Publication
Bloomsbury (2006), 192 p.
Original publication date
1996
Collections
Subjects
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 1998)
McKitterick Prize (Winner — 1997)
Description
"Tracing a quest that begins in the halls of Cambridge University, descends to the forbidden spaces of an isolated asylum, and moves on to the sunbaked shores of the south of France, Hallucinating Foucault brings to life a love affair like no other. "The love between a writer and a reader is never celebrated," Duncker writes. "It cannot be proven to exist. Yet we often talk with extraordinary intensity about a writer we've discovered, loved, read, and re-read. Reading is an eerie, alien, intimate experience. We know that there is someone on the other side of writing. They are sometimes close, terrifyingly present. We listen hard."" "As the book builds toward its startling conclusion, Duncker probes and unravels the intriguing connections between Paul Michel - an extraordinary writer who is sexually irresistible - and the philosopher Michel Foucault, who claimed he wrote his brilliant texts to attract boys. A riveting mystery as well as a meditation on the gender-transcending nature of love, Hallucinating Foucault is an unforgettable novel that goes to the very heart of the creative act."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member queen-of-the-geese
I bought Hallucinating Foucault yesterday morning for my Literary Theory course. It is a slim novel of only 181 pages but has captivated me on every single one. I can’t remember being this in love with a book in a long while. I knew by the end of the first chapter that it would be, without
Hallucinating Foucault is written in the first person by an unnamed narrator, a young man who is researching his PhD thesis on a French author by the name of Paul Michel. Paul Michel is brilliant but mad, shut away from society in a French mental hospital for the past decade. The narrator becomes obsessed with his subject matter and travels to France to help set Paul Michel free, both physically and mentally. It is a book about the relationship between author and reader. It is passionate, ominous, romantic, dark and so very intimate.
The character of Paul Michel is wonderful. Rather like the narrator, it is hard for the reader to make him out at times. He is mired in contradictions. I grew to love him just as the narrator did, yet he frustrated me and angered me. It is a mastery of characterization from Duncker. It isn’t easy to create such a well rounded and deep character while treating mental illness (schizophrenia in this instance) with such respect. I am in awe.
Patricia Dunckar’s writing is clear and concise without being abrasive or clipped. It flowed beautifully and swiftly, rather like a thriller would do. It griped me from the first page and would not let go, not even when I’d finished. Hallucinating Foucault was Duncker first novel, and I will now look to read her other works.
It is hard to describe how Hallucinating Foucault made me feel when I finished it. I felt completely empty, drained, as though I’d run an emotional marathon. Yet I was still filled with adrenalin and very tense. It is one of the books that when I finish I feel like weeping from tiredness. I slept badly that night, my mind running back and forth over the book while I waited for sleep. When I did drift off I dreamt about the characters in a strange abstract world, repeating words from the book over and over again. I still feel a bit winded. A friend asked if I thought it was cathartic and I had to think about that for a while. I was emotionally empty but I didn’t exactly feel purged. What I do know is that I love this book deeply. It feels like an old old friend that I’ve found again after a long separation.
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question, a favourite and that it would always hold a special place for me. It took me less than twelve hours for to finish, slotted between lectures and other University work.Hallucinating Foucault is written in the first person by an unnamed narrator, a young man who is researching his PhD thesis on a French author by the name of Paul Michel. Paul Michel is brilliant but mad, shut away from society in a French mental hospital for the past decade. The narrator becomes obsessed with his subject matter and travels to France to help set Paul Michel free, both physically and mentally. It is a book about the relationship between author and reader. It is passionate, ominous, romantic, dark and so very intimate.
The character of Paul Michel is wonderful. Rather like the narrator, it is hard for the reader to make him out at times. He is mired in contradictions. I grew to love him just as the narrator did, yet he frustrated me and angered me. It is a mastery of characterization from Duncker. It isn’t easy to create such a well rounded and deep character while treating mental illness (schizophrenia in this instance) with such respect. I am in awe.
Patricia Dunckar’s writing is clear and concise without being abrasive or clipped. It flowed beautifully and swiftly, rather like a thriller would do. It griped me from the first page and would not let go, not even when I’d finished. Hallucinating Foucault was Duncker first novel, and I will now look to read her other works.
