Vila-Matas has produced something out of nothing here, a beautifully executed book about not writing, about the history of the literature of “No.” The narrator, who published one book & then stopped writing, is fascinated by so-called Bartlebys, named after a character in a Melville story who answers every query with, “I’d prefer not to.” Deciding to write again, the narrator opts to create a sort of library of footnotes discussing writers who stopped writing & the why of it.

Through these footnotes, & interjections of the narrator’s own experiences, a kind of orthodox narrative is actually created. So many writers are mentioned, some very familiar names (Walser, Duras, Pessoa, Beckett, Kafka, Borges, Proust, Pynchon, Pessoa, Musil) & some so obscure that I had to look them up to see of they were real or figments of imagination. Reasons for the “No” are many (from the funny to the tragic) & they seem to support a building thesis, nearly a philosophical treatise of paradox, that attempts to value the doing as much as the not-doing. Of course, the not-writing can be a deep source of frustration for would-be writers, but this can be a catalyst for accepting, even valuing, time spent doing things other than writing. Meaning is not necessarily found just in the act of creating, but can be found in the decision not to create, in contemplation and in silence.

This book is incredibly engaging, fun & profound, wistful in the best way.