The Cry of the Sloth

The four-month odyssey of a literary lowlife.

Set in middle America during the economic hard times of the Nixon era, this tragicomic, epistolary masterpiece chronicles everything Andrew Whittaker—literary journal editor, negligent landlord, and aspiring novelist—commits to paper over the course of four critical months.

From his letters, diary entries, and fragments of fiction, to grocery lists and posted signs, we find our hero hounded by tenants and creditors, harassed by a loathsome local arts group, tormented by his ex-wife, and living on a diet of fried Spam, cupcakes, and Southern Comfort. Determined to redeem his failures and eviscerate his enemies, Whittaker hatches a grand plan. But as winter nears, his difficulties accumulate, and the disorder of his life threatens to overwhelm him.

A send-up of the literary life and the loneliness and madness that accompanies it, Sam Savage proves that all the evidence is in the writing, that all the world is, indeed, a stage, and that escape from the mind’s prison requires a command performance.

Publication date: September 1, 2009

Format: Trade Paper

Dimensions: 5 x 7.5

Page count: 224 pages

ISBN: 9781566892315

Thanks to a 2013 ADA Access Improvement Grant administered by VSA Minnesota for the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, this title is also formatted for screen readers which make text accessible to the blind and visually impaired. To purchase this title for use with a screen reader please email us at info@coffeehousepress.org.

Sam Savage is the best-selling author of Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife, The Cry of the Sloth, Glass, and The Way of the Dog. A native of South Carolina, Savage holds a PhD in philosophy from Yale University. He was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the PEN L.L. Winship Award, and the Society of Midland Authors Award. Savage resides in Madison, Wisconsin.

“Savage’s sense of humor is true to his name, but The Cry of the Sloth reminds us of the great Russian satirist Ivan Goncharov, who also saw the tragedy in pretending to be productive.”

—Time Out Chicago

“Wickedly comic. . . . That it has been pulled off as a marvelously slapstick tragedy says volumes about Sam Savage’s talent.”

—The Star Tribune

“Delightful. . . . Imagine a comic version of the great Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of the Disquiet in epistolary form, with extra laceration.

—The Guardian

“The Cry of the Sloth is the funniest anatomy of literary mediocrity since Max Beerbohm’s 'Enoch Soames.'”

—The Times of London

“A novel like this should come swaddled in party balloons. . . . [The Cry of the Sloth] deserves a toast.”

—The American Book Review

“Focused and multifaceted. . . . A lot of humor shines through.”

—The Orlando Sentinel

“A delightfully entertaining story that showcases a shrewd and spirited personality.”

—WOSU Public Media

“A terrific little novel.”

—Nancy Pearl

“[Sam Savage has] become one of America’s funniest, cleverest, and most vital writers of fiction.”

—Michael Schaub, Bookslut

“Scathingly funny.”

—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Savage is just hitting his stride. His new work is every bit as engaging and original as his debut.”

—Library Journal, starred review

“[Andy Whittaker] is a triumphant achievement, squirm-inducingly credible and the palpitating heart of this very funny, very dark novel.”

—Kirkus, starred review

“[The Cry of the Sloth] has ‘cult book’ written all over it. . . . Unique and hilarious.”

—Booklist

“Laugh out loud funny. . . . Sam Savage is one of the greats.”

—Bookmunch