Frog: A Novel - Softcover

Dixon, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805048839 ISBN 13: 9780805048834

Publisher: Holt Paperbacks, 1997

Synopsis

National Book Award Finalist, 1991

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

The author of five well-reviewed but relatively obscure novels and eight story collections, Dixon may achieve a higher profile with this novel, a National Book Award finalist. Opening portentously with the protagonist's trip to Kafka's grave, this 860-page Joycean monolith deftly portrays the urban nightmare as cosmic comedy, though some readers will doubtless be put off by chapter-length paragraphs, free association, time shifts and voice changes. Howard Tetch, angst-ridden college professor, had an old nanny who smeared his face with excrement as a boy; now he has violent outbursts toward his own daughters and fantasizes his wife's death. His Dublin is Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn. With a fine sense of the absurd, Dixon tells dozens of stories--how Howard's father, a dentist, went to prison; the tragic decline of Howard's suicidal, invalid sister, Vera; his violent adolescent street life; the apparent death at sea of his newsman brother, Alex. Then Dixon mixes the deck, giving alternative, mutually exclusive versions of some subplots, as if the world were splitting into parallel universes before our eyes. Readers attuned to the author's run-on style may warm to a cunning, sexy, audacious performance; others will find this an arty bore.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Frog is a complex and paradoxical character: petulant, compulsive, overbearing, hostile, and self-righteous, but also imaginative, loving, kind, and strong. No matter how exasperating he gets, it's still hard not to care about him. His story is a nonsequential patchwork of flashbacks, real and imagined stories, and retellings from various perspectives. Dixon, best known as a gifted short story writer, demonstrates his mastery of the novel here, imaginatively expanding on a variety of themes like a great jazz soloist. Although some will be totally confused after the first 200 pages, the patient reader will be held spellbound as Dixon weaves his web of many versions. While this is not quite the " Finnegan's Wake of our generation" as the publishers claim, Frog 's labyrinthine structure, rapid-fire wordplay, vivid descriptions, and raw emotional power are all reminiscent of Joyce. Highly recommended.
- Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. at Chico
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0805048839
• ISBN 13: 9780805048834
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 784