By turns hilarious and alarming, "American Mischief" is an ambitious attempt to define the disorders of American culture. Originally published in 1970, the novel takes on sexual anarchy, political madness, the collapse of monogamy, and above all the high cost of extreme behavior. These aspects of American culture are richly illustrated by the novel's two protagonists: Professor Bernard Kovell, a supreme and comical narcissist who dotes on lofty analogies while performing very low acts, and Lenny Pincus, a young radical fishing for more trouble than he can handle.

Clarinetist Ike Morphy, his dog Herbie Mann, and a pair of pigeons who roost on his air conditioner are about to be evicted from their apartment on West 106th Street, also known as Duke Ellington Boulevard. Ike has never had a lease, just a handshake agreement with the recently deceased landlord; and now that landlord’s son stands to make a killing on apartment 2B. Centering on the fate of one apartment before, during, and after the height of New York’s real estate boom, Ellington Boulevard ’s characters include the Tenant and His Dog; the Landlord, a recovered alcoholic and womanizer who has newly found Judaism and a wife half his age; the Broker, an out-of-work actor whose new profession finally allows him to afford theater tickets he has no time to use; the Broker’s New Boyfriend, a second-rate actor who composes a musical about the sale of 2B ( “Is there no one I can lien on if this boom goes bust?” ). There’s also the Buyer, a trusting young editor at a dying cultural magazine, who falls in love with the Tenant; the Buyer’s Husband, a disaffected graduate student taken to writing bawdy faux-academic papers; and the Buyer’s Husband’s Girlfriend, a children’s book writer with a tragic past. With the humor and poignancy that made Langer’s first novel, Crossing California, a favorite book of the year among critics across the country, Ellington Boulevard is an ode to New York. It’s the story of why people come to a city they can’t afford, take jobs they despise, sacrifice love, find love, and eventually become the people they never thought they’d be—for better and for worse.

The second volume of Adler's New York stories in which all the heartache, joy, pain and anguish of the big apple zeitgeist comes to life. These unforgettable stories will make you laugh and cry as a remarkable parade of characters pursue their busy lives in the greatest city on earth. Acclaimed author Warren Adler focuses his laser eye on New York City in these 21 vividly rendered short stories revealing New York as the heartbeat of America, where creativity resides in every nook and cranny, and energy pulsates through its pavements and infuses its denizens, inveterate New Yorkers. In a continuation of "New York Echoes 1", Adler's themes in "New York Echoes 2" deal primarily with intimate human relationships-the mysterious nature of love and attraction, the fragile bonds between husbands and wives, and parents and children; the divide between generations; the obsessive pursuit of the creative artist and the emotional toll it exacts. In these stories, past memories collide with present realities and chance encounters have unexpected consequences. All of the hallmarks of Adler's fiction are at play in "New York Echoes 2", and delivered through these powerful stories that reflect a special understanding of the human condition as seen through the eyes of one of America's most prolific authors. Above all, these radiant tales are a celebration of the short story and of an author's return to his much-loved, dearly missed native city.

A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 3 - Mayhem at the State University of Michigan: Is it murder...or another faculty meeting? Filled with caustic humor about university life and written with literate style and grace, The Death of a Constant Lover escalates Nick Hoffman's involvement with mayhem and faculty meetings. When the son of a professor is murdered on a campus bridge, Nick's presence at the scene puts him right where he can't afford to be: in the middle of trouble. With his tenure review coming up, he's been warned by his department chair to avoid bad publicity. But Nick is forced to wade in deeper anyway, inexorably drawn into yet another risky investigation in the surprisingly cutthroat world of academia. He may be surrounded by academics with deadly agendas, but he's armed with the hope that his wit and insight will be enough to avert the death of his career... and maybe his own as well. A Lambda Literary Awards Finalist, this new edition contains a 2020 foreword by Brad Shreve (Mitch O'Reilly series) as well as a new introduction by the author.

A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 4 - The fourth novel in the highly acclaimed series begins on a high note. It appears that Nick's career is finally moving in the right direction, and the celebrity that comes with solving murders has brought him more students than he can possibly handle. But things are never calm at the State University of Michigan: Nick's partner's career seems to be taking a downturn, a new faculty member is causing a lot of nasty talk, and cryptic messages are showing up in Nick's mailbox. What turns up next is a corpse - and some very unsettling thoughts for the reluctant sleuth. Lev Raphael is a Lambda Literary Awards winner and multiple nominee for several books. This new edition in his Nick Hoffman series contains a 2021 foreword by Meg Perry (Jamie Brodie series).

