THOUSAND TIMES BROKEN
THREE BOOKS
By Henri Michaux
Translated by Gillian Conoley
PUBLISHERS’ WEEKLY TOP TEN BOOKS FOR 2014
THE 50 BEST INDEPENDENT FICTION AND POETRY BOOKS OF 2014, Flavorwire
Thousand Time Broken brings together three never-before-translated texts in which Henri Michaux’s art and poetry merge in ways never seen before. Composed between 1956 and 1959, during the period of Michaux’s mescaline experiments, the texts include Peace in the Breaking, written under the influence of mescaline, Watchtowers on Targets, a singular, automatic collaboration with surrealist painter Roberto Matta, and 400 Men on the Cross, a ghostly contemplation of his loss of Catholic faith.
“In his quest for the inexpressible, Michaux represents the ultimate paradox, at once visionary mystic and rationalist, as he seeks to chart the journey without end. Gillian Conoley’s skilled and vital translations, as well as her deeply illuminating commentaries on the three extraordinary volumes collected here, are indeed a revelation and a gift.”––Michael Palmer
“In these three remarkable works from the late fifties, in which the activity of inscription inhabits the abstract mark as well as the signifying word, Michaux ‘perceived what one otherwise doesn’t perceive, what one hardly suspects if at all.’ Now, through Gillian Conoley’s impassioned translation, Anglophone readers can perceive it too.”—Barry Schwabsky
“This is an invaluable addition to Michaux’s works in English, filling an important gap with a vivid, vibrant linguistic performance.”—Cole Swensen
