Items related to The Story of My Baldness: A Novel

The Story of My Baldness: A Novel - Softcover

 
9781590511954: The Story of My Baldness: A Novel
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The ingenious comic novel named one of the "best books of 2004" by The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Baltimore Sun.

In The Story of My Baldness, Viennese philosophy student Marek van der Jagt tells the story of his quest for l'amour fou. Van der Jagt introduces a host of unforgettable characters and weaves a web of shameful secrets in this novel that uses Vienna the way Kafka used Prague—as the (strangely familiar) landscape where the narrator's obsessions are given free rein.

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About the Author:
Marek van der Jagt is a Viennese philosopher. His first book, The Story of My Baldness, was awarded the Anton Wachter Prize for a debut novel, until it was revealed that he had already won the prize previously for Blue Mondays, written under the name of the bestselling international author Arnon Grunberg, his bitter public rival.
From Publishers Weekly:
Part literary game, part grotesque coming-of-age tale, this "autobiographical novel" is likely to amuse some readers and put off others. To begin with, Van Der Jagt is a pseudonym; the book's real author is Arnon Grunberg, a prolific young Dutch author whose talent is matched—or possibly exceeded—by his desire to provoke the Dutch literary establishment. Submitted under the false name, the book won the Anton Wachter prize for a debut novel; the honor was revoked when it was discovered that Grunberg, who won the same prize for his bestseller Blue Mondays, was the author. The book's protagonist is Viennese teenager Marek, a studious type prone to dour remarks. He struggles under the burdens of an overbearing mother, a distant father and a perilously small penis ("three-quarters of a pinky, when viewed charitably and with an open mind"). Despite this, he repeatedly tries his luck with women of chronic low self-esteem. These include a middle-aged accordion player, the less pretty of two tourists from Luxembourg and the neglected mother of a boy in a wheelchair. The translation (done by Sam Garrett, Grunberg's longtime translator, working under a pseudonym) successfully renders the mix of high-brow and low-brow that comprises Marek's voice. Whether readers find the book—and the ploy—amusing will depend on their tolerance for Marek/Grunberg's archly tongue-in-cheek humor.
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  • PublisherOther Press
  • Publication date2006
  • ISBN 10 1590511956
  • ISBN 13 9781590511954
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages264
  • Rating

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9781590511220: The Story of My Baldness

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Publisher: Other Press, 2004
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Van Der Jagt, Marek; Todd Armstrong
Published by Other Press (2006)
ISBN 10: 1590511956 ISBN 13: 9781590511954
New Softcover Quantity: 1
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