|
The
Abyss of Human Illusion
Novel by Gilbert Sorrentino
Preface by Christopher Sorrentino
“It's still hard to accept a world without the great
Gilbert Sorrentino writing in it. Over the last several
decades, nobody that smart was ever funnier, nobody
that funny was ever a better prose artist, nobody that
original was ever more attuned to the pain and trickiness
of being—and thinking about being—human. That his final
book evinces all the complexity, poetry and dark mirth
that made him so revered might not surprise, but it
does inspire.”—Sam Lipsyte
Titled
after a line from Henry James, this novel consists
of fifty narrative set pieces full of savage humor
and cathartic passion—an elegiac paean to the bleak
world Gilbert Sorrentino so brilliantly captured in
his long and storied career. Mirroring the inexplicable
coincidences, encounters, and hallmarks of modern life,
this novel revisits familiar characters—the aging artists,
miserable couples, crackerjack salesmen, and drunken
soldiers of previous books, placing them in familiar
landscapes lost in time between the Depression era
and some fraudulent bohemia of the present.
Edited by his son, the acclaimed novelist Christopher
Sorrentino, The Abyss of Human Illusion was
completed just before Gilbert Sorrentino's death in
2006. As Christopher writes, “My father, who never
had a problem burying work that dissatisfied him, made
quite clear his intention and desire that this book
be published . . . it is, in the end, a book to which
he literally brought the fullest measure of his energy
and ability.”
Also
Available by this Author:
|
