Boswell: A Modern Comedy

by Stanley Elkin

Overview

 

Elkin’s striking debut: The story of one man’s comic attempts at immortality James Boswell is a professional strongman and a wrestler. He is also a loveable leech who amasses friends of wealth and influence as his own insurance policy against death, an obsession that leads him from coast to coast, crashing parties and mentioning any celebrity whose name will grant him an ounce of social currency. But when those around him begin dying, Boswell is forced to confront his own mortality and determine once and for all how to find permanence in an ephemeral world. Poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, Boswell is Elkin’s engaging novel of one man’s desperate attempts to outmaneuver death, and an acerbic take on the follies of the American Dream. This ebook features rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate and from the Stanley Elkin archives at Washington University in St. Louis.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781453204108
Publisher:	Open Road Media
Publication date:	10/26/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	348
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Stanley Elkin (1930–1995) was an award-winning author of novels, short stories, and essays. Born in the Bronx, Elkin received his BA and PhD from the University of Illinois and in 1960 became a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis where he taught until his death. His critically acclaimed works include the National Book Critics Circle Award–winners George Mills (1982) and Mrs. Ted Bliss (1995), as well as the National Book Award finalists The Dick Gibson Show (1972), Searches and Seizures (1974), and The MacGuffin (1991). His book of novellas, Van Gogh’s Room at Arles, was a finalist for the PEN Faulkner Award.

Stanley Elkin (1930–1995) was an award-winning author of novels, short stories, and essays. Born in the Bronx, Elkin received his BA and PhD from the University of Illinois and in 1960 became a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis where he taught until his death. His critically acclaimed works include the National Book Critics Circle Award–winners George Mills (1982) and Mrs. Ted Bliss (1995), as well as the National Book Award finalists The Dick Gibson Show (1972), Searches and Seizures (1974), and The MacGuffin (1991). His book of novellas, Van Gogh’s Room at Arles, was a finalist for the PEN Faulkner Award.

What People are Saying About This

Alan Harrington

"Hilarious and brilliant."

Terry Southern

"There are moments in Boswell which indelibly mark Stanley Elkin as a great creative talent."

Richard Ford

"Pushing the envelope has always been Stanley Elkin's stock-in-trade. . . . If we didn't have him to read, we'd need to invent him. But we couldn't come close."

John Casey

"Stanley Elkin is such a down-to-earth and funny writer that how smart he is sneaks up on you."

John Irving

"One of our most original voices."

Editorial Reviews

Brilliant. . . . His sentences are long riffs of jazz; the words swarm and gather; the prose is exuberantly betroped, exhilaratingly de trop.

New York Times Book Review

It is clear that Elkin writes marvelously well. Humor explodes in bursts. Scenes crackle with gusto and imaginative fertility, and his people pop off the page with overabundant flesh.

Book Week

One of America's most inventive comic writers.

Time

Elkin's debut novel (1964) is a comic romp through the life of title character James Boswell, a con man and champion moocher. Although his works are serious underneath, Elkin is always good for a laugh. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

"Elkin's debut novel (1964) is a comic romp through the life of title character James Boswell, a con man and champion moocher. Although his works are serious underneath, Elkin is always good for a laugh."-- Library Journal

Dalkey Archive Press

"No serious funny writer in this country can match him." -- New York Times Book Review

Dalkey Archive Press

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