Baker, Nicholson

Average customer rating:

How do YOUR Shoelaces Break?
Grab the escalator into Howie's world of ideas...
the visible hand
Not plotless, not all about a few moments, and not not-transcendent
Minutiae

The Mezzanine
Nicholson Baker
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679725768
Release Date: 1990-01-16

Book Description

Turns an ordinary ride up an office escalator into a meditation on our relations with familiar objects--shoelaces, straws, and more. Baker's debut novel, and a favorite amongst many of us here.

Customer Reviews:

How do YOUR Shoelaces Break?.......2007-01-17

You just have to read this. You will never look at a plastic straw the same way again. What should I say? That it's about escalators and shoelaces and personal-care products? This is a true example of a story being about HOW it's told, not what it's about. A hundred obervations of everyday minutiae, and voila. Life.

Grab the escalator into Howie's world of ideas..........2006-12-01

We drown in information. Terabytes and petabytes of it slosh over us every day. Many decide to remain oblivious to this assault and ignore the fascinating minutiae that lurk in obscure peripheral corners. They miss a lot. Howie, the "hero" of Nicholson Baker's first novel, "The Mezzanine," provides an antidote for this myopia. Throughout the short novel, he pulls back, like onion skin, the conceptual strata of common experience to reveal the wonderous microcosms beneath. Where many of us see a plastic straw, Howie sees a spectrum of engineering discoveries, plastic-to-paper buoyancy and porosity ratios, and tiny ebbs and flows in the quality of life. He scrutinizes things at the quantum level, such as the differences between "oop" and "oops," the various ways to end a conversation with a co-worker, and the theoretical means by which a shoelace wears to breaking point. Howie thrives on micro-analysis. He floats in information as though it were a soothing amniotic fluid.

A portrait in text, "The Mezzanine" presents a first person character study of a detail fanatic. One hundred and thirty five pages relate the mental and physical events of a single lunch hour. Anything worthy of the slightest notice receives apt attention and many of the observations steer Howie into his past or into his private life. For instance, he lists his major developmental advances. These include "shoe tying," "brushing tongue as well as teeth," and "putting on deodorant after I was fully dressed." Worried about reaching his "majority," he calculates the number of new thoughts required to overtake the puerile thoughts that have collected in his brain since age six. Only when these new thoughts preponderate will he consider himself "fully developed" and able to "really understand things." Later on, he reflects on the periodicity of thoughts. How often a person thinks about a thing may reveal more about them than their professed beliefs. Howie analyzes his own thoughts and includes a chart with rows for "Subject of Thoughts" and "Number of Times Thought Occurred in Year." This does reveal a lot about Howie. In particular, the most affection he shows for his girlfriend, referred to obliquely as "L.," is by placing her name at the top of this list. Other references to her seem devoid of emotion. But the fact that he actually made such a list probably says more about Howie than the items that appear on it. Parallel to the main text, copious footnotes capture Shandean digressions that sublimate ancillary thoughts for pages on end. These often flood the main narrative, leaving a mere few lines bobbing atop the page. No branch of Howie's ruminations gets neglected.

"The Mezzanine" defies summary. The figures, ideas, facts, theories, images, and metaphors zoom by at hyperspeed, sometimes to an overwhelming degree. Collectively they turn the brain into a bloated sac teeming with an incomprehensible degree of data. Somehow this intellectual miasma becomes a highly engaging read. As if listening to someone ramble on about every detail that occurs to them moment by moment could be entertaining. Somehow it is and the effect remains spellbinding and illuminating throughout. The highly readable, verging on gimmicky, prose and the often hilarious imagery move the book along at a surprising pace. Regardless, at times the text lumbers down and sags under its own weight, but these moments don't come often enough to detract from the book as a whole. And though it lacks a plot, the book nonetheless suggests new ways of seeing and experiencing everyday life. Either that or the reader will thank their lucky stars that they didn't turn out like Howie. He does at times seem rather cold and emotionless, as though ideas and facts have replaced the very blood in his veins. What does L. think of him? One can only imagine after Howie relates the earplug story that ends with L. pleading "See how much I love you?" Even that doesn't seem to move him. Some questions remain: does Howie's life, though bursting with information and fascinating trivia, have any meaning? Is this a concrete-sequential horror story about someone stuck in the sterile world of facts? Or does Howie represent the modern enlightened individual basking in technology and ideas? The reader of course must decide, but one thing seems certain: "The Mezzanine" provides enough food for thought to survive multiple readings.

the visible hand.......2006-04-09

If you don't spend a lot of time contemplating your shoe laces, this book may come as somewhat of a revelation to you. A very, very minor revelation. The fact is that someone probably spent a good part of their professional life developing and testing that shoe lace, and someone else spent many hours fine-tuning it to make it as pleasing as a shoe lace can possibly be. Same goes for escalators, plastic straws, and staplers. The neat thing about a market economy is that so many people spend so much time improving such minor commodities, just so they can exchange them with each other. Nicholson Baker has written a humorous and almost touching tribute to this system. Very enjoyable (although I don't think I would have wanted it to be any longer).

Not plotless, not all about a few moments, and not not-transcendent.......2006-02-05

I just wanted to make a few points about this book.

1 -- It isn't really correct to say it's 'plotless'. That might give people the wrong idea, that it's like a late William Burroughs book. It's actually more like a work of non-fiction, a philosophical book closely focussed in neat chapters, with circular forms where the last sentence refers to the first etc, about various little problems of contemporary life. It's a lot like a really elaborate episode of Seinfeld. I'm not just reading that into the book, either, and trying to be clever. It has simple, transparent and tidy forms. So it's not 'plot-less'.

2 -- It's not all about going up an escalator either. I think it's a bit disingenuous of the author to even sort of imply that it is. That would be a really hard project. But the escalator does still provide a neat formal unity, one which symbolises and encapsulates the 'meaning' of the book, which brings me to my next point.

