Description
With a new Foreword by Derek De Vries It is 1963 in an unnamed town in North Dakota, and Anthony Thrasher is languishing for a second year in eighth grade. Prematurely sophisticated, young Anthony spends too much time reading Joyce, Eliot, and Dylan Thomas but not enough time studying the War of 1812 or obtuse triangles. A tutor is hired, and this "modern Hester Prynne" offers Anthony lessons that ultimately free him from eighth grade and situate her on the cusp of the American sexual revolution. Anthony's restless adolescent voice is perfectly suited to De Vries's blend of erudite wit and silliness - not to mention his fascination with both language and female anatomy - and it propels Slouching Towards Kalamazoo through theological debates and quandaries both dermatological and ethical to soar on the De Vriesian hallmark of scrambling conventional wisdom for comic effect.
About the Author
Peter De Vries (1910-93), the man responsible for contributing to the cultural vernacular such witticisms as "Nostalgia ain't what it used to be" and "Deep down, he's shallow," was, according to Kingsley Amis, "the funniest serious writer to be found on either side of the Atlantic." But De Vries's life and work was informed as much by sorrow as by wit, and that dynamic is nowhere better seen than in his classics Slouching Towards Kalamazoo and The Blood of the Lamb. First published in 1983 and 1961, respectively, these novels reemerge with their sharp satire and biting pain undiluted by time.
Reviews
"Anyone who has never read De Vries could perhaps find no better place to start than with Slouching Towards Kalamazoo. It is vintage De Vries....A hilarious and expertly crafted comic novel." - New York Times "Few writers have understood literary comedy as well as De Vries, and few comic novelists have had his grasp of tragedy." - Jeffrey Frank, New Yorker"
Book Information
ISBN 9780226143897
Author Peter De Vries
Format Paperback
Page Count 246
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 284g
Dimensions(mm) 20mm * 13mm * 2mm
About the Author
Peter De Vries (1910-93), the man responsible for contributing to the cultural vernacular such witticisms as "Nostalgia ain't what it used to be" and "Deep down, he's shallow," was, according to Kingsley Amis, "the funniest serious writer to be found on either side of the Atlantic." But De Vries's life and work was informed as much by sorrow as by wit, and that dynamic is nowhere better seen than in his classics Slouching Towards Kalamazoo and The Blood of the Lamb. First published in 1983 and 1961, respectively, these novels reemerge with their sharp satire and biting pain undiluted by time.
Reviews
"Anyone who has never read De Vries could perhaps find no better place to start than with Slouching Towards Kalamazoo. It is vintage De Vries....A hilarious and expertly crafted comic novel." - New York Times "Few writers have understood literary comedy as well as De Vries, and few comic novelists have had his grasp of tragedy." - Jeffrey Frank, New Yorker"
Book Information
ISBN 9780226143897
Author Peter De Vries
Format Paperback
Page Count 246
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 284g
Dimensions(mm) 20mm * 13mm * 2mm
