Description
Book SynopsisProving himself yet again a master of every form, Barth conquers in his latest the ruminative short essay—“jeux d’esprits,” as Barth describes them. These mostly one-page tidbits pay homage to Barth’s literary influences while retaining his trademark self-consciousness and willingness to play.
Trade Review“Barth’s earlier accomplishments amount to a watershed for the country’s fiction, a landmark in what’s known as Postmodernism. … As Barth’s work matures, its elements of experiment take us further from the ordinary.” —John Domini, LitHub
“Every sentence he writes either looks at itself askance or ushers in a following sentence that will perform the task. In his fascinated commitment to the art—and to the criticism—of storytelling, he has no rival.”—William Pritchard, New York Times
“John Barth has spent most of his allotted era watching our wheels spin with a coolly detached, not unamused gaze. He doesn’t ignore or eschew change, but he takes a wider view. He is Heraclitean to the core. . . . If, as Nabokov wrote in the Afterword to Lolita, art is kindness, then John Barth embodies art every bit as much as anyone ever has.”—James Greer, LA Review of Books