3 -- I don't really think this book lacks transcendence. It is about valuing the minuitae of your own life. I always worry about 'starving children in Africa' and so on, and I worried a bit at the beginning of this book that I was wallowing in pointless decadence. But when you really think about it, -- not that you need to think, because the author points this out pretty clearly -- there are several deep philosophical ideas involved in learning to value the actual incidents and experiences of your daily life. For example, the author talks about how difficult it was for him to approach the truth of these experiences without hiding behind the inauthentic standpoint of 'and that's how I felt about escalators in my sentimental youth'. And I would add, having only gotten halfway through the book (but that's only because I've just been reading it for one hour, not because it's boring), that dismissing 'trivial' experiences similar to your own is both a sign of a lack of self-esteem and a sign of excessive ambition -- as if only certain topics were worthy of writing about. And what would those topics be? All the stupid ones, of course, involving bad values -- celebrity, money, crime, lust.

The sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (sp?) pointed out that often people will only write about things that are backed up by 'cultural capital'. For instance, they will accept columns about rock music, or already famous authors, but not about random blogs by anorexic girls on the internet, for instance. I suppose there are some good reasons for that, but at the same time, books like Nicholson Baker's help us to escape from some of the more hideous values currently ascendent.

So those are my points!

Except I forgot one thing: this book reminded me that it REALLY ANNOYS ME when men confess 'objectively' to their purchase of pornography. There's this implication of 'brave me for confessing', but it would only really be brave now if they added 'and that was morally good' or 'that was morally bad'. Men will never do that!

Minutiae.......2004-09-03

After reading Checkpoint, I couldn't resist finding out how Nicholson Baker's books are when he isn't contemplating the death of a president. The Mezzanine demonstrates why reviewers were willing to pay so much attention to his more recent work. For 135 pages, Baker creates compelling reading from an almost plotless situation; in the most literal sense, the entire book transpires as the narrator rides an escalator from one floor to another. But in that ride he makes observations about, well, everything: drug stores, mens room etiquette, shoelaces, milk in bottles vs. milk in cartons, cigarettes being thrown from car windows, and, in an overwhelmingly ironic footnote near the end of a footnote-filled book, footnotes. In making these observations, the narrator captures the life of an office worker at the start of a career, wondering about why the company functions as it does and about the meaning of his place within the company, but also--and more importantly--about the whole host of mundane details that surround this world of work and the life for which that work provides subsistence. You'll shake your head a few pages in, yes, but soon you'll be nodding, agreeing with observations that are so familiar, so obvious, that you can't believe you've never made them until now. A bit dated by the advent of e-mail and the internet--no one sends paper memos back and forth, removing and reinserting staples in an endless loop from department to department, when they can simply CC: the involved parties--this is nevertheless a classic.

The World on Sunday : Graphic Art in Joseph Pulitzer's Newspaper (1898 - 1911)

Average customer rating:

A lush example of newspaper history at its finest.
Homage to Baker and Brentano
Old-Timey Magic
Thank you NIcholson and Margaret!!
Wow! Mere words cannot do justice to these graphics...

The World on Sunday : Graphic Art in Joseph Pulitzer's Newspaper (1898 - 1911)
Nicholson Baker , and Margaret Brentano
Manufacturer: Bulfinch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0821261932

Book Description

A visual smorgasbord from a legendary newspaper and its illustrious illustrators, this oversized book taps into the current craze for graphic novels and vintage comics. Joseph Pulitzers New York World flourished at the turn of the twentieth century, and out of it grew what we think of as the modern daily paper. The World was famous for muckracking and sensationalism, but to a contemporary eye what is most striking about the paper (and in particular the Sunday edition) is that it was filled with colorful artcaricatures, full-page cartoons, disaster drawings, fiction illustrations, hand-lettered typography, weird science, halftone photographs, maps, and more. For The World on Sunday, Baker and coauthor Margaret Brentano have selected 85 of the finest examples of period reporting, bold and playful graphic design, long-lost comic strips, and society pieces from the heyday of The World for reproduction in this delightful oversized volume. Bakers introductory essay argues the significance and beauty of Pulitzers paper, and Brentanos detailed captions and notes accompany the colorful reproductions throughout. The World on Sunday is a visual treasure trove that will appeal to newspaper and history buffs as well as graphic designers, artists, and writers.

Customer Reviews:

A lush example of newspaper history at its finest........2007-01-07

Joseph Pulitzer's New York WORLD flourished at the turn of the 20th century and grew from a modern daily paper to a sensationalist publication packed with striking colorful art, from photos to cartoons and drawings. THE WORLD ON SUNDAY gathers over a hundred of the best from WORLD and places them in an oversized presentation to display their color on single and double-page spreads. A chronological arrangement lends to a fine sequence of reproductions tracing editorial and news highlights of the times, while colorful commentary accompanies the pieces and provides the necessary background for appreciation by all audiences. THE WORLD ON SUNDAY: GRAPHIC ART IN JOSEPH PULITZER'S NEWSPAPER (1898-1911) is a top pick not just for art or newspaper library holdings, but for general-interest collections as well: it captures the art, craft and style of a bygone era and is a lush example of newspaper history at its finest.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Homage to Baker and Brentano.......2006-12-17

As a librarian, I am horrified, but unfortunately not too surprised to learn that few libraries have kept back issues of the newspaper put out by one of the great figures in USA publishing. And that's before I saw how beautiful it is! The idea that not only all this information but all this art was nearly lost is appalling. (I'm glad Duke University took it, but I hope the gift requires them to return it if they decide to throw it out.) I've been on the losing end of these fights, and no, one can't always assume that someone else kept the material.

Meanwhile, enjoy a glorious and gorgeous piece of historic publishing. I had no idea that color printing was so widely used ad so good at such an early time. The pictures often show great artistic skill and witty humor. There are also some fascinating bits of newpaper history.

A fantastic gift to the nation and the world. I can only show my appreciation by buying my own copy.

Old-Timey Magic.......2006-09-26

A treasure of a lost time and a lost art. Aside from the short-life expectancy and lack of modern conveniences like, uh, cars, ATMs, antibiotics, radio, microwave ovens, television, computers, etc., this book makes you wish you lived back then- when science, technology, and journalism were in their infancy and every day held some new, authentic wonder- not just a smaller cell phone. It's also quite amazing to see how advertisements, typefaces, layouts, and prose have radically changed in a century, and not necessarily for the better- unless you're one of those "Form Follows Function" kooks. A must for all you Luddites out there.

