Flatscreen: A Novel - Softcover

Wilson, Adam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006209033X ISBN 13: 9780062090331

Publisher: Perennial, 2012

Synopsis

"Flatscreen" tells the story of Eli Schwartz as he endures the loss of his home, the indifference of his parents, the success of his older brother, and the cruel and frequent dismissal of the opposite sex. He is a loser par excellence--pasty, soft, and high--who struggles to become a new person in a world where nothing is new. Into this scene of apathy rolls Seymour J. Kahn. Former star of the small screen and current paraplegic sex addict, Kahn has purchased Eli's old family home. The two begin a dangerous friendship, one that distracts from their circumstances but speeds their descent into utter debasement and, inevitably, YouTube stardom. By story's end, through unlikely acts of courage and kindness, roles will be reversed, reputations resurrected, and charges (hopefully) dropped. Adam Wilson writes mischief that moves the heart, and "Flatscreen" marks the wondrous debut of a truth-telling comic voice.

About this title

Review

..".immensely satisfying ... Wilson has created a thoroughly lovable slacker, part hilarious, part poignant."--New Yorker

"Comic novelist Adam Wilson makes his swaggering debut in Flatscreen."--Vanity Fair

"Eli's narration in Flatscreen is darkly funny..."--Entertainment Weekly

"Wilson's prose is original and arresting ... he approaches, in his loftier moments, the tortured grace of George Saunders. This is Cheever on Xanax, or maybe lithium, but the voice is still there; sardonic, hilarious, and very much of our time. Wilson is a writer to watch."--Daily Beast

"Five things we emphatically endorse this month ... a laugh-out-loud literary debut ..."--Details

"If you smashed The Catcher in the Rye into Jesus' Son, you might have something quite close to Flatscreen, a narrative of wayward youth for our beguiled new century on the brink of a discovery we might not welcome."--BookForum

"A fine debut from Wilson."--New York Post

"Wilson gives us something depressingly hilarious and undeniably real....Low-level angst is still angst, and Wilson captures it perfectly."--Time Out New York

''...hilarious and edgy..."--Baltimore Sun

"Perverse, subversive, and hilariously outrageous, the book delivers memorable characters, a rollicking plot, and a new voice that comes across as anything but flat."--Barnes and Noble Review

About the Author

Adam Wilson is the author of the novel Flatscreen (Harper Perennial, 2012). His fiction has appeared in many publications including The Paris Review, The Best American Short Stories, Tin House, The Literary Review, The New York Tyrant, Gigantic, and many others.

He is currently a regular contributor to both BookForum and The Paris Review Daily. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Observer, Time Out New York, and elsewhere.

Adam holds a BA from Tufts University and an MFA from Columbia University. A former employee of Brooklyn's famous BookCourt bookstore, he now teaches creative writing at NYU and The Sackett Street Writer's Workshop. He lives in Brooklyn with his cat.

About this edition

• Publisher: Perennial
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 006209033X
• ISBN 13: 9780062090331
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336