[title]

by [name of author]

[Title] is a book that pulls apart the relationships among reader, writer, and text, doing it with [humor/pathos] and [aplomb/wanton disregard], in the spirit of [undersung writer's writer].

90 pages, Paperback

First published December 7, 2021

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Presented as a detailed, chapter-by-chapter outline of post-modern novel, [name of author]’s [title] is a tip of the hat to Lawrence Sterne’s Tristan Shandy (with the works of many other authors alluded to) and a parody of literary conventions, genres, and tropes. As with some of the finest avant-garde literature, [title] has no plot—Fictional Character is usually just waking from sleep or a bad fall as the Narrator wonders on Fictional Character’s behalf why he (“pronominal evidence suggests male”) should get up and what he should do. Clearly, [name of author] has been collecting examples of avant-garde clichés for a long time. I don’t know the background to the [title]’s composition, but I can imagine its origins as a list of conventions and clichés which were then transformed—solely for the author’s own amusement—into a book. It’s kind of an in-joke for a certain set of readers and well worth the read. I suspect that [title] will fly—or sputter, more likely—under the radar, but it really deserves a wider audience.

For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...

[David Chess · Rating 4 out of 5]

lol. It was not trivial to even find this book in Goodreads in order to record it!

This is a fun little book, extremely meta, and if you've never encountered a work before that exposes and questions our assumptions about what books are, what an author is, what a reader is, and so on, this would be a neat first one to run across I think.

It doesn't raise these questions in any especially novel or creative ways, really, beyond the admittedly cute title, cover blurbs, and author bio. But still, that it does it at all is praiseworthy.

[Mya · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine! A fun little piece with intentional pompous verbiage. It was definitely written by a literary artist for literary artists, which I'm not and don't really know the jargon. But with only 90 pages it was an easy move back into reading again.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A metafictional delight; crammed with allusions, snark, and a remarkable dedication to the absence of anything resembling a plot.

[kozo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good luck finding this one, boys.

A writers book for writers is basically what it is. If you aren’t someone who dapples in the world of creating fiction, sorry to say you simply won’t get it. It’s too meta for you. Every aspect of it was too meta and I adored it simply for the novelty.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was hilarious. a very meta commentary that hit me hard as someone familiar with the books by recent Iowa's Writer's Workshop grads