Thank you NIcholson and Margaret!!.......2006-01-30

This book celebrates one of the high points in American popular culture. In the late 1800's, Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World, purchased the first great high quality color printer for newspapers. He then used it to publish beautiful color graphics every Sunday. This is both great art and great entertainment. But the story of how the author Nicholson Baker and his wife, Margaret Brentano, tracked down the last surviving complete collection of this work just before it was to be lost forever is just as thrilling. This is an exquisite book that is the product of great work by great people. Get ready to enjoy a true treasure.

Wow! Mere words cannot do justice to these graphics..........2006-01-25

Amazingly, there almost no collections of Pulitzer's ground-breaking newspaper in existence. At considerable personal expense, authors Baker and Brentano rescued a trove of New York World papers from a library in Britain. Here they reproduce a selection of the Sunday pages, mostly covers. Included are covers by comic artists like Outcault, Herriman, and McManus, but also by "fine" artists like George Luks -- and a fabulous graphic artist named Biedermann, among many others.

Words just cannot do justice to this wonderful volume. The use of color separation here is just incredible, and is something that anyone who loves printmaking or beautiful graphics will treasure. Comics afficianados who love Winsor McCay and Lionel Fenninger will find much to appreciate here, as will those who love Chris Ware. But it is also a great coffee table book with historical interest that everyone will love. Just great.

Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper

Average customer rating:

Interesting but often unreasonable
Librarians or vandals?
I See No Conspiracy
An eye opener for the realists
Hilarious and ridiculous

Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper
Nicholson Baker
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375726217
Release Date: 2002-04-09

Book Description

The ostensible purpose of a library is to preserve the printed word. But for fifty years our country’s libraries–including the Library of Congress–have been doing just the opposite, destroying hundreds of thousands of historic newspapers and replacing them with microfilm copies that are difficult to read, lack all the color and quality of the original paper and illustrations, and deteriorate with age.

With meticulous detective work and Baker’s well-known explanatory power, Double Fold reveals a secret history of microfilm lobbyists, former CIA agents, and warehouses where priceless archives are destroyed with a machine called a guillotine. Baker argues passionately for preservation, even cashing in his own retirement account to save one important archive–all twenty tons of it. Written the brilliant narrative style that Nicholson Baker fans have come to expect, Double Fold is a persuasive and often devastating book that may turn out to be The Jungle of the American library system.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting but often unreasonable.......2007-06-01

Nicholson Baker's Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper is a fiery polemic dedicated to the task of protecting what he sees as one of our nation's most important resources: our libraries' massive stockpile of seldom-used older books and newspapers. As Baker explains, the extent of our paper reserves of old newspapers and rarely read old books is dwindling, often being chopped up and "preserved" (that is, their content, rather than their form, is preserved) in either microform or a digital format.

Baker's position is not a nuanced one; we need to save everything. To do this, libraries need to purchase warehouses, warehouses basically without end, so that not a Sun-Times or musty tome is thrown aside. The very first sentence in the summary on the back cover reads "The ostensible purpose of a library is to preserve the printed word" which shows Baker may have a basic confusion between the definition of a library and the definition of a repository, but never mind: the point is, Baker says, a library neglects its duties when it throws away disused materials.

Baker's writing style is eloquent and engaging; however, the entire book is dominated by a one-sided and hostile tone, along with his distinctly uncharitable characterization of his opponents.

I think the basic philosophical difficulty in Baker's position can be found in the chapter with the title "A Swifter Conflagration." Here, Baker fully reveals his philosophical position that all pieces of written media are valuable as individual objects. It is not merely enough that a rarely-used book's contents are preserved somewhere; merely disposing of a particular object is itself always a dereliction of duty.

Baker says:
"The truth is that all books are physical artifacts, without exception, just as all books are bowls of ideas [i.e. textual content]. They are things and utterances both. And libraries, [Baker's ally] believes, since they own, whether they like it or not, collections of physical artifacts, must aspire to the conditions of museums. All their books are treasures, in a sense..."

This is a rather overstated thesis. Some books and newspapers are valuable essentially for their own sake, rare books such as the Gutenberg Bibles, for example. However, it doesn't follow that every library must preserve every non-duplicate book or newspaper on its shelves, some of which, such as pulp novels, are almost certainly disposable once their shelf-life is over. What Baker calls for is for libraries to devote large portions of their physical holdings to items that, not virtually, but literally, do not circulate.

Clearly, there are some documents for which preserving the content, as opposed to the object, is enough. Sometimes a microform copy may be enough. But in any case, a non-print version of some kind will be enough for a large number of items, such as research and journal articles is certainly enough.

There are times in Double Fold when Baker seems to be using the sheer confidence of his vituperation to slip some questionable logic past the reader. At one point Baker complains that the Library of Congress threw out ten million dollars worth of public property. However, his criterion for this figure is replacement value. This is a somewhat meaningless, almost sneaky figure. A lot of otherwise worthless things might be rather pricey to replace. Being difficult to replace does not make something valuable in the first place.

This is not say there are not some worthwhile themes in Double Fold. Baker's complaints about microform are well taken, his call for a national repository even more so. While I may disagree that individual libraries are responsible for every physical document they've ever possessed, it would be nice for historians if they could expect to find them somewhere.

Baker also provides the reader with an entertaining and occasionally fascinating history of book "preservation," including the disastrous use of large, book-filled, black-goo spurting tanks of explosive gas, formerly owned by NASA. Another memorable anecdote involves the creation of paper from the wrappings of Egyptians mummies.

The fact that Baker's book is quite biased and sometimes infuriating should not dissuade an intelligent reader from giving it a shot; however, some practical knowledge of libraries and a questioning attitude are prescribed.

Librarians or vandals?.......2007-05-13

Well, pretty clearly vandals. Let me give another example or two of how right Baker is. I've been doing some historical research on various topics in 19th and early 20th century New Hampshire and Vermont history. Newspapers of the time are full of relevant information. Alas, actual copies of the newspapers I need no longer exist. Specifically, the Hanover (NH) Gazette, Burlignton (VT) Free Press, etc. All have been destroyed and now exist only on microfilm, much of which is simply unreadable. It would be one thing if librarians had microfilm copies of newspapers produced AND kept the originals so that those of us who needed to consult the originals could do so. But they didn't. They tossed the originals and these no longer exist. If this isn't vandalism, I don't know what is.

