Synopses & Reviews
TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME, BOTH OF NICHOLSON BAKERS BRILLIANT NOVELS FEATURING BELOVED HERO AND POET PAUL CHOWDER
A New York Times notable book and a national bestseller, Nicholson Bakers The Anthologist introduces his quirkiest and most unforgettable protagonist yet, the erudite, unpretentious, and often hilarious” (The New Yorker) Paul Chowder.
Chowder really needs to write an introduction to his new anthology of verse, Only Rhymeits the first work his editor has sent him in monthsbut hes having a hard time getting started. Not only is his career floundering, but his girlfriend, Roz, just moved out. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Chowder cant keep his mind from drifting to the sufferings of the great poets, from Tennyson and Yeats to Roethke, Merwin, to every poet whos been published in The New Yorker. As he ponders the strange power and musicality of language, and adjusts to his newly single life, Chowders introduction slowly but surely begins to take shape.
A wholly entertaining and beguiling love story, and the first novel in the chronicles of Paul Chowderwhich is followed by Traveling Sprinkler in this same volumeThe Anthologist is a loving and superbly witty homage to poetryand to life” (The Boston Globe).
Synopsis
Published together for the first time, an original omnibus edition of New York Timesbestselling author Nicholson Bakers acclaimed Paul Chowder novelsThe Anthologist and Traveling Sprinkler.
About the Author
Nicholson Baker was born in New York City in 1957 and grew up in Rochester, where he played bassoon in high school and spent a year at the Eastman School of Music before transferring to Haverford College. His first novel, The Mezzanine, was about a man riding an escalator.� His second novel, Room Temperature, was about a man feeding a bottle to his baby.� In his many other works of fiction and nonfiction, he has written about John Updike, about getting up early in the morning, about the inner life of a nine-year-old girl, about the beginnings of the Second World War, and about sex.�� His book Double Fold, about libraries shedding their paper holdings, won a National Book Critics Circle Award.� His� poet protagonist Paul Chowder, who first appeared in The Anthologist, is reintroduced in the forthcoming Traveling Sprinkler, his tenth novel, and fifteenth book overall.� He lives in Maine with his family.