It is hard to describe how Hallucinating Foucault made me feel when I finished it. I felt completely empty, drained, as though I’d run an emotional marathon. Yet I was still filled with adrenalin and very tense. It is one of the books that when I finish I feel like weeping from tiredness. I slept badly that night, my mind running back and forth over the book while I waited for sleep. When I did drift off I dreamt about the characters in a strange abstract world, repeating words from the book over and over again. I still feel a bit winded. A friend asked if I thought it was cathartic and I had to think about that for a while. I was emotionally empty but I didn’t exactly feel purged. What I do know is that I love this book deeply. It feels like an old old friend that I’ve found again after a long separation.
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LibraryThing member deliriumslibrarian
This book blew my f***ing mind. It's meltingly hot, brilliantly funny and deeply disturbing. And she just keeps getting better!
LibraryThing member Prop2gether
Interesting read about writers and readers and mental illness, both its definition and its treatment.
LibraryThing member rmtleech
I can't remember exactly what this book was about - craziness, lovers, art, criticism - but I remember absolutely loving it!! Semi-mentally unstable academics having sex in Europe - what's not to love? And Foucault!
LibraryThing member Georg.Miggel
Hallucinating Foucault
My first significant off-line experience so far. I read this book on vacation without access to the Internet and only now do I know how much I need Google and Wikipedia while reading. I know that there was a French writer/philosopher with the name Michel Foucault, but I
In short: In 1993, a young British student writes his thesis about a French writer (Paul Michel) who vanished in 1984. He travels to France, finds Michel in a “madhouse”, falls in love with him and helps him to get released. They travel to Nice where the story ends unhappily. In the end the student finds out that his “mission” was someone else’s mission and that he was only a pawn in someone else’s scheme.
As far as I can judge Duncker writes a very simple, but elegant English. She touches a lot of difficult topics such as the nature of madness, the thin line between homo- and heterosexuality, the psychiatric system in France, to name only a few. But in the center of the novel there is the relationship between writers and readers, in both directions.
In this book only a few persons have names, the writers, the doctors, and some minor characters, but not the readers. They are referred to as “the Germanist” (his girl-friend), “the bank of England” (her father), and the narrator himself only as “I”.
When “I” meets Michel for the first time, almost exactly in the middle of the book (p. 94 of 180), the first question of Michel is: “Comment tu t’appelles, toi? You’re English, aren’t you? What’s your name?” He repeats his question twice more without getting an answer. The last try ends like this:
“What did you say your name was?”, he asked, all provocation, dragging at his cigarette.
“You know perfectly well,” I snapped.
Although it is set in the sunny Midi it’s a sad elusive and sometimes mysterious story, but definitively a good one.
Two warning:
1.Don’t look on the last page before you reach it. It reveals the end of the story at a single glance.
2. Don't read the next sentence if you hate spolers: The book shows that an owl can do more than sending letters: It can save your life or destroy you.
My first significant off-line experience so far. I read this book on vacation without access to the Internet and only now do I know how much I need Google and Wikipedia while reading. I know that there was a French writer/philosopher with the name Michel Foucault, but I
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don’t know much about his work and if there is a real writer called Paul Michel. Maybe this knowledge is not necessary to understand this novel, but I still find myself sillier than usual. (As I have no LEO-program either I apologize for my bad English in advance)In short: In 1993, a young British student writes his thesis about a French writer (Paul Michel) who vanished in 1984. He travels to France, finds Michel in a “madhouse”, falls in love with him and helps him to get released. They travel to Nice where the story ends unhappily. In the end the student finds out that his “mission” was someone else’s mission and that he was only a pawn in someone else’s scheme.
As far as I can judge Duncker writes a very simple, but elegant English. She touches a lot of difficult topics such as the nature of madness, the thin line between homo- and heterosexuality, the psychiatric system in France, to name only a few. But in the center of the novel there is the relationship between writers and readers, in both directions.
In this book only a few persons have names, the writers, the doctors, and some minor characters, but not the readers. They are referred to as “the Germanist” (his girl-friend), “the bank of England” (her father), and the narrator himself only as “I”.