I See No Conspiracy.......2006-05-28

I don't doubt the author's word that there are isolated examples of libraries discarding old papers but I dont see any Orwellian conspiracy.
As a graduate student in Library Science and Information Studies, I would much rather manage e-books simply because paper is a big hassle. I also get tired of seeing trees cut down for untouched books.
Furthermore, managing information technology as opposed to baby sitting books has more appeal to employers and provides more cover for higher salaries.
Schools of Library Science/Information Studies can attract better students and more students to degree programs that provide skills as opposed to esoteric book studies.
However, there is no conspiracy against paper. To the contrary, the State University of Iowa offers graduate classes dealing purly with book studies.

An eye opener for the realists.......2005-08-18

Would suggest this be listed in the Hall of Fame.

Hilarious and ridiculous.......2004-07-02

...to even think of blaming libraries. Maybe if high powered political figures on library boards across America didn't feel the need to make their served institutions "All Things to All People" and got back to core values, and if the American public could turn off American Idol and reality TV long enough to end the Reign of the Retard, there would be the support for libraries needed to house all the items ever published anywhere, and every Podunktown can have it's own Library of Congress. Guess you've truly made it when you've sold enough books you can bite a hand that feeds you, Mr. Baker.

Amazon.com

Although we may have been taught not to judge a book by its cover, photographer Abelardo Morell reverses the old saying and delightfully shows us how to relish a book by its look. This inventive and clever photographic ode to the printed word captures all the powerful possibilities contained on the page. A Book of Books gives us images that range from formal studies of shape and texture to the joyously whimsical.

Most luminous are the sculptural renditions, fluid pages curving over their spines like majestic mountains in the distance. The abstract pattern of a dictionary takes on the enigmatic characteristics of crop circles, while a water-damaged book shows itself as a twisted organic form. An aging book slowly decays in a stark image of paper so fragile it has practically turned to dust. Library stacks seen from above become a labyrinth through Morell's lens. Includes a lovely preface by Nicholson Baker. Perfect for any book enthusiast. (52 duotone photographs) --J.P. Cohen

Book Description

A visual tribute to the printed word, this delicious ode to the book won awards and critical praise when first published in an oversized format in 2002.

Now in a smaller gift book format, Morell's elegant photographs of books highlight the grace and sensuality of the printed page. Unusual books are featured, like a leather-bound volume that is smaller than a paper clip, an impossibly large dictionary, and illustrated books whose characters appear to leap off the page. Morell has photographed the endless ocean of books in a library and the strikingly beautiful way in which weathered and water-damaged books take on sculptural form.

Customer Reviews:

Peace in a disturbing world.......2003-03-12

When I first saw this book in a book store last December, and began looking through the pages, my eyes welled up with tears at the sheer poetry of the images. It was as if doors opened into other levels of awareness. When I put the book down, I realized that I had been looking at it for over an hour, and that's when I knew I simply needed to own it. Since then, the detail and depth of the images have provided a refuge from the news in the world today. There is still beauty and peace. Thank you, Abe Morell.

Exquisite........2002-10-25

Everything Abelardo Morell does is gorgeous but what makes him such a genius is the mudane things he works with. The only photographer I can compare him to is Josef Sudek.

Let's be honest. Anybody can go to a beautiful place like Yosemite or Big Sur, take a view camera and wait for nice light. Instant Ansel Adams; you can't miss unless you kick the tripod.

But how many people can make a heartbreakingly beautiful photograph from a crumpled ball of paper or some peeling paint? Get this book of books and you'll see what I mean.

A wonder of wonders.......2002-10-20

Some of the photographs in Abelardo Morell's A Book of Books are of great books: A Tale of Two Cities, A Farewell to Arms, Alice in Wonderland. And in placing these photographs together in this wonder-filled volume, Morell has created a great book of his own. For like all great books, this one makes you see the familiar in new ways; offers layers upon layers of meaning; and pushes you to make connections among objects and ideas that sometimes appear to have little, if anything, in common. At the same time, it is a glorious book to look at, to sink into, again and again. If you love books, you'll love this one.

If you've ever read a book, buy this book!.......2002-10-15

What Morell achieves in "A Book of Books" is quite extraordinary. He takes a commonplace object -- the book, which you probably have at least several of around you right now -- and invites us to consider it as a rhapsodic, even a sacred object. The book as tower, the book as person, the book as metaphor for its contents...these are just a few of the associations that swirl throughout this lustrous volume. And while the tomes on your shelf may not be quite as grandiose or even comical as Morell's examples, each of your books is somehow related to his, which renders the photographs even more exciting. For anyone who enjoys the heft of a book in their hands, for anyone who likes to meander through bookstores, for anyone who cherishes gazing at photographs that distil the essence of something while hinting at something more mysterious, this book is a great gift.

Average customer rating:

Great Read
Gen-X Neurotica
Wicked
ehh...
Masturbatory Crap

Vox
Nicholson Baker
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679742115
Release Date: 1993-01-26

Book Description

Baker has written a novel that remaps the territory of sex--solitary and telephonic, lyrical and profane, comfortable and dangerous. Written in the form of a phone conversation between two strangers, Vox is an erotic classic that places the author in the first rank of America's major writers. Reading tour.

Customer Reviews:

Great Read .......2006-11-29

I was constantly asking myself if I was more blown over by the characters or the genius of the author's creativity. Imagine a man that indiscriminately worships the idea of women masturbating. That's hott! Or who considers himself a spokesperson for women freely expressing their sexuality. Still hott. This is a one chapter book about phone sex, but phone sex with debth. The characters and plot are great, but to witness the author's creativity, is even better. Enjoy.

Gen-X Neurotica.......2006-09-26

Loved this book. It's an enjoyably quick read of neurotic erotica that reminds me of a Douglas Coupland novel. It's funny, smart, and effortlessly unpretentious. Very cleverly crafted. Plus, it turns you on.

The plot involves a man and a woman in their late twenties who strike up a conversation on an adult partyline. They're drawn to each other's voices. Their neuroses are a perfect match. The conversation builds like sex builds. It's imaginative, funny, honest, revealing, shocking, innocent, jaded and sweet. There are laugh-out-loud moments that keep you reading. Then, in the last 30 pages, the masturbatory climax is realized, and we feel satisfied with the ending.

