Jamestown: A Novel - Hardcover

Sharpe, Matthew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1933368608 ISBN 13: 9781933368603

Publisher: Soft Skull Press, 2007

Synopsis

Jamestown chronicles a group of settlers” (more like survivors) from the ravaged island of Manhattan, departing just as the Chrysler Building has mysteriously plummeted to the earth. This ragged band is heading down what’s left of I-95 in a half-school bus, half-Millennium Falcon. Their goal is to establish an outpost in southern Virginia, find oil, and exploit the Indians controlling the area. Based on actual accounts of the Jamestown settlement from 1607 to 1617, Jamestown features historical characters including John Smith, Pocahontas, and others enacting an imaginative re-version of life in the pioneer colony. In this retelling, Pocahontas’s father Powhatan is half-Falstaff, half-Henry V, while his consigliere is a psychiatrist named Sidney Feingold. John Martin gradually loses body parts in a series of violent encounters, and John Smith is a ruthless and pragmatic redhead continually undermining the aristocratic leadership. Communication is by text-messaging, IMing, and, ultimately, telepathy. Punctuated by jokes, rhymes, rim shot” dialogue, and bloody black-comic tableaux, Jamestown is a trenchant commentary on America's past and present that confirms Matthew Sharpe’s status as a major talent in contemporary fiction.

About this title

Review:

PRAISE FOR "JAMESTOWN"

"A work of hectic brilliance and immense sadness."--Laura Miller, "Salon"

"Sharpe's wit relies primarily on the juxtaposition of profundity and silliness, tragedy and absurdity, a kind of "Catch-22 "about the 17th century for the 21st century. Jamestown is packed with marvelous material, moving and funny and deeply provocative."--"The Washington Post Book World"

PRAISE FOR"JAMESTOWN"

"A work of hectic brilliance and immense sadness."--Laura Miller, "Salon"

"Sharpe's wit relies primarily on the juxtaposition of profundity and silliness, tragedy and absurdity, a kind of"Catch-22"about the 17th century for the 21st century. Jamestown is packed with marvelous material, moving and funny and deeply provocative."--"The Washington Post Book World"

PRAISE FOR "JAMESTOWN"
"A work of hectic brilliance and immense sadness." Laura Miller, "Salon"
"Sharpe's wit relies primarily on the juxtaposition of profundity and silliness, tragedy and absurdity, a kind of "Catch-22 "about the 17th century for the 21st century. Jamestown is packed with marvelous material, moving and funny and deeply provocative." "The Washington Post Book World""

PRAISE FOR JAMESTOWN
"A work of hectic brilliance and immense sadness." Laura Miller, Salon
"Sharpe's wit relies primarily on the juxtaposition of profundity and silliness, tragedy and absurdity, a kind of Catch-22 about the 17th century for the 21st century. Jamestown is packed with marvelous material, moving and funny and deeply provocative." The Washington Post Book World"

PRAISE FOR JAMESTOWN

"A work of hectic brilliance and immense sadness."--Laura Miller, Salon

"Sharpe's wit relies primarily on the juxtaposition of profundity and silliness, tragedy and absurdity, a kind of Catch-22 about the 17th century for the 21st century. Jamestown is packed with marvelous material, moving and funny and deeply provocative."--The Washington Post Book World

About the Author:

MATTHEW SHARPE is the author of the novels The Sleeping Father and Nothing Is Terrible, as well as the short-story collection Stories from the Tube. He teaches creative writing at Wesleyan University. His stories and essays have appeared in Harper's Magazine, Zoetrope, BOMB, McSweeney's, American Letters & Commentary, Southwest Review, and Teachers & Writers. He lives in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Soft Skull Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1933368608
• ISBN 13: 9781933368603
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320