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Lee
Fields of Asphodel
After a life of misdemeanors, Lee had hoped that death would bring an end to things; instead, he awakens into a very bad place full of cold weather, strange tortures, and some of history s most hapless people. His one consolation An opportunity to chase down his beloved wife who had preceded him in death a few years before he had contrived his own.Equipped with his walking cane, a book of matches, a pair of pretty good shoes, and a tourist brochure, he makes slow progress through a landscape that bears an uncanny resemblance to the America that he thought he had left behind.Perdue has been compared to writers from Faulkner to Beckett, and in Fields of Asphodel we are reintroduced to one of our true literary talents and to Leland Pefley, a truly powerful fictional creation.
- GenresMythology
272 pages, Hardcover
First published July 19, 2007
33 people want to read
About the author
Tito Perdue
25 books20 followersTito Perdue was born in 1938 in Chile, South America where his father, an Alabama native, was employed as an electrical engineer with the Braden Copper Company. Returning to the United States in 1941, his family settled in Anniston, Alabama, remaining there until his father's employer relocated to St. Louis in 1955. In 1956 Tito graduated from Indian Springs School, a private academy located south of Birmingham, and was admitted to Antioch College in Ohio, an institution from which he was expelled in 1957 for having cohabited off-campus with the former Judy Clark, also an Antioch student. They were married later that year, both at age 18, and are together still. This year at college is the subject of The Sweet-Scented Manuscript, published in 2004 by Baskerville Publishers.
Tito attended the University of Texas in 1957-59 and 1960-61, receiving the B.A. at the end of that period. His daughter Melanie was born in January 1959, in Austin, Texas. During 1959-60, he worked as an assistant bookkeeper in the financial district of New York City. He returned to New York after graduation from the University of Texas and was employed for one year as an insurance underwriter, an experience lovingly described in his novel The New Austerities published in 1994 to very good reviews.
Tito was employed by the University of Iowa Libraries in 1968-70, and then began work as The Social Sciences Bibliographer at Iowa State University, a position held for ten years ending in 1980. He then became Assistant Director of the State University of New York at Binghamton Library and left in 1982 to become Associate Director of Emory University Library. He was discharged from that position in early 1983 as a result of policy disagreements and opted to devote himself full-time thereafter to novel writing.
In 1991 Tito's first published novel Lee was issued by Four Walls Eight Windows, a small press in New York City. The book received favorable reviews in The New York Times and elsewhere, being declared "spellbinding" by The New England Review of Books and "a stunning debut" by The Los Angeles Reader. Among negative reviews, Publishers Weekly exposed the book as the work of a reactionary snob and revealed that "it sinks under the weight of its own pretensions."
In 1994 his somewhat experimental Opportunities in Alabama Agriculture was published, a story based upon the history of his forebears on his mother's side. Extremely favorable and extended reviews were provided by Thomas Fleming, editor of Chronicles; a Magazine of American Culture, and by columnist Jim Knipfel of The New York Press. In 2007 a paperback edition of Lee was issued by Overlook Press. Tito's most recent novel, Fields of Asphodel also appeared in 2007 from the same publisher.
Tito determined to become a writer as a result of having read the novels of Thomas Wolfe when he was an adolescent. Since that time he has been writing, or preparing to write (or resuscitating), for a period of about fifty years.
Depending upon the weather and the day of the week, Tito admires Orwell, Faulkner, Dostoevsky, Hardy and the nearly-forgotten Ladislas Reymont. Among current American authors, he prefers Larry Brown, William Gay, and Cormac McCarthy. Tito's taste in music runs to Wagner and Mahler.
Tito attended the University of Texas in 1957-59 and 1960-61, receiving the B.A. at the end of that period. His daughter Melanie was born in January 1959, in Austin, Texas. During 1959-60, he worked as an assistant bookkeeper in the financial district of New York City. He returned to New York after graduation from the University of Texas and was employed for one year as an insurance underwriter, an experience lovingly described in his novel The New Austerities published in 1994 to very good reviews.