Wicked.......2006-05-30

A whole book filled with one particular phone conversation between a man and a woman. They begin as strangers and by the end of that one phone call they get to know each other better. They like each other's voice so much that they might even meet one day. Until then, they would be satisfied with talking on the phone. When they initiate the call they have the same goal in mind. They obtain it at the end but the journey in reaching it takes a lot of work told in stories. The idea for the story is amazing. The stories told during their chat are diverse. A short work that could be finished under three hours where there is nothing to think about except read.

ehh..........2005-09-11

my best friend found this book at a bus stop... maybe someone got sick?

Masturbatory Crap.......2004-10-23

Masturbatory crap that belongs in Penthouse Forum. Young bachelor's bathroom reading. Go buy something from Anais Nin or Henry Miller and skip this garbage.

Selected Shorts: Lots of Laughs! (Selected Shorts series)

Average customer rating:

Excellent Storytelling!

Selected Shorts: Lots of Laughs! (Selected Shorts series)
David Schickler , Ron Carlson , Isaiah Sheffer , John Updike , Neil Gaiman , Etgar Keret , and Nicholson Baker
Manufacturer: Symphony Space
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 0971921822

Book Description

This three-CD collection features more best-loved selections from National Public Radio's Selected Shorts, an award-winning series of classic and contemporary short fiction read by acclaimed actors and recorded live at Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York City. More than three hours of recordings in each collection capture the intimacy of live performance. Stories are alternately funny, sad, moving, and exciting and make a perfect accompaniment to daily activities such as driving, cooking, exercising, and relaxing.

Lots of Laughs! includes, among others, John Updike’s “Farrell’s Caddie,” read by Charles Keating; Neil Gaiman's "Chivalry," read by Christina Pickles; Ron Carlson's "On the USS Fortitude," read by Laura Esterman; Etgar Keret's "Fatso," read by John Guare; and David Schickler's "Jamaica," read by Isaiah Sheffer.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Storytelling!.......2006-06-29

I have been a devoted Selected Shorts fan for about 12 years and I thought this collection was really first-class. I listened to it at night in the car when I was on the road and enjoyed it thoroughly, especially the stories "Farrell's Caddy" and "Chivalry." The other stories were very good, too. I would heartily recommned this collection to anyone who enjoys a well told tale. John La Boone, St. Marys, Georgia

Average customer rating:

unimpressive
Almost Shocking
Fascinating; High sexual content
For people who enjoy hating themselves
all I can say is "wow"

The Fermata
Nicholson Baker
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Vox
The Mezzanine
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A Box of Matches

ASIN: 0679415866
Release Date: 1994-02-01

Amazon.com

The Fermata is the most risky of Nicholson Baker's emotional histories. His narrator, Arno Strine, is a 35-year-old office temp who is writing his autobiography. "It's harder than I thought!" he admits. His "Fold-powers" are easier; he can stop the world and use it as his own pleasure ground. Arno uses this gift not for evil or material gain (he would feel guilty about stealing), though he does undress a good number of women and momentarily place them in compromising positions--always, in his view, with respect and love. Anyone who can stop time and refer in self-delight to his "chronanisms" can't be all bad! Like Baker's other books, The Fermata gains little from synopsis. The pleasure is literally in the text. What's memorable is less the sex and the sex toys (including the "Monasticon," in the shape of a monk holding a vibrating manuscript) than Arno's wistful recollections of intimacy: the noise, for instance, of his ex-girlfriend's nail clipper, "which I listened to in bed as some listen to real birdsong."

Book Description

Having turned phone sex into the subject of an astonishing national bestseller in Vox, Baker now outdoes himself with an outrageously arousing, acrobatically stylish "X-rated sci-fi fantasy that leaves Vox seeming more like mere fiber-optic foreplay" (Seattle Times). "Sparkling."--San Francisco Chronicle.

Customer Reviews:

unimpressive .......2006-12-28

The short summary of this book is that it's about a guy who can stop time. He uses his talent mainly to undress women without them knowing. He's a nice guy about it so nothing overly disagreeable happens to them, he pretty much just looks, no harm done (arguably).

Having read the reviews for this book, I was expecting a book that approached sexuality in a thoughtful way. I knew the book would involve a lot of sex, but was expecting it to be done in an insightful way. Indeed, the first quarter of the book was really well done, just what I was hoping for. The writing was beautifully done and there were thoughts every few pages that would make me stop and think for a minute. And the titillating plot kept things moving at a nice pace.

Unfortunately, after the first quarter or so the book turns into pornographic garbage. Eventually the main character decides to write erotica in order to leave it for the women he undresses. To me this seems like an excuse for the author to indulge himself and try to pass it off as literature. There's nothing thoughtful about these situations involving the UPS man, the lawn-boy, the lonely divorcee, and way too many dildos.

Overall the book was disappointing. Oh, it's entertaining. I even enjoyed much of it just for the shock value, but that's all it was. And it certainly isn't enough to consider this a "good book". It depends what you're looking for I suppose.

Almost Shocking.......2006-08-16

You can read a hundred reviews where people mention "sexual" and I still don't think they'll ever prepare you for how blatantly graphic this novel is. And it's not graphic in an erotic way, it's just detailed to the point of being absurd and somewhat hilarious. If you watch movies or HBO in this day and age, it's hard to consider things shocking, but this novel becomes pretty close. You keep thinking that the author can't possibly top himself, then 20 pages later you find the narrator doing or thinking something even more outlandish or absurd.

The plot is pretty simple: Arno is a guy with a special power. He can stop time. But, like Faustus, he doesn't use his power to achieve greatness. He doesn't do magnificent good or evil. He simply uses the power to freeze time and undress women. Sometimes he leaves them a gift or some self-penned erotica.

I don't know that I really liked this novel, but I enjoyed reading it and I would tell any person to give it a shot, even though they may end up offended by all the graphic content. Baker is an extremely gifted writer and has a firm grasp of language, but it's impossible to figure out if the character he's writing is the weirdo, or if Baker himself is the weirdo for dreaming him up.