When “I” meets Michel for the first time, almost exactly in the middle of the book (p. 94 of 180), the first question of Michel is: “Comment tu t’appelles, toi? You’re English, aren’t you? What’s your name?” He repeats his question twice more without getting an answer. The last try ends like this:
“What did you say your name was?”, he asked, all provocation, dragging at his cigarette.
“You know perfectly well,” I snapped.
Although it is set in the sunny Midi it’s a sad elusive and sometimes mysterious story, but definitively a good one.
Two warning:
1.Don’t look on the last page before you reach it. It reveals the end of the story at a single glance.
2. Don't read the next sentence if you hate spolers: The book shows that an owl can do more than sending letters: It can save your life or destroy you.
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LibraryThing member StellaSandberg
An elegant, well-written bagatelle that doesn't live up to its back cover blurbs calling it a dark and sinister thriller. Fittingly it's about as cool and detached as the books-within-the-book, only I never felt any sinister passion seeping through or authorial voice speaking to me and only me. We
I appreciate the gay theme but find the oppression of gays exaggerated, the romantisation of self-destructive gay cruising culture a bit hard to swallow, and the novel's discretion when it comes to sexual matters counterproductive. It was a pleasant enough read but I'd rather recommend the Beebo Brinker series if you want gay tragic romance because frankly, there's no essential difference in quality.
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are told the narrator is scared, or obsessively in love, but I don't feel it and I don't share his fascination with the other characters (the Germanist, Paul Michel, Foucault...) Paul Michel does have a glimmer of life, I admit, but he's very far from competing with the most seductive fictional characters I've encountered. I appreciate the gay theme but find the oppression of gays exaggerated, the romantisation of self-destructive gay cruising culture a bit hard to swallow, and the novel's discretion when it comes to sexual matters counterproductive. It was a pleasant enough read but I'd rather recommend the Beebo Brinker series if you want gay tragic romance because frankly, there's no essential difference in quality.
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LibraryThing member legrande
Read this in less then a day. Very engaging and surprising story.
LibraryThing member NeilDalley
I was very impressed by this book and found it very moving. It is a complex story of the relationship between author and reader and has a wonderful thriller-like twist in it that I didn't see coming at all. The writing is crisp and immediate with some beautiful descriptions that re-create the
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emotions and feelings that go with a place. My one criticism is that if anything the book is too short which means that the author has not had time to develop and play out one of the key relationships in the story. For me this made that relationship seem a little unreal and a little two-dimensional. Despite this I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone and I look forward to reading more of Patricia Duncker's work. Show Less
LibraryThing member Tomleesteenboek
I started reading this book on a lazy morning and kept reading for an hour or so. Very grippingly told. But the the main character meets Paul Michel in the asylum, and suddenly I stopped believing the characters. They all flattened, and all that was left was an over-the-top emotional rollercoaster
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that wasn't very believable. Show Less
LibraryThing member Britt84
I've had this book lying around for years, and I rather regret nog having read it sooner, I very much enjoyed it...
The story of a student's quest for the writer he is doing his research on is well-written and drew me in completely. The themes of love and madness, of writing and reading, leave you
In the end, everything comes together beautifully and all lose strings are tied up neatly. The death of Paul Michel leaves you devastated, and yet, perhaps he finally has some peace now...
I really wanted to read something written by Paul Michel after reading the book, only to find out he doesn't actually exist. Which I find rather sad, I would have loved to read his work...
The story of a student's quest for the writer he is doing his research on is well-written and drew me in completely. The themes of love and madness, of writing and reading, leave you
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with something to think about, and I feel the scenes with Paul Michel really give you an idea of what it is like to suffer from a mental illness, what it means for someone, how it influences everything in your life.In the end, everything comes together beautifully and all lose strings are tied up neatly. The death of Paul Michel leaves you devastated, and yet, perhaps he finally has some peace now...
I really wanted to read something written by Paul Michel after reading the book, only to find out he doesn't actually exist. Which I find rather sad, I would have loved to read his work...
