Synopses & Reviews
From Nicholson Baker, best-selling author of
Vox and the most original writer of his generation, his most audacious novel yet.
Meet Jay.
Meet Ben.
Jay has summoned his old friend Ben to a hotel room not far from the nation's capitol. During the course of an afternoon, they will share a delicious lunch and will crack open a bottle of wine from the hotel minibar. They will chat about everything from Ben's new camera to Iraq to the unfortunate fate of a particular free-range chicken.
And Jay will explain to Ben exactly why and how he is planning to commit a murder that will change the course of history.
Review:
"If one of our supreme chroniclers of mild manners can be roused to such patriotic indignation, democracy yet has a fighting chance." Benjamin Strong, The Village Voice
Review:
"[A] work of provocative and razor-sharp fiction...[Baker] craft[s] a nail-biting duet...that incisively charts the emotional turmoil generated by the horrors and conundrums of war, terrorism, dirty politics, and repression." Booklist
Review:
"Except for its inflammatory theme — Baker's novels have always been desperate to be noticed, and here he breaks new ground in his sensationalism — Checkpoint could be dismissed as another of Baker's creepy hermeneutical toys." Leon Wieseltier, The New York Times Book Review
Review:
"[A] droll piece of work...at times even hilarious....An absolute treasure for anti-Bushists, the purest sin-and-snake-venom deceit and villainy to pro-Bushists. Let the reader-voter call it." Kirkus Reviews
Review:
"Checkpoint is the fictional equivalent of...Fahrenheit 9/11 and is sure to generate the same barrage of commentaries, pro and con....Unsettling and redemptive by turns...a timely and provocative book, and one well worth reading and debating." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Review:
"[R]ousing and at times repugnant....For a while the talk is exhilarating, if the reader shares the characters' beliefs..." Laurie Stone, Newsday
Review:
"Checkpoint makes Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 look like a work of Jamesian subtlety and nuance. There isn't a graceful or interesting sentence in this blunt, plotless, obscenity-laden screed. (Grade: F)" Entertainment Weekly
Review:
"Appreciation of this novel depends entirely on one's political attitudes toward the war in Iraq and the presidency of George W. Bush....It is less a novel and more of a passionate cry from the heart about American foreign policy that Baker clearly opposes." USA Today
About the Author
Nicholson Baker was born in 1957 and attended the Eastman School of Music and Haverford College. He has published six previous novels and three works of nonfiction, including
Double Fold, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2001.
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