American Mischief - Softcover

Alan Lelchuk

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374104212 ISBN 13: 9780374104214

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973

Synopsis

By turns hilarious and alarming, "American Mischief" is an ambitious attempt to define the disorders of American culture. Originally published in 1970, the novel takes on sexual anarchy, political madness, the collapse of monogamy, and above all the high cost of extreme behavior. These aspects of American culture are richly illustrated by the novel s two protagonists: Professor Bernard Kovell, a supreme and comical narcissist who dotes on lofty analogies while performing very low acts, and Lenny Pincus, a young radical fishing for more trouble than he can handle."

About this title

Review:

""American Mischief" should be read as a companion piece to, if not the equal of, "Mr. Sammler s Planet." It is a map, charted with intelligence, lit by vitality, of America s ailments." Mordecai Richler, "Chicago Tribune"" "A report from the Ivy Lower Depths by an extraordinary new writer. . . . It isn t just real life that has changed but imagination itself, the kinds of myths a generation wants and believes. And Mr. Lelchuk has produced a whole mythology, a book of beasts, that anatomizes the new imagination with bloodcurdling fidelity." Wilfrid Sheed" "No novelist has written with such knowledge and eloquence of the consequences of carnal passion in Massachusetts since The Scarlet Letter." Philip Roth, "Esquire""

About the Author:

Alan Lelchuk was born and raised in Brooklyn. He is author of the novels "Brooklyn Boy," recently reprinted by the University of Wisconsin Press, "On Home Ground," "Shrinking," "Miriam at Thirty-four," "Miriam in Her Forties," and "Playing the Game." He is on the faculty of Dartmouth College and is cofounder of Steerforth Press. His newest book is "Ziff: A Life?"

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 1973
• ISBN 10: 0374104212
• ISBN 13: 9780374104214
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1