Nietzsche's Kisses

Nietzsche's Kisses is a postmodern novel by Lance Olsen, published in 2006 by Fiction Collective Two. It is a work of historiographic metafiction.[1]

Nietzsche's Kisses
AuthorLance Olsen
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenrePostmodern novel, Historiographic metafiction
PublisherFC2
Publication date
February 28, 2006
Pages244
ISBN1573661279

Plot

Nietzsche's Kisses is the narrative of Friedrich Nietzsche's last mad night on earth. Locked in a small room on the top floor of what would become The Nietzsche Archives in Weimar, one of the most radical and influential of nineteenth-century German philosophers hovers between dream and wakefulness, memory and hallucination, the first person, second, and third, past and present, reliving his brief love affair with feminist Lou Andreas-Salomé, his stormy association with Richard Wagner, and his conflicted relationship with Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, his radically anti-Semitic sister.

Narrative structure

The novel is written in narrative triads: a first-person section (comprising the real-time of Nietzsche's last few hours alive), a second-person section (comprising hallucinations experienced by Nietzsche), and a third-person section (comprising Nietzsche's attempt to narrativize his own life; that triadic pattern is repeated throughout the novel.

Reception

In an in-depth critical article, Electronic Book Review called Olsen's novel "quite remarkable,"[2] while Publishers Weekly said Olsen is a "fine and daring writer, equal to the material."[3]

References
  1. To hear Olsen discuss his perspective on Nietzsche's Kisses, the biographical novel, and historiographic metafiction with Jay Parini and Bruce Duffy, see the discussion at http://ias.umn.edu/2012/09/20/duffy-parini-olsen-biographies/%5B%5D
  2. "The Eternal Hourglass of Existence". Electronic Book Review. 10 October 2006. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  3. "Nietzsche's Kisses". Publishers Weekly. 2 March 2006. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
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