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LibraryThing member Kristelh
Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Duncker published in 1996 was her debut novel. It is the story of a postgraduate students quest from Cambridge to psychiatric hospital to the shores of southern France to rescue the author of his thesis. It is the story of the love between the writer and the
The author of the book is called Paul Michel which happens to be the name of Michel Foucault. Paul-Michel Foucault is a famous French philosopher whose thories address power and knowledge. Foucault died in 1984 of complications of HIV/AIDs. The writer Paul Michel quit writing after the death of his "reader" Michel Foucault.
The book was published in 1996 and addressed issues of homosexuality, madness, and touched on AIDS/HIV. The originality is the part about addressing the love affair between writer and reader but this is not a new thought. It has been covered in other books like If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. The plot was mostly connected but the connecting of Paul Michel and Michel Foucault, the Germanist, the doctor, etc was all a little loose. The characters wer mostly well developed, the setting and scenes were descriptive with a lot of comments about smells especially of the asylum smelling of urine and excrement. It was readable. A short book and I finished it in a couple of days of reading. It won a price in England and it is on the 1001 Books list. The book addressed issues of homosexuality such as a choice or born that way. The prose was mostly good with some foul language and sexual content. Sexual content is not overly descriptive but it is present.
Favorite quotes,
"Fiction...was beautifully, unauthentic and useless, a profoundly unnatural art, designed purely for pleasure. He described the writing of fiction, telling stories, telling lies, as a strange obsesssion, a compulsive habit. He saw his own homosexuality in similar terms; as a quality that was at once beautiful, useless, the potentially perfect pleasure.
Pg 28, he was opposed to "the born" and was in the "choose to be camp" (paraphrased.
"Because we do not believe in the stability of reality, we know it can fragment, like a sheet of glass or a car windscreen. But we also know that reality can be invented, reordered, constructed, remade. Writing is, in itself, an act of violence perpetrated against reality." Pg 120.
"Madness and passion have always been interchangeable."
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reader. The author of the book is called Paul Michel which happens to be the name of Michel Foucault. Paul-Michel Foucault is a famous French philosopher whose thories address power and knowledge. Foucault died in 1984 of complications of HIV/AIDs. The writer Paul Michel quit writing after the death of his "reader" Michel Foucault.
The book was published in 1996 and addressed issues of homosexuality, madness, and touched on AIDS/HIV. The originality is the part about addressing the love affair between writer and reader but this is not a new thought. It has been covered in other books like If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. The plot was mostly connected but the connecting of Paul Michel and Michel Foucault, the Germanist, the doctor, etc was all a little loose. The characters wer mostly well developed, the setting and scenes were descriptive with a lot of comments about smells especially of the asylum smelling of urine and excrement. It was readable. A short book and I finished it in a couple of days of reading. It won a price in England and it is on the 1001 Books list. The book addressed issues of homosexuality such as a choice or born that way. The prose was mostly good with some foul language and sexual content. Sexual content is not overly descriptive but it is present.
Favorite quotes,
"Fiction...was beautifully, unauthentic and useless, a profoundly unnatural art, designed purely for pleasure. He described the writing of fiction, telling stories, telling lies, as a strange obsesssion, a compulsive habit. He saw his own homosexuality in similar terms; as a quality that was at once beautiful, useless, the potentially perfect pleasure.
Pg 28, he was opposed to "the born" and was in the "choose to be camp" (paraphrased.
"Because we do not believe in the stability of reality, we know it can fragment, like a sheet of glass or a car windscreen. But we also know that reality can be invented, reordered, constructed, remade. Writing is, in itself, an act of violence perpetrated against reality." Pg 120.
"Madness and passion have always been interchangeable."
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LibraryThing member freetrader
Overrated. The relation between reader and writer as a theme does not particularly interest me. It is not about Foucault in any obvious way. What is interesting though is the schizophrenia of Paul Michel. It reminds me of Kierkegaard and the way existentialism is analysed in The denial of death by
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Ernest Becker cq Colin Wilson The Outsider. Show Less
LibraryThing member JBarringer
This is one of the more bizarre love triangle stories I've read.
Media reviews
Eine grandiose Leistung: Man muß kein Geisteswissenschaftler sein, um mit der "Germanistin" in den Hochgenuß geistreicher Erzählkunst zu kommen.
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
9780747585152
Physical description
192 p.; 5.08 inches
Pages
192