Fascinating; High sexual content.......2006-02-23

Without question, one of the most original and fascinating premises I've ever encountered. What would you do if you were able to stop time? Think about it. This is a relatively short book and extremely sexually charged. Not for the prudish or even the moderately straight laced.

For people who enjoy hating themselves.......2005-08-31

The book is amazing, it so well describes........ well... sex. In reality it is like living out a fantasy if your fantasy got progressively more perverted and disturbing. Yet, throughout its unbelievably graphic "intercourse" scenes, the writing is flawless. Indeed, if I were to describe pornographic sex, I could only dream of being half as good as Nicholson baker. The first half of the book is almost designed for any guy who has imagined stopping time - and what you'd HONESTLY do if you could. The rest I'd say "enter at your own risk" but if you ate light and have a strong gut, it is still very well written and even... dare I say it... enjoyable. Give it a shot. If you're a conservative republican, don't even bother looking the direction of the book, but for the rest of us, maybe you'd enjoy giving it a shot. I'm glad I did.

all I can say is "wow".......2005-07-26

Not for the prude--but wow I wish I had written this. Really really elegantly done.

Average customer rating:

Hardly a page-turner, but read it for the sheer joy of reading
Seems written by someone trying to imitate Nicholson Baker's style
A bit disappointing
Nuanced, balanced.
You've got to get cold to get warm

A Box of Matches: A Novel
Nicholson Baker
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Mezzanine
Room Temperature
The Beans of Egypt, Maine: The Finished Version
The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber
Checkpoint: A Novel

ASIN: 0375502874
Release Date: 2003-01-07

Amazon.com

One man's simple, colloquial meditations on his past, his family, and his life's daily minutia are the substance of Nicholson Baker's A Box of Matches. Feeling that life is passing him by, Emmett, a middle-aged medical textbook editor, decides to wake up early each day to sit by a fire in his country house and record his thoughts in a diary. "Good morning," Emmett begins, "it's January and its 4:17 a.m., and I'm going to sit here in the dark." From this vantage point, Emmett reflects stream-of-consciousness style on whatever occurs to him, no matter how mundane: his recent trip to Home Depot, how he met his wife, the habits of the family duck. Routines, such as how he makes his morning coffee in the dark or picks up his underwear with his toes, are described with childlike reverence and directness. All told, nothing much happens in A Box of Matches, which seems to be the point. Baker is more interested in the idea that for many, life is made up of such apparent trivialities, and that only by pausing to appreciate them can anyone gain any lasting satisfaction. Baker emphasizes this through the moments of understated wisdom and joy that Emmett derives from ordinary occurrences, such as the daylight through the window: "a simple light that goes everywhere but with no heat, aware that it is taken for granted and content to be so." This is the philosophical equivalent of a one-joke premise, however, and there are moments when Emmett's naiveté and laundry list-like narrative wear thin. Likely understanding this, Baker has wisely kept things short. A curious, often charming novel, A Box of Matches will inspire some readers, while inspiring frustration in others. --Ross Doll

Book Description

Emmett has a wife and two children, a cat, and a duck, and he wants to know what life is about. Every day he gets up before dawn, makes a cup of coffee in the dark, lights a fire with one wooden match, and thinks.

What Emmett thinks about is the subject of this wise and closely observed novel, which covers vast distances while moving no farther than Emmett’s hearth and home. Nicholson Baker’s extraordinary ability to describe and celebrate life in all its rich ordinariness has never been so beautifully achieved.

Baker won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper. He now returns to fiction with this lovely book, reminiscent of the early novels— Room Temperature and The Mezzanine—that established his reputation.

Download Description

Emmett has a wife and two children, a cat, and a duck, and he wants to know what life is about. Every day he gets up before dawn, makes a cup of coffee in the dark, lights a fire with one wooden match, and thinks. What Emmett thinks about is the subject of this wise and closely observed novel, which covers vast distances while moving no farther than Emmett¿s hearth and home. Nicholson Baker¿s extraordinary ability to describe and celebrate life in all its rich ordinariness has never been so beautifully achieved. Baker won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper. He now returns to fiction with this lovely book, reminiscent of the early novels¿Room Temperature and The Mezzanine¿that established his reputation. From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Hardly a page-turner, but read it for the sheer joy of reading.......2007-04-06

This is one of those books where nothing really happens, but that's not really a bad thing! It is the story of a man who get up every morning very early, while it's still dark, to light the fire with a box of matches.

The narrative takes us through the motions of each of these mornings, and the subsequent day, through his thoughts, and via a series of flashbacks, over some of the events of his life.

Will it keep you on the edge of your seat? No. Is it worth reading for sheer skill of the storytelling? I think so

Seems written by someone trying to imitate Nicholson Baker's style.......2006-09-06

I have read many of N.B.'s novels and essays, and he is a favorite author of mine. This novel, however, seems more like it was written by someone else in his writing style, rather than written by Baker himself. It lacks the substantive punch of his earlier works, lacks the beauty and emotion of a narrator relating to others in his world. The pet duck in the story seems more real, compelling, and finely drawn than the narrator's wife and children. (Maybe this is intentional?) In addition, whereas past Baker narrators have described the minutiae of their lives with freshness and wonder, this narrator gets pedantic. Does the reader really need to be told how a rear-window defroster works, or how to wash a dish? I think for Baker fans, this might be a disappointment. For a first-time Baker reader, however, it's a peaceful little book that might lead to his better ones.

A bit disappointing.......2005-12-28

Count me among the many fans of Nicholson Baker's body of work. Upon first cracking the pages of A Box of Matches I was quite pleased to discover that it is a return to the style of writing that made him famous - focusing in on the beauty of detailed minutiae within a story-arc comprised of a few reflective moments. This is the same stuff that made me love The Mezzanine and Room Temperature. In this case, our protagonist is a medical texts editor who details his early morning ritual of making a cup of coffee, starting a fire in his fireplace, and ruminating on his life. Like any piece of fiction by Baker, the descriptive details are dazzling and his use of metaphor and simile unparalleled among his peers. Those who, like me, appreciate a particularly inventive turn of phrase will find much to delight in this small book. Ultimately however, I found A Box of Matches not entirely satisfying. I think it has to do with the age of the narrator. In The Mezzanine and Room Temperature, both narrators were experiencing things both new and old, but mostly new and came at things with a palpable sense of wonderment. By contrast, the narrator in A Box of Matches seems a bit world-weary and lacks that same sense of wonderment. I think that takes away from the soul of the narrative that really shines through in the earlier two tomes. Detailed descriptions of things new and exciting make for a stirring read. Detailed descriptions of the old, the tried and true, come out a bit dull and perfunctory. It has always been a tightrope walk for Baker to make the mundane details of everyday life come alive exquisitely, and unfortunately with A Box of Matches it seems he's lost his balance.

