Waco-born writer challenges "Sironia, Texas" record for longest novel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) March 29, 2008 -- Waco novelist Madison Cooper made news in 1952 when Time magazine declared his 1.1-million-word Sironia, Texas to be "the longest novel by an American writer ever to be published." Fifty-six years later, another Texas writer with Waco ties is challenging that record with a 2.5-million-word work he claims is the world's longest published novel in English.

Waco-born writer Mark Leach is following in the footsteps of Cooper with Marienbad My Love, the story of a Christ-haunted filmmaker who believes he is called by God to bring about the end of the world by producing a science fiction-themed pastiche of the 1961 French New Wave classic Last Year at Marienbad.

"I first saw Last Year at Marienbad in an English lit class in college, and although it is one of my favorites today I must say I was not initially impressed," Leach said. "The interminable French narrator, the non-linear plot, the long tracking shots -- the film seemed to go on forever. Of course, some people might say the same thing about my novel."

Marienbad My Love is a massive work by almost any measure. It dwarfs Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, a 1.5-million-word opus that current holds the Guinness Book of World Records title as the longest novel in English. Marienbad My Love is more than twice as long as L. Ron Hubbard’s Mission Earth, which is widely regarded as the world’s longest science-fiction novel at 1.2 million words. But Leach said it is Sironia, Texas that has been his greatest inspiration.

"Madison Cooper has been something of an idol for me throughout the 20-year process of writing Marienbad My Love," Leach said. "Sironia, Texas was a complex work that Cooper produced in secret over a period of years, keeping it hidden from everyone in town. I grew up hearing stories about how he kept track of the many characters and plots of the novel by writing his notes on a paper window shade. If someone entered the room while he was writing, he'd raise the shade to hide his work."

Although Marienbad My Love is primarily set in the Dallas area, where Leach has lived most of his life, the novel also features several tributes to Waco. Leach incorporated a mention of the Waco Horror, an early 20th-century lynching that appears in Cooper's book; references to a rash of UFO reports in Waco and Central Texas the early 1950s; and the famous Waco tornado in 1953.

A recurring element in Marienbad My Love is a photography-based time travel machine created by a fictional version of Leach's grandfather, Jewell Poe Rowan, a professional photographer who operated a studio in downtown Waco that was destroyed in the 1953 tornado.

ABOUT MARIENBAD MY LOVE

Marienbad My Love by Mark Leach is a love story about the end of the world. A free e-book download is available at marienbadmylove.com.

Madison Cooper     Marienbad     Mark Leach     Sironia     texas     waco