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The Mezzanine

by Nicholson Baker

ISBN13: 9780679725763
ISBN10: 0679725768
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Readers follow the journey of our hero up the escalator and learn why straws don't sink in milk cartons; whether the hot air blowers in bathrooms are really more sanitary than towels; the physics of shoelaces; and how the most trivial of objects can lead to the deepest revelations of the human heart.

About the Author

Nicholson Baker has published five novels — The Mezzanine, Room Temperature, Vox, The Fermata, and The Everlasting Story of Nory — and two works of nonfiction, U and I and The Size of Thoughts. He lives with his wife and two children in Maine.

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:

: Cathy from Olympia, Washington, October 20, 2006 (view all comments by Cathy from Olympia, Washington)
To me, this quirky novel reads more like a memoir. Among various random thoughts, protaganist Howie muses about escalators, straws, ice cube trays, and why "after two years my right and left shoelaces could fail less than two days apart." Howie devotes pages and pages to shoelaces, shoe tying technique, friction on shoelaces caused by shoetying and walking....

The novel includes frequent and lengthy footnotes. Yes, footnotes! For example, in the footnote that begins on page 121 and ends on page 123 (Vintage ed.)--"... footnotes are the only form of graphic digression sanctioned by centuries of typesetters. And yet the MLA Style Sheet I owned in college warned against lengthy, "essay-like" footnotes. Were they NUTS? Where is scholarship going? (They have removed this blemish on later editions)."

The Mezzanine is definitely not your average novel!
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Product Details

ISBN:: 9780679725763
Author:: Baker, Nicholson
Publisher:: Vintage Books USA
Location:: New York :
Subject:: General
Subject:: Literary
Subject:: Fiction
Subject:: Men
Subject:: Men -- United States -- Fiction.
Copyright:: c198
Edition Description:: Paperback
Series:: Vintage Contemporaries (Paperback)
Series Volume:: 0000
Publication Date:: January 1990
Binding:: Paperback
Language:: English
Illustrations:: Y
Pages:: 144
Dimensions:: 7.98x5.30x.39 in. .36 lbs.

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