A seductive and intriguing journey from the humble Persian Jewish quarter to the fascinating world of shahs, soothsayers, eunuchs, and sultanas, "Harem" follows three generations of strong-willed and cunning women: Rebekah -- a poor girl married to the abusive blacksmith, Jacob the fatherless -- who emerges from her disastrous match with a mysterious brand between her breasts; Gold Dust, Rebekah's treasured daughter, who enters the opulent and perilous world of the harem and captivates the shah with her singing bones; and Gold Dust's daughter, the revered and feared albino princess Raven, who will one day rule the empire.Rich in visual imagery, "Harem" vividly depicts the exotic bazaars and dangerous alleys of the city and palace chambers brimming with conspiracy and betrayal -- as well as love and redemption. A skillfully crafted, intricately textured novel, "Harem" represents the beginning of a remarkable literary career.

Hailed as a masterpiece by Jean Genet, Marguerite Duras, and Jean-Paul Sartre, Tropisms is considered one of the defining texts of the nouveau roman movement. Nathalie Sarraute has defined her work as the "movements that are hidden under the commonplace, harmless instances of our everyday lives." Like figures in a grainy photograph, Sarraute's characters are blurred and shadowy, while her narrative never develops beyond a stressed moment. Instead, Sarraute brilliantly finds and elaborates subtle details--when a relationship changes, when we fall slightly deeper into love, or when something innocent tilts to the smallest degree toward suspicion.

In "One Basket" by Edna Ferber, readers are treated to a collection of short stories that provide a delightful glimpse into the lives of various characters. Through Ferber's skillful storytelling, these tales explore the intricacies of human relationships, dreams, and the intricacies of daily existence. The book's narrative diversity spans from the bustling streets of New York City to the quiet rural settings, making each story a unique experience. Themes of love, ambition, and personal growth are woven throughout, painting a vivid picture of American life in the early 20th century. Edna Ferber's masterful prose captures the essence of the human spirit, offering a rich and emotional reading experience for all.

Critics in Britain are already raving about Charlotte Mendelson’s excoriatingly funny yet deeply humane novel about a glamorous London family that happens to be falling apart. The Rubins are the perfect family. They’re wonderfully happy and very glamorous. The mother, Claudia, is the ultimate Jewish a powerful rabbi known for her charm, brains, and determination. Now this dynastic Jewish family is getting ready to marry off the perfect eldest son. History, community, and even gastronomy unite the guests lucky enough to attend this joyous occasion. But when the groom -- one minute before exchanging vows -- bolts with the wrong woman, the myths that have defined this family take on darker overtones. Mendelson’s astonishing eye for detail, as well as her just-right balance of plot and character, makes the unfolding of this story an uncommon treat. In a marvelously compressed style that also bursts with life, she reveals how all four adult Rubin children, and their parents, struggle with huge secrets, sexual frustration and sexual experimentation, and many betrayals. Charlotte Mendelson opens a window on a realm rarely explored in British the complicated world of English Jewry. But to watch this seemingly blessed family drastically, disastrously fall apart before regaining balance is to understand that their struggles -- like all of ours -- are universal ones.

"Katz lives up to her first novel's potential in this moving, funny, wholly original picaresque about a nice Jewish girl. . . . The pasts and common destiny of two remarkable women--related with perfect timing in Sofia's convincing Yiddish-tinged English--come together beautifully in this nicely crafted, emotionally satisfying, and well-researched historical fiction."-- Publishers Weekly " The Escape Artist , a brilliant work of historical fiction . . . fast-paced and gorgeously written novel" -- Liberty Press Set in the brothels and gangster dens of Jewish Buenos Aires at the beginning of the twentieth century, The Escape Artist catapults us into the lives of Sofia Teitelbaum and Hankus Lubarsky. Sofia, a nice Jewish girl from Poland, is lured away from home by Tutsik Goldenberg, a wealthy traveling businessman who claims to be a lonely Argentine diamond merchant in search of a wife. Upon arriving in Buenos Aires, Tutsik dumps Sofia at his sister's brothel. Hankus, also a nice Jewish girl from Poland, is passing as a man. Having escaped the pogroms of Poland that killed her family, she lives her life as a handsome and mysterious magician and escape artist. When Tutsik spots the talented juggler and acrobat Hankus he envisions success as his manager, seeing Hankus as the means to get out from under his sister's thumb. Sofia and Hankus fall in love and their attempts to walk the tightrope of love, freedom, and independence are quickly put to the test. Sex, deception, magic, and love are the main ingredients of this tour de force novel by Lambda Literary Award winner Judith Katz. In The