Tito was employed by the University of Iowa Libraries in 1968-70, and then began work as The Social Sciences Bibliographer at Iowa State University, a position held for ten years ending in 1980. He then became Assistant Director of the State University of New York at Binghamton Library and left in 1982 to become Associate Director of Emory University Library. He was discharged from that position in early 1983 as a result of policy disagreements and opted to devote himself full-time thereafter to novel writing.
In 1991 Tito's first published novel Lee was issued by Four Walls Eight Windows, a small press in New York City. The book received favorable reviews in The New York Times and elsewhere, being declared "spellbinding" by The New England Review of Books and "a stunning debut" by The Los Angeles Reader. Among negative reviews, Publishers Weekly exposed the book as the work of a reactionary snob and revealed that "it sinks under the weight of its own pretensions."
In 1994 his somewhat experimental Opportunities in Alabama Agriculture was published, a story based upon the history of his forebears on his mother's side. Extremely favorable and extended reviews were provided by Thomas Fleming, editor of Chronicles; a Magazine of American Culture, and by columnist Jim Knipfel of The New York Press. In 2007 a paperback edition of Lee was issued by Overlook Press. Tito's most recent novel, Fields of Asphodel also appeared in 2007 from the same publisher.
Tito determined to become a writer as a result of having read the novels of Thomas Wolfe when he was an adolescent. Since that time he has been writing, or preparing to write (or resuscitating), for a period of about fifty years.
Depending upon the weather and the day of the week, Tito admires Orwell, Faulkner, Dostoevsky, Hardy and the nearly-forgotten Ladislas Reymont. Among current American authors, he prefers Larry Brown, William Gay, and Cormac McCarthy. Tito's taste in music runs to Wagner and Mahler.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 13, 2020
This book begins with Tito Perdue's recurrent character, Leland Pefley, awaking in the afterlife, a strange hellish landscape for second-tier intellectual egoists filled with wandering dead souls. He joins a band of egoists on a personal pilgrimage to find his late beloved wife, who died 20 years before himself. As they migrate through this anti-world they move from wilderness to a dead civilization that is quite similar to the modern world in absurdity and terribleness. This book is funny for those who enjoy a certain kind of humor. I would say that most of Perdue's novels are standalone, but this one would be slightly more enjoyable to read if you've read some of his previous Pefley novels; Lee and The New Austerities in particular.
May 11, 2019
Very strange but I honestly read it all the way through. Like some visual art, it was a piece that did not speak to me.
March 30, 2020
It's a good thing I find snooty literature funny, because this book is nothing but pretentious! Lee is an absolute ass: self-involved, deluded by his own sense of worth, and demanding. Everything and everyone is beneath him, he feels. He's such an absolute jerk that I find him hilarious - he knows he's being an ass, but just doesn't care. I guarantee that a lot of people would start this novel and absolutely hate it. The thing is, I find disgruntled old men funny, and I also understand and share Lee's exasperation with the decline of literature in America, though not to his extent (frankly, as long as people read, I'm happy, even if it is fluff). I enjoyed this book because, like Lee, I love ancient Greek mythology. I also love wastelands and allegory (I have strange passions). Asphodel, the realm of the underworld for indifferent souls, seems to be cunningly paired with America in this novel - from to society or business or government. I didn't love this book to pieces, but I did get some enjoyment out of it.
"Responsibility had always rested with amazing lightness upon his own particular shoulders; indeed, as one who cared nothing for people, he felt no weight at all."
If this sentence makes you laugh, you'll like this book.
"Responsibility had always rested with amazing lightness upon his own particular shoulders; indeed, as one who cared nothing for people, he felt no weight at all."
If this sentence makes you laugh, you'll like this book.
July 31, 2008
As always, Tito Perdue does not disappoint. Along with Tom Wolfe, the best living writer in the US.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews