The Grasshopper King

This debut novel is a profoundly absurd campus satire about immortality, obsession, obscurity, and true love.

Chandler State University is the one thing keeping the dusty, Western town of Chandler on the map. Now that its basketball program has fallen apart, CSU’s only claim to fame is its Gravinics Department, dedicated to the study of an obscure European country—its mythology, its extraordinarily difficult language, and especially its bizarre star poet, Henderson.

Having discovered Henderson’s poetry in a trash bin, Stanley Higgs becomes the foremost scholar of the poet’s work, accepts a position at Chandler State University, achieves international academic fame, marries the Dean’s daughter, and abruptly stops talking. With all of academia convinced that Higgs is formulating a great truth, the university employs Orwellian techniques to record Higgs’s every potential utterance and to save its reputation. A feckless Gravinics language student, Samuel Grapearbor, together with his long-suffering girlfriend Julia, is hired to monitor Higgs during the day. Over endless games of checkers and shared sandwiches, a uniquely silent friendship develops. As one man struggles to grow up and the other grows old, the Grasshopper King, in all of his glory, emerges.

In this debut novel about treachery, death, academia, marriage, mythology, history, and truly horrible poetry, Jordan Ellenberg creates a world complete with its own geography, obscene folklore, and absurdly endearing characters—a world where arcane subjects flourish and the smallest swerve from convention can result in immortality.

Publication date: April 1, 2003

Format: Trade Paper

Dimensions: 6 x 9

Page count: 200 pages

ISBN: 9781566891394

Jordan Ellenberg is the author of The Grasshopper King. He was born in 1971 and grew up in Potomac, Maryland. He recieved his undergraduate and doctorate degrees from Harvard and his masters degree from Johns Hopkins, and is now a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin Madison. His column, Do the Math, appears regularly in Slate, and his articles on mathematical topics have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Seed, Wired, and the Believer.

“Light, amusing, and carefully crafted as it is, The Grasshopper King is a cautionary tale about the perils of precision.”

—The Washington Post

“A delightful little novel.”

—American Book Review

“The funniest campus novel in ages, and a slippery, serious-minded investigation of what happens when good languages go bad.”

—Rain Taxi

“Like reading Murakami, readers will find themselves in a world that is so absurd, yet so palpable. Writing with wit and cleverness, Ellenberg moves deftly among moments of poignancy, satire, and slapstick comedy to make The Grasshopper King an entertaining and worthwhile read.”

—Manitou Messenger

"The funniest send-up of academia since Jane Smiley’s Moo.”

—ForeWord magazine

“Speedy, smart, and winsome meditations on immortality and obscurity.”

—The Believer

“Clever without pretentiousness, filled with enduring absurdity, bittersweet feelings and quirky characters.”

—Ripsaw News

“A brilliant debut: Jordan Ellenberg’s The Grasshopper King is perhaps the funniest and best-written ‘college’ novel I’ve read since Pale Fire—with a considerably more appealing cast of characters than Nabokov’s.”

—John Barth

“Jordan Ellenberg’s one of the funniest, flashiest, zaniest, cleverest and also one of the most intelligent and knowledgeable new young writers around.” 

—Stephen Dixon