Nuanced, balanced........2005-12-01

Baker's prose and topics of discussion are incredibly nuanced here, and by the end of the book he's uncovered a whole new type of humor based on soft, delicate minutiae. He has a gift for the sort of highly personal aesthetic observations I would normally associate with a new friend or a lover's uniquely individual tastes, but here these things are communicated in a short and sweet book. Baker loves to observe things with a microscope, that's his style, but here he balances his desire for a radical literary form by channeling it through a very comfortable, somewhat bittersweat, and incredibly observant voice. I still hear the voice two years after reading this work, very subtle and very powerful.

You've got to get cold to get warm.......2005-11-29

Every one of the thirty-three chapters in `A Box of Matches' by Nicholson Baker begins with a "good morning" and the time. The main character is a forty-four year old man named Emmett who earns a living by editing medical textbooks. He's married to a woman named Claire and together they have two children: a fourteen-year-old daughter named Phoebe and an eight-year-old son named Henry. The family has two unusual pets: an aggressive, territorial cat and a duck that lives in a doghouse and enjoys antagonising the cat.

Every morning Emmett wakes up at around four in the morning, before the sun has risen, before he has to drop his daughter off at school and go to work. The first things that he does in the morning are make coffee and start a fire in the fireplace... all in the dark. As he performs this morning ritual, he is sometimes distracted and begins thinking about events that happened when he was much younger or even events in his life that happened as recently as the previous day. Each chapter, or morning rather, he shares amusing, interconnecting stories about things such as his old Fuji camera, the suitcase his father gave to him, tiles from an old railroad station that he and his father put into their fireplace, and how he came to have a duck for a pet.

Often whilst reading `A Box of Matches' I was struck by how entertaining it was despites its seeming ordinariness. This book is not ordinary, far from it. In my opinion, it was rather brave to write a book that will basically be love it or hate it with readers. Emmett has his idiosyncrasies that we recognise in others and ourselves. The stories may seem dull if you are not paying attention to Nicholson Baker's subtle sense of humour. His ruminations vary from memories to sentimentalities to observations about the world and the people around him.

If you enjoy the sort of comedy in shows like Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, there's a good chance that you will like this book.

The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber

Average customer rating:

Absolute Rubbish
Lumber!
Puny Thoughts
Books, wood, lumber, libraries
So what size are they?

The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber
Nicholson Baker
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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The Mezzanine
U and I: A True Story
Room Temperature
Vox
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ASIN: 0679776249
Release Date: 1997-02-25

Amazon.com

Novelist and essayist Nicholson Baker has had a small but well-deserved cult following since his first book, The Mezzanine, and the publication of the literary sex-bomb Vox saw his popularity mushroom. Baker's great gift is a precision of observational detail that has a peculiarly incisive effect on a reader's consciousness. Here is over a decade's worth of his essays and articles, including the much-praised card catalogue article first published in the New Yorker. <B>The Size of Thoughts</B>, through its varied forays into the realms of the overlooked, the underfunded, and the wrongfully scrapped, is a funny and thought-provoking book by one of the most distinctive stylists and thinkers of our time.

Book Description

The bestselling author of Vox and The Fermata devotes his hyperdriven curiosity and magnificently baroque prose to the fossils of punctuation and the lexicography of smut, delivering to readers a provocative and often hilarious celebration of the neglected aspects of our experience. 368 pp. 15,000 print.

Customer Reviews:

Absolute Rubbish.......2007-01-29

I've read and enjoyed other works by Baker (The Fermata, Vox), but this collection of magazine articles is absolute rubbish. Random musings on arcane topics such as fingernail clippers, cinema projectors and model airplanes not only fail to entertain, they appear to have no redeeming value whatsoever.

Baker is without question a talented writer, but this collection aptly demonstrates that even the best author needs adequate subject matter with which to work. I'm stunned at just how bad this collection actually is. The first time I've ever awarded a one star rating.

Lumber!.......2006-04-18

This is a brilliant book. It consists of several short essays on varied subjects; fingernail clippers, a review of a slang dictionary, and the demise of card catalogues to name a few, and one long essay on the history and usage of the word 'lumber'.

Nicholson is a master of finding the sublime in the mundane and his essays bring into focus the understated beauty of everyday objects. Eccentric and and at times almost comically over-erudite? Sure, but you'll find yourself nodding in silent recognition at his apt descriptions of the minutiae of daily life.

Puny Thoughts.......2004-06-30

The world is full of whiners, and this guy is the king. As a pup, Nicholson Baker attended the School Without Walls where, "learning has no limit." Unfortunately for us, the only message he got resulted in his permanent low self-image.

If you purchase ANY of this poor misbegotten soul's books, you are doing nothing more than feeding the mouth of a permanent pessimist.

Nicholson, we're praying for you and your children.

Books, wood, lumber, libraries.......2004-04-19

Which brings us to the book of the month: The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber by Nicholson Baker. With all this travel and displacement, I didn't read that much in the past month except for a few scant pages of this or that book, or leafing though New York Girls, or the Doris Kloster book, or flipping through pages of The Complete Reprint of John Willie's Bizarre. Baker's book was sort of a meditative book after enjoying the "over the top" quality of a Kern or a Kloster. Baker is a very intelligent man as an essayist and this sober and funny book reminds me of the thoughtfulness of his previous novels, The Mezzanine or The Fermata.

In fact, Nicholson Baker has been assaulted once or twice in the past by a reviewer or two for being a minor pornographer on the last two novelistic outings, and I guess that he is now asking for our forgiveness. He portrays himself here as a regular guy, with a great interest in the most minute particles. The careful essays are about simple things: changing your mind as opposed to making decisions, the size and shape of thoughts, and rarity in life and experience. Baker is also a physical guy and likes his hands on the machinery, so he devotes a word or two about typewriters, model airplanes, clipping your nails, and the movie projectionist.

