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Author | Mark Crick |
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Language | English |
Genre | DIY/Pastiche |
Publisher | Granta |
Publication date | 2008 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Pages | 98 |
ISBN | 978-1-84708-047-9 |
Preceded by | Kafka's Soup |
Followed by | Machiavelli's Lawn |
Sartre's Sink is a literary pastiche in the form of a do it yourself handbook. It contains advice about how to undertake 14 common household tasks each written in the style of a famous author from history. [1] Sartre's Sink is the second book by photographer and author Mark Crick. Excerpts have appeared in The Independent [2] and the Evening Herald . [3]
The book includes chapters on how to bleed a radiator by Emily Brontë, [1] [4] tile a bathroom by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, [4] [5] hang wallpaper by Hemingway, [4] [5] [6] unblock a sink by Sartre, [1] repair a dripping tap with Marguerite Duras, [2] put up a garden fence with Hunter S Thompson, [2] [3] [6] paint a panelled door with Anaïs Nin, [2] re-glaze a window with Milan Kundera, board an attic with Edgar Allan Poe, [7] loosen a stuck drawer with Samuel Beckett [7] and how to paint a room with Haruki Murakami. [5] [7] Other parodied authors include Goethe and Joseph Conrad. [1] [6] Mark Crick says that he found Dostoyevsky the most difficult author to parody. [8]
As with his previous work, Sartre's Sink is illustrated with paintings by the author in the style of a number of famous artists including van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Magritte and Turner. [1]
Carolyn Kellogg of the LA Times noted that the book was "only marginally instructive". [6] The Telegraph felt that the subject matter of Sartre's Sink was "not as interesting" as that of Crick's earlier book Kafka's Soup . However, the editor nonetheless believed that the quality of the pastiche was equal to that of the earlier book calling both books "a gem". [9] Roy Williams of The Australian called it "a minor masterpiece" naming painting the panelled door and putting up the garden fence as his particular favourites. [1] Ian Sansom of The Guardian called it "hands-down droll". [5] Nicolas d'Estienne d'Orves of Le Figaro called it "Irresistible". [10] Sartre's Sink was named Sunday Times humour book of the year 2008. [4]
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