Nietzsche's Kisses is a postmodern novel by Lance Olsen, published in 2006 by Fiction Collective Two. It is a work of historiographic metafiction.To hear Olsen discuss his perspective on Nietzsche's Kisses, the biographical novel, and historiographic metafiction with Jay Parini and Bruce Duffy, see the discussion at
Plot Nietzsche's Kisses is the narrative of Friedrich Nietzsche's last mad night on earth. Locked in a small room on the top floor of what would become The Nietzsche Archives in Weimar, one of the most radical and influential of nineteenth-century German philosophers hovers between dream and wakefulness, memory and hallucination, the first person, second, and third, past and present, reliving his brief love affair with feminist Lou Andreas-Salomé, his stormy association with Richard Wagner, and his conflicted relationship with Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, his radically anti-Semitic sister.
Narrative structure The novel is written in narrative triads: a first-person section (comprising the real-time of Nietzsche's last few hours alive), a second-person section (comprising hallucinations experienced by Nietzsche), and a third-person section (comprising Nietzsche's attempt to narrativize his own life; that triadic pattern is repeated throughout the novel.
Reception In an in-depth critical article, Electronic Book Review called Olsen's novel "quite remarkable," while Publishers Weekly said Olsen is a "fine and daring writer, equal to the material."
External links Lance Olsen reads from Nietzsche's Kisses at The Writers Edge conference in Portland, Oregon (2007) Interview (2006) with Lance Olsen about Nietzsche's Kisses, by The Nietzsche Circle Interview (2006) with Lance Olsen about Nietzsche's Kisses, by Scott Esposito at PopMatters
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