JD: A Novel
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.79 (644 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0299303500 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-06-23 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Martha in particular is a remarkable character—I've never read anyone like her in American fiction. Mark Merlis is a major writer and this is his best novel yet.”—Christopher Bram, author of Eminent Outlaws and Gods and Monsters. “An amazing novel: beautifully written, ingeniously structured, involving and dangerous. The two narrative voices here, a wife and a husband, are perfectly realized. This is a chamber drama about one family, yet it’s full of windows that look out on the wider worlds of the Vietnam War, New York literary politics, and the gay revolution
JD’s most masterful element is its treatment of these two characters, both of whom spent their lives groping for contentment like one trying to find a light switch in a darkened room. A great writer offers not just tight prose but also insight, a series of probing questions that extend from the fictional world into the real one. Very highly recommended for both community and academic library literary fiction collections.”—Midwest Book Review/Reviewer’s Bookwatch “The fantastic JD (U. Best Books of 2015: Fiction, Open Letters Monthly Finalist, Gay Fiction, Lambda Literary Award Finalist, Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction, Publishing Triangle Best books for public & secondary school libraries from university presses, American Library Association “Many years after a ’60s New York writer's death, his widow confronts their tumultuous marriage and private identities through his journals. She finds journals that begin as a wisecracking chronicle of life at the fringes of the New York literary scene, then recount Ascher’s sexual adventures in the pre-Stonewall gay underground and the social upheavals that led t
In the Diary Novel Tradition A finely conceived, sensitive work in the true diary novel tradition: that is, a diary is recovered as a "found" object, filed away years ago and not meant for publication. (Sartre's Nausea is such a work.) I agree with other reviewers that Merlis ranks among the best contemporary novelists we have. He seamlessly blends diverse . "An Arrow's Flight is a book I consistently recommend to friends" according to Hugh. A compelling, disturbing, powerful read.I have long been an admirer of Merlis' writing. An Arrow's Flight is a book I consistently recommend to friends, and I recently backtracked to read American Studies, which I found enjoyable. No one does this milieu better than Merlis. His evocation of the jaded intellectualism of the late . Altogether excellent. Jay Jonson A powerful and disturbing novel that makes one ponder for a long time. The narration, from the perspective of the wife of a once famous writer, and the writer's own journal, is masterfully controlled. The relationships are complicated. Altogether excellent.