The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Cleavage of Ghosts by Noam Mor. Arc
Chris McCreary

Noam Mor. Arc: Cleavage of Ghosts. Spuyten Duyvil, 2002. 267 pp. Paper: $14.95.

Noam Mor’s debut novel follows primordial, modern-day Adam in his quest to find the reason for his existence after losing his lover, Phoenix. After encountering Kadman, his philosophical, spiritual other, and painstakingly making his way from an unlit hole of a restroom, Adam sets out amid the shadows of myth, constantly (and comically) concerned with the safety of his genitals as he travels from strip bars and bath houses to infinitely more disturbing landscapes. Despite the help of Sheckanah, an earthy mother-figure, and her band of grotesque sidekicks, Adam’s progress toward knowledge is sluggish and blundering; at the same time, the pace of the prose itself is slowed by the painstaking attention that is paid to the texture of each word swirling in Adam’s mind and stuttering from his mouth. Mor has succeeded in creating a reality that is linguistically thick and laden with libidinous desire, pulling the reader into a sensually and philosophically murky world in which the ground is constantly shifting. So all-encompassing is Arc’s otherworldly vision, in fact, that it is shocking to witness the occasional intrusion of a world we recognize as our own, such as Adam’s attempts to find his lost Social Security card or his fear of legal repercussions after having intercourse with Ambrosia, who is seemingly both a projection of his imagination and an underage girl. While Arc resonates with echoes of the Kaballah, Mor plucks only the elements from it that enhance his narrative and filters them through the souls of several morbidly humorous and formally experimental modern novelists, crafting a tale of self-discovery at once in conversation with the past and yet unlike any that came before it. [Chris McCreary]