"One of the great secret masters."-Jonathan Lethem

"A hip Saul Bellow."-Publishers Weekly

The twenty-sixth book of fiction by the award-winning Baltimore writer sets up a situation that the protagonist-Meyer, a prolific fiction writer from Baltimore-finds preposterous: writer's block. After numerous books, Meyer has never experienced writer's block before, and panic sets in.

In a story rife with Stephen Dixon's trademark zest and style, Meyer proceeds to rifle through all the possible aspects of his life that could make for good fiction, and to try whatever it takes to get writing again. Sometimes sex with his wife helps, so he tries that without luck-several times, just to be sure. He wonders if he should try sex with one of the neighbors. He wonders if he should try writing about his parents'death . . . again. He wonders about concocting awful things for himself and his family. He wonders about concocting wonderful things for himself and his family. He wonders what he's doing, and tries sex with his wife again.

It is, in short, Stephen Dixon at his best: stylish, funny, moving, and relentless as ever in his pursuit of the small, meaningful, and ultimately powerful revelations of everyday life.

Stephen Dixonis the author of Old Friends,Phone Rings,and numerous other books. He has twice been a finalist for the National Book Award and has won honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The American Academy of Arts and Letters.

"In his 27th work of fiction, Guggenheim fellow, National Book Award finalist and Pushcart Prize — winner Dixon explores an affliction that neither he nor his protagonist would seem to know much about: writer's block. Meyer Ostrower is an aging, accomplished fiction writer living in Baltimore who one day finds himself at a loss for words. As he rummages through his past looking for material, the factual events of his existence morph into fiction. The novel is a set of themes and variations on major episodes of Meyer's life, many of them imagined: there is his death, his wife's death, his sister's death, his mother and father's deaths, all in various incarnations, side by side with childhood memories and sexual fantasies. He catalogues a lifetime of injuries (ranging from a stickball scar to a small white mark where his typewriter's 'line space lever went into his upper eyelid'), worries in typical neurotic fashion about his arthritis and his heart, and reflects on the dwindling number of letters in his mailbox. Although writing about writer's block risks relying on a tired conceit, Dixon not only pulls it off, but puts together a series of quirky and powerful vignettes about aging. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Stephen Dixon is the author of 26 books of fiction, including National Book Award-nominations for FROG and INTERSTATE. His short fiction has won every major literary award, as well as honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University.