Diario-de-Mallorca_11022016.png (1023×631).” Palidofuego.com. 12 Feb. 2016. <http://www.palidofuego.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Diario-de-Mallorca_11022016.png>

Admin. “Premios EC 2015 | Estado Crítico.” Criticoestado.es. <http://www.criticoestado.es/premios-estado-critico-2015/>

Joan Flores Constans. “El cuaderno perdido | Revista de Letras.” Revista de Letras. 31 Aug. 2015.  <http://revistadeletras.net/el-cuaderno-perdido/>

Joan Flores Constans. “El cuaderno perdido.” Jediscequejensens.blogspot.com.es. <http://jediscequejensens.blogspot.com/2015/05/el-cuaderno-perdido.html>

Mariano Hortal, “Lectura y Locura | El cuaderno perdido de Evan Dara. Colmena narrativa.” Lecturaylocura.com. <http://lecturaylocura.com/el-cuaderno-perdido-evan-dara/>

Lucas Martin, “Dara y el ruido de la modernidad.”La Opinión de Málaga. 27 Jan. 2016.  <http://www.palidofuego.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/El-cuaderno-perdido_Opinion_230116.pdf>

Fran Matute, “El cuaderno perdido.” Elcultural.com. <http://www.elcultural.com/revista/letras/El-cuaderno-perdido/36776>

Melillo, Facundo, “El cuaderno perdido. Goodreads. 18 Jan. 2020. <https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3059775884?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1>

Vicente Luis Mora. “Diario de una pelea con Evan Dara.” Vicenteluismora.blogspot.com.es. <http://vicenteluismora.blogspot.com/2015/06/normal-0-21-false-false-false-es-x-none.html>

Rebeca García Nieto. “… Un pelín patriótico… Un pelín Niels Bohr | Estado Crítico.” Criticoestado.es. <http://www.criticoestado.es/un-pelin-patriotico-un-pelin-niels-bohr/>

Patricio Pron, “Las reglas del juego.” EL PAÍS. 21 Sept. 2015. <http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2015/09/21/babelia/1442849958_502633.html>

Peio H. Riaño. “Diecisiete libros que nos gustó leer en 2015 – EL ESPAÑOL.” El Español. 3 Dec. 2015. <http://www.elespanol.com/cultura/libros/20151202/83741679_0.html>

Robert Saladrigas, “Una novela de voces” Palidofuego.com. 9 Dec. 2015.  <http://www.palidofuego.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/culturas_051215.jpg>

The Easy Chain

Stephen Burn, “American Book Review :: Vol. 30, Number 4.” Americanbookreview.org, <http://americanbookreview.org/issueContent.asp?id=181>

Scott Esposito, “The Easy Chain.” Review of Contemporary Fiction, vol. 29, no. 1, Spring 2009, pp. 235-236.  https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Evan+Dara.+The+Easy+Chain.-a0202644689

Tom LeClair, “Mixed Receptions.” Bookforum.  <http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/015_04/2998>

Eugene Lim, “. . . » evan dara.” Eugenelim.com. 13 Jan. 2017. <http://www.eugenelim.com/tag/evan-dara/>

Zoran Rosko, “Evan Dara – Holistic novel: promosexuals, expectatory therapy, paleo-optometry, a man who wants to sue his mirror for slander, forensic musicology….” Zorosko.blogspot.com. <http://zorosko.blogspot.com/2010/05/evan-dara-holistic-novel-promosexuals.html>

Emmett Stinson “Triple R – Melbourne Independent Radio > The Easy Chain By Evan Dara (Aurora Publishing).” Rrr.org.au. n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2017. <https://www.rrr.org.au/whats-going-on/reviews/the-easy-chain-by-evan-dara-aurora-publishing/>

Jeff Waxman,”Seminary Co-op Bookstores, Inc. » Blog Archive » The Easy Chain.” Blog.semcoop.com. 26 Oct. 2008. <http://blog.semcoop.com/2008/10/26/the-easy-chain/>

Scott Bryan Wilson,  “The Easy Chain by Evan Dara.” Quarterly Conversation. 07 Feb. 2017. Tags: experimental fiction, massive books.

“inchoatia: Evan Dara, The Easy Chain (2008).” Inchoatia.blogspot.com. 1 Feb. 2017.  <https://inchoatia.blogspot.com/2015/09/evan-dara-easy-chain-2008.html>

La cadena fácil

Avilés, Javier. “La Cadena Fácil, De Evan Dara”. Ellamentodeportnoy.Blogspot.Com, 2020, https://ellamentodeportnoy.blogspot.com/2019/09/la-cadena-facil-de-evan-dara.html. Accessed 8 Feb 2020.

Barrueco, José Ángel. “‘La Cadena Fácil’, De Evan Dara”. El Plural, 2019, <https://www.elplural.com/playtime/la-cadena-facil-de-evan-dara_225225102>. Accessed 8 Feb 2020.

Blanco, Natalio. “Un Torbellino Que Se Hace Llamar Evan Dara – Diario16”. Diario16, 2019, <https://diario16.com/un-torbellino-que-se-hace-llamar-evan-dara/>. Accessed 8 Feb 2020.

Brox, Oscar. “Evan Dara. F Is For Fake, Por Óscar Brox – Détour”. Détour, 2019, <http://diarios.detour.es/literaturas/evan-dara-f-is-for-fake-por-oscar-brox>. Accessed 8 Feb 2020.

