The Magic Christian - Softcover

Southern, Terry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140071091 ISBN 13: 9780140071092

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1985

Synopsis

Guy Grand, an eccentric billionaire, uses his wealth to play practical jokes which sometimes have serious consequences

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

One of the funniest, cruelest, and most savagely revealing books about American life ever written, The Magic Christian has been called Terry Southern's masterpiece.

Guy Grand is an eccentric billionaire--the last of the big spenders--determined to create disorder in the material world and willing to spare no expense to do it. Leading a life full of practical jokes and madcap schemes, his ultimate goal is to prove his theory that there is nothing so degrading or so distasteful that someone won't do it for money. In Guy Grand's world, everyone has a price, and he is all too willing to pay it.

A satire of America's obsession with bigness, toughness, money, TV, guns, and sex, The Magic Christian is a hilarious and wickedly original novel from a true comic genius.

"This is at once the most profoundly satiric and wildly comic account of our life and times in years."--Nelson Algren, The Nation

"Terry Southern is the most profoundly witty writer of our generation."--Gore Vidal

"Mr. Southern is wonderfully prodigal of comic ideas.... An enormously funny and satisfying satire, done with a great thrifty distinction."--The Spectator

"Terry Southern writes a mean, coolly deliberate, and murderous prose."--Norman Mailer

Terry Southern was the author of Flash and Filigree, Candy (with Mason Hoffenberg), Blue Movie, and Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes. He was also an Oscar-nominated screenwriter whose credits include Easy Rider, Dr. Strangelove, and Barbarella, as well as an adaptation of The Magic Christian.

About the Author:

EDOARDO BALLERINI Edoardo Ballerini is best known for his on-screen work in The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire and the indie hit Dinner Rush. He is also a frequent recorder of audiobooks. He lives in New York.

Terry Southern (1924-1995) was an American author and screenwriter. His novels--including the bestselling cult classics Candy (1958) and The Magic Christian (1959)--established Southern as a literary and pop culture icon. He was also nominated for Academy Awards for his screenplays of Dr. Strangelove (written with Stanley Kubrick and Peter George) and Easy Rider (written with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper). His other books include Flash and Filigree (1958), Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes (1967), Blue Movie (1970), and Texas Summer (1991). In later years, he wrote for Saturday Night Live and lectured on screenwriting at New York University and Columbia University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0140071091
• ISBN 13: 9780140071092
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 148