Book Review: Eunoia by Christian Bok

Eunoia is the shortest word in the English language that contains all 5 vowels and it means “beautiful thinking”. It’s also the title of what I think is a literary masterpiece of Christian Bok. He is Canada’s own experimental poet of univocalics. Each chapter is dedicated to a single vowel and all the words used in that chapter contains that dedicated vowel. In his own words, he mentions that his book shows that each vowel has its own personality and he delves into the personality of each letter. Here is an excerpt:

Chapter A

“Awkward grammar appalls a craftsman. A dada board as daft as Tzara damns stagnant art and scrawls an alpha (a slapdash arc and a backward zag) that mars all stanzas and jams all ballads (what a scandal).”

I’m not the biggest fan of poetry, my prose experience is limited to “that darling buds of May”, but I heard about this book when I was kidding around with my officemate about how a lot of books out now are either man-fiction or chick lit. He then told me about a book that in turn was recommended to him by his friends (classic workings of word-of-mouth) and he told me that it was an experience reading this book and its definitely worth every penny.

Admittedly I had low expectations about Eunoia, as much as the enthusiasm of my colleague was infectious, I couldn’t bring myself to get excited about a book with weird words dedicated to a single vowel.. well that is until I started reading the first page. It was brilliant, funny, thought provoking and all the characteristics I like in my favorite fiction books. What seemed like random words actually tells a story, and although it’s the kind of book that you do have to read a couple of times to really appreciate the cleverness of the writing, its an easy enough read that it doesn’t take that much of an effort to read again. I found myself chuckling on how witty the stories where concocted. And I’m in pure awe on the brilliance of the author.

My only rude awakening is that it put my own articulate knowledge or lack thereof front and centre when there were more than a couple of words I’ve never heard before and I constantly had to bring out the dictionary to find out what it meant.

So for fans of text twist, word whomp, for those who enjoy “artsy” book, or to book worms like me who are always game on reading a new genre at least once.. this is for you. I highly recommend it.

I give it 5 out of 5 stars..

“…Enfettered, these sentences repress free speech. The text deletes selected letters. We see the revered exegete reject metered verse: the sestet, the tercet – even les scenes elevees en grec. He rebels. He sets new precedents. He lets cleverness exceed decent levels. “