Coming Soon!!! - Softcover

Barth, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1903809460 ISBN 13: 9781903809464

Publisher: Atlantic Books, 2002

Synopsis

In a novelistic romp that is by turns hilarious and brilliant, Coming Soon!!! is the tale of two writers: an retiring novelist setting out to write his last work and a young writer of hypertext intent on toppling his master. Inspired by a gently sinking showboat replica called The Original Floating Opera II, which is grounded on a shoal somewhere in the Bay as a hurricane (and Y2K) approaches, they race each other to write a novel about a floating opera - a reprise of the fictional mentor's first novel, of Barth's own first novel, of Edna Ferber's literary monument Show Boat and the musicals and films it spawned. In the heat of their rivalry, the writers navigate - and sometimes stumble over - the fault lines between print and electronic fiction, mentor and mentored, postmodernism and modernism. Coming Soon!!! is an extraordinary addition to, and in many respects a commentary on, Barth's distinguished career, a series of books that has shaped contemporary literature.

About this title

Review

Virtuosic brilliance... a bravura novel * Observer * Infinitely clever * Time Out * A fitting capstone to a body of work that overtowers that of most other writers of his generation * Washington Post * Delightful * San Francisco Chronicle *

Book Description

'Virtuosic brilliance... a bravura novel' Observer

'Infinitely clever' Time Out

'Delightful' San Francisco Chronicle

'A fitting capstone to a body of work that overtowers that of most other writers of his generation' Washington Post

About this edition

• Publisher: Atlantic Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1903809460
• ISBN 13: 9781903809464
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448