My Search for Warren Harding (Paperback)

Robert Plunket

ISBN 10: 0241707994 / ISBN 13: 9780241707999

Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, 2025

About this Item

Paperback. A breakneck comic tour-de-force set in 1980s Hollywood, about one man's quest to get his hands on a box of bawdy love lettersElliot Weiner is a historian with a passion for Morris dancing and Warren Harding, 'the shallowest President in history'. After Weiner receives a research grant to write a book on Harding's tumultuous life, he gets wind of a trunkful of the twenty-ninth president's billets-doux, rumoured to be guarded by his ancient mistress on her declining Hollywood Hills estate. There's no depth to which he won't stoop, no moral boundary he won't traverse and no preposterous scheme he won't machinate to get at them.First published in 1983, My Search for Warren Harding garnered immediate acclaim and was described by the Los Angeles Review of Books as 'a classic picaresque novel in the tradition of Cervantes'; Robert Plunket's original fans included Amy Sedaris, Larry David and Madonna. In this deliciously bonkers novel, The Aspern Papers meets A Confederacy of Dunces meets Sunset Boulevard meets pure, glorious, hair-raising farce. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780241707999

Bibliographic Details

• Title: My Search for Warren Harding (Paperback)
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, London
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241707994
• ISBN 13: 9780241707999
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

‘One of the most original comic novels of the past half century’ The New Yorker
‘Will leave you so giddy you’ll go and kick sand in somebody’s face’ Houston Post

Perfect for fans of A Confederacy of Dunces, this is Robert Plunket’s comic masterpiece: a breakneck, unhinged romp through 1980’s LA

Eliot Weiner – snob, shameless opportunist, Morris dancing-obsessive – is on a mission. He has got wind of a trunk of bawdy love letters by Warren Harding, ‘the shallowest President in history’, now guarded by his octogenarian mistress on her crumbling Hollywood Hills estate. They could reignite his failing academic career – and there’s no depth to which he won’t stoop, no preposterous scheme he won’t undertake, to get at them.

With an Introduction by Danzy Senna

‘The author pulled me in so deftly, that after a hundred pages, I seemed to have turned over the keys, so to speak, of my nervous system’ Frank Conroy, Washington Post

‘A riotous debut: The Aspern Papers performed by the Brothers Marx’ Time

‘Nothing this funny is being written today’ Jacobin