Bujalance, Pablo. “Pálido Fuego, Por Amor A Evan Dara”. Málaga Hoy, 2019, <https://www.malagahoy.es/ocio/Palido-Fuego-amor-Evan-Dara_0_13864>

Constans, Joan et al. “La Cadena Fácil”. Jediscequejensens.Blogspot.Com, 2019, <https://jediscequejensens.blogspot.com/2019/12/la-cadena-facil.html>. Accessed 8 Feb 2020.

Fernández, Laura. “Columna | El Nuevo Thomas Pynchon Es Tan Esquivo Que Ni Siquiera Tiene Editor”. EL PAÍS, 2019, <https://elpais.com/cultura/2019/11/20/babelia/1574260267_915213.html>. Accessed 8 Feb 2020.

Hortal, Mariano. “32 Recomendaciones Literarias Para Un Otoño Caluroso – Canino”. Canino, 2019, <https://www.caninomag.es/32-recomendaciones-literarias-para-un-otono-caluroso/>. Accessed 8 Feb 2020.

“Los Libros De La Semana | Altafidelidad.Org”. Altafidelidad.Org, 2020,  <http://www.altafidelidad.org/los-libros-de-la-semana-302/>. Accessed 8 Feb 2020.

Paredes, Israel, and Israel Paredes. ” Experimentación Literaria Para Deconstruir La Realidad | Revista De Letras”. Revistadeletras.Net, 2020, <https://revistadeletras.net/evan-dara-experimentacion-literaria-para-deconstruir-la-realidad/>. Accessed 8 Feb 2020.

Sevilla, Diario. “Todos Somos Un Experimento”. Diario De Sevilla, 2019, <https://www.diariodesevilla.es/delibros/Evan-Dara-La-cadena-facil_0_1402360126.html>. Accessed 8 Feb 2020.

Flee

Trey Strecker. “Suburbscapes of the disappeared.” The Times Literary Supplement.  <http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/private/suburbscapes-of-the-disappeared/>

Online Discussions and Resources

Zach Baron. “David Foster Wallace’s Reading List.” Village Voice. 5 May 2009. Web. 12 May 2017. <http://www.villagevoice.com/music/david-foster-wallaces-reading-list-6614128>

Matt Bucher, “Matt Bucher » Blog Archive » Twelve Underappreciated Novels.” Mattbucher.com. 23 Feb. 2013. <http://www.mattbucher.com/2013/02/23/twelve-underappreciated-novels/>

Conversational Reading, “Some American books I really like / blurbs more than reviews / six novels and a book of poems.” CR. <http://conversationalreading.com/some-american-books-i-really-like-blurbs-more-than-reviews-six-novels-and-a-book-of-poems/>

Paul Debraski, “Evan Dara–The Lost Scrapbook (1995).” I Just Read About That…. 6 Oct. 2014. <https://ijustreadaboutthat.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/evan-dara-the-lost-scrapbook-1995/>

edevere17.com. “Four Centuries of Skonk.” edevere17.com. 23 Apr. 2016.  <https://edevere17.com/2016/04/23/four-centuries-of-skonk/>

Ba Jin. “everybody’s grandpa.” Ba Jin. 2 Jul. 2015. Web. 18 Sept. 2017. <https://bajinbooks.wordpress.com/2015/07/02/everybodys-grandpa/>.  This pseudonymous blogger provides one of the more interesting reaction readings of The Lost Scrapbook that I’ve come across.  The other entries include:

Ela Kotkowska, “Evan Dara’s Lost Scrapbook, or the art of listening to static.” Beardandbicycle.blogspot.com. 31 Dec. 2016. <http://beardandbicycle.blogspot.com/2016/07/evan-daras-lost-scrapbook.html>

N.A.,”Evan Dara: The Lost Scrapbook” Themodernnovel.org. n.d. Web. 11 May 2017. <http://www.themodernnovel.org/americas/other-americas/usa/dara/lost/>

Idea of the Day Blog. “The Rise of the ‘Neuro-Novel’.” Idea of the Day Blog. 28 Oct. 2009. Web. 12 May 2017. <https://ideas.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/the-rise-of-the-neuro-novel/>

Pivner, “How Do People Not Know About Evan Dara?.” The Lost Scrapbook, The Easy Chain, Flee. 1 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 May 2017 <https://fleethelosteasychain.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/how-do-people-not-know-about-evan-dara/>

Steve Russillo shared extensive notes during his readings of Dara’s novels, which provide guidance for those who get disoriented:

Dan Schmidt, “dfan says» Blog Archive » Evan Dara: The Lost Scrapbook.” Dfan.org. 30 Jul. 2011. <http://dfan.org/blog/2011/07/30/evan-dara-the-lost-scrapbook/>

Edwin Turner, “Some notes on beginning Evan Dara’s novel Flee.” Biblioklept. 9 Feb. 2015. <https://biblioklept.org/2015/02/09/some-notes-on-beginning-evan-daras-novel-flee/>

Edwin Turner, “A Conversation about Evan Dara’s Novel Flee (Part 2).” Biblioklept. 29 Mar. 2015. <https://biblioklept.org/2015/03/29/a-conversation-about-evan-daras-novel-flee-part-2/>

LT, “mayonaise | issue no. 10 – more neil, joe walsh, evan dara, marcus aur.” TinyLetter. n.d. Web.  <https://tinyletter.com/mayonaise/letters/mayonaise-issue-no-10-more-neil-joe-walsh-evan-dara-marcus-aurelius-clayton-patterson-more>

Wikipedia Contributors. “Evan Dara.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Feb. 2017.  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Dara>

Wikipedia Contributors. “The Lost Scrapbook.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Scrapbook>

Wikipedia Contributors. “The Easy Chain.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Easy_Chain>

Wikipedia Contributors. “Flee (novel).” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flee_(novel)>

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