He is a severe literary critic (refer to U and I), and Baker here elaborates his views on the literary profession which include the art of reading aloud, the history of punctuation, thoughts about Alan Hollinghurst and J. E. Lighter's The Historical Dictionary of American Slang. Things read at weddings, typos, a recipe, dewey decimal system, and books as furniture are thrown in the shuffle; glue keeps it all together. And finally a long essay about the history of lumber, where he comes out in favor of lumber, is his most strongly political. I say that I love lumber! Ever since I was hit on the head by a two by four as a child.

So what size are they?.......2002-01-15

"So what size are they?" I heard a voice asking. Blinking in the Queensland sunshine I looked up from my book and smiled when I realised what my questioner meant. "There's only one way to answer that question" I said, and proceeded to read the opening paragraph of the book aloud, while my questioner listened, spellbound.

Back in rainy Britain I'd woken up with a dry mouth and aching head after one of my farewell parties in a friends house. Desperate for something to read I spied this book upon a shelf. Attracted by the tasteless pink and orange cover adorning this particular edition I picked it up and immediately disappeared, enthralled, into the lumber-room of someone else's mind. This charming book is filled with some of the irrelevant bits and pieces that somehow sneak into our brains. We turn them over from time to time, pulling them out of our subconscious like a paper covered boiled sweet from a fluff-filled pocket.

The author leads you down the byways and alleys of his thought processes, challenging and amusing you by turn and always asking questions that you wish you had thought of. This gentle philosophical meandering leads you to look at your surroundings with fresh eyes and broadens your horizons because you suddenly understand how at least one other human being thinks. It's a charming book to suit a wistful mood, a beach, a cloud, a river. Pack it in your holiday suitcase and wander gently through it at a holiday pace when the mood takes you. You won't be disappointed.

Room Temperature
Average customer rating:

The Breath

Sophomore Jinx

praise for attention to details in "whatever" world

Tender, engrossing

Room Temperature
Nicholson Baker
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

U and I: A True Story

A Box of Matches

The Mezzanine

Vox

The Fermata

ASIN: 0679734406
Release Date: 1991-04-03

Amazon.com

Nicholson Baker writes in 360-degree Sensurround--his descriptions of the seemingly banal awakening the most jaded of senses into recognition, admiration, and amusement. In Room Temperature, his self-deprecating, endlessly curious narrator is at home giving his baby girl a bottle and allowing his mind to wander. Uppermost in his thoughts are his wife and daughter, but there is also that obsession with commas and some concern with tiny taboos like nose-picking and stealing change from his parents. Truth-telling is the operative mode; at one point he tries to get his wife to explain a doodle by quoting a review of early Yeats: "Always true is always new." Room Temperature is a rare novel of domestic pleasure and stability, with a twist. "Was there ever a limit between us? Would disgust ever outweigh love?" Baker's alter ego asks, and seems determined to find out.

Book Description

In his second novel, Baker turns a young father's feeding-time reverie into a catalog of the minutiae of domestic love.

Customer Reviews:

The Breath.......2003-04-11

Room Temperature is certainly about a father and his child, but there is so much more. In typical Baker style, he examines minutia with elucidating commentary. This, in itself, is worth reading the novel; however, the quality that makes it transcend happens to be his ability to unite the entire book with its central theme: Breath. From the comma, to the mobile in his child's room, to tuba lessons, breath pervades - breath as its metaphor to remember to cherish every moment.

I have never seen a novel so effortlessly and imperceptibly weave a central idea throughout a book. Read this novel for both it compelling insight but also for the extraordinary literary technique.

Sophomore Jinx.......2000-05-09

A major disappointment after The Mezzanine. Baker goes to the well once too often by trying to recreate that excellent book here. That first book seemed to avoid crossing over into pretentiousness by giving us a self-deprecating narrator and by simply pouring on the wit and intelligent observations and forcing you to laugh. Here, pretentiousness and self-indulgence abound. The subject matter is just far too personal to connect with the reader and, simply, it seems that Nick didn't try as hard the second time around. If you enjoyed the pretentious and turgid essay "Lumber," then this might be for you, but if you were drawn to this book after reading more engaging Baker fare such as U and I, The Mezzanine or Vox, stay away.

praise for attention to details in "whatever" world.......1999-11-11

I have read all of Mr.Bakers books, and with the exception of "The Everlasting Story..." (which indeed did seem to be everlasting) have read them with delight. Although he's often compared to Updike, I think he surpasses him due to his wit and his more creative sense of the strangeness of life. In "Room Temperature" we find the antidote, along with his other novels, to a modern world obsessed with speed, impersonal technology and the summational catchphrase "whatever". How wonderful it is to see an author bend his mind and spirit to the details of life with so much talent and fervor. And how wonderful to see that his books, plotless and demanding of full attention as they are, sell so well. It gives me hope for our civilization; it really does. On a sidenote - I am tired of critics and readers thinking he is cheapening his prose by writing on sexual topics. Sex is one of the most universal and fascinating and character-revealing subjects around; a great writer can make anything cerebral and holy, and a writer needs to go where his passions lie. Besides, do we really want every novel to be about rubber bands and bathroom hot air dryers?

Tender, engrossing.......1997-10-29

Probably the most undeservedly overlooked of Nicholson Baker's novels, Room Temperature is a delightful, heartwarming tome.

Any attempt at synopsis would only serve to make the book sound dreadfully boring. After all, during the entire 116 pages the narrator is feeding his small child. No car chases or steamy love scenes. Just a father feeding his baby.

Rather than relying on typical, often stale plot devices, Baker relies on his considerable talent at description to maintain the reader's interest, and he succeeds in a big way. Room Temperature is touching in a way that none of his other books are. The father-child bond is explored in such breathtaking detail that one finds the book impossible to put down, despite the lack of a discernable plot.

Nicholson Baker is not for everyone. His quirky prose and lack of traditional plot lines are sure to put off many readers, but fans of Updike are sure to find a great read in Room Temperature

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