Phone Rings - Softcover

Dixon, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0976140780 ISBN 13: 9780976140788

Publisher: Melville House, 2005

Synopsis

A shocking phone call in the first sentence sparks a soaring tour-de-force saga by the writer Publishers Weekly deemed "a hip Saul Bellow."

It is the tale of two brothers, years apart in age, who have become close late in life. But the freakish death of one at the book's outset sends the other reeling into a shattered yet strangely exhilarating revisitation of their lives together.

Phone Rings is the work of a master at the peak of his form: a beautiful overlapping of scenes both remembered and ongoing, told with tenderness and an antic, laugh-out-loud sense of humor. In Dixon's inimitable mix of absorbing narrative, deceptively simple prose, and waggishly innovative style, it becomes the sprawling chronicle of a large Jewish family in midcentury New York City, surviving three wars, the 1960s cultural revolution, marriages, divorces, births, and deaths. . . . Is it all lost with the piercing sound of a ringing phone? Or is that the chance to realize the possibility of transcendence?

Stephen Dixon has long been considered the "secret master" of American fiction by great writers such as Jonathan Lethem. In this book, he may well have written his masterpiece.

Stephen Dixon is the author of 24 books of fiction, including, most recently, the acclaimed Old Friends and the National Book Award nominees Frog and Interstate. His work has won the Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry Award, as well as honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University.

About this title

About the Author

Stephen Dixon is the author of 26 books of fiction, including National Book Award-nominations for FROG and INTERSTATE. His short fiction has won every major literary award, as well as honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University.

Reviews

Starred Review. Dixon's 25th book of fiction takes up the themes of his recent novels I. and Old Friends—writerly vicissitudes, spousal care, New Deal-era New York City childhood—here serving as the backdrop for a story about male sibling bonds. After receiving a phone call telling him his older brother, Dan—his mentor, idol and closest friend—has died in a freak running accident, Stu Fine mourns their lives together. Ever the experimenter, Dixon tells Stu and Dan's story episodically, as if carefully scanning snapshots from an unordered box, in long associative paragraphs that slowly accumulate to complete a portrait of their relationship: Dan sticks up for teenage Stu, but disciplines him with a belt. He gets Stu, now out of college, his first good job as a reporter. After Stu's marriage, Dan listens to Stu's mania for his daughters' safety, advises him on what to do with his rickety car and offers sympathy for the challenges of caring for a handicapped wife. The tragic, early deaths of Stu's other siblings, his father's involvement in an abortion scandal (which resulted in a prison sentence and the enduring bitterness of his family) and Dan's adventures as a war correspondent during the Korean War complete the picture. This epic account of the life of a family ranks among Dixon's most ambitious novels. (Oct. 15)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Melville House
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0976140780
• ISBN 13: 9780976140788
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280