Synopses & Reviews
A masterful story collection -- heartbreaking and hilarious -- from one of America's greatest writers
Nothing
is simple for the men and women in Donald Antrim's stories. As they do
the things we all do-bum a cigarette at a party, stroll with a
girlfriend down Madison Avenue, take a kid to the zoo-they're confronted
with their own uncooperative selves. These artists, writers, lawyers,
teachers, and actors make fools of themselves, spiral out of control,
have delusions of grandeur, despair, and find it hard to imagine a
future. They talk, they listen, they hope, they dream. They look for
communion in a city, both beautiful and menacing, which can promise so
much and yield so little. But they are hungry for life. They want to
love and be loved.
These stories, all published in The New Yorker
over the last fifteen years, make it clear that Antrim is one of
America's most important writers. His work has been praised by his
significant contemporaries, including Jonathan Franzen, Thomas Pynchon,
Jeffrey Eugenides, and George Saunders, who described The Verificationist as "one of the most pleasure-giving, funny, perverse, complicated, addictive novels of the last twenty years." The Emerald Light in the Air is Antrim's best book yet: the story collection that reveals him as a master of the form.
Review
“The seven gripping stories in Antrim's long-awaited debut collection
showcase the author's ability to employ surreal and traditional modes to
describe the emotional demons plaguing his characters....Antrim is
well attuned to the idiosyncrasies that define the rhythm of a
relationship, and is particularly adept at giving shape to the
complications that inevitably arise between lovers. A collection of
great depth to be read, reread, and above all, relished.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
"The most underrated quality in fiction nowadays is intelligence; the
most overrated, imagination. Donald Antrim possesses both--but his
intelligence is what makes you sit up straighter when you begin his new
collection, The Emerald Light in the Air. Very quickly you
realize you are reading something different from the mass of competent,
earnest and depressingly dull short stories that are as commonplace now
as ever." Adelle Waldman, The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Donald Antrim is the author of the novels Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, The Hundred Brothers, and The Verificationist, as well as a memoir, The Afterlife. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and an associate professor in the writing program at Columbia University. He is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow.