Field Guide to the North American Family. This item is unavailable.Field Guide to the North American Family

For years, the Hungates and the Harrisons have coexisted peacefully in the suburbs of New York. But when the patriarch of one family dies, the survivors face a stark imperative: adapt or face extinction. In sixty-three entries and an accompanying website, A Field Guide to the North American Family offers a collaborative portrait of two fictional specimens. Photographers contributed this editions lavish illustrations via afieldguide. com, an ongoing, networked internet community. Though the novellas entries can be read straight through, alphabetical headings and cross-referenced design also enable readers to move through the narrative as they see fit. Part fiction, part reference work, part photoessay, this singular Field Guide invites readers and participants to consider the state of the family and to explore the future of the book.

"Hallberg inhabits each of his characters completely, and there is some gorgeous image or turn of phrase on almost every page. Especially impressive are the voices of the kids in the story, which feel natural and true . . . A pleasure to read." --New York Times Book Review

"Evocative of masters of American suburbia such as Updike, Cheever, Salter, and Richard Yates . . . Conjuring a dreamily filmic spell, with shades of American Beauty and The Ice Storm, this is a work that can be approached (and rediscovered) a number of ways, all equally rewarding. It's an ideal coffee table or bedside companion, to be dipped into for flashes of pleasure." --The Independent (UK)

"Provocative . . . There's no denying the author's way with words . . . There's virtuosity at work." --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"In this stunningly beautiful, cross-referenced exploration of suburban intimacy, the story of two struggling families emerges gradually, achingly--and never the same way twice. Hallberg's prose is lacquered and precise, and the kaleidoscope of collected images forms a shifting, luminous backdrop. A perfect marriage between sculptured form and wondrous content. Read it. Now." --Reif Larsen, author of I Am Radar

"Hallberg has a fine novelist's grace and sensitivity." --Kirkus Reviews

"A Field Guide to the North American Family reads like magic, like a private book of spells meant to keep away all the things that have already happened; each word and image matters. It's a gorgeous labyrinth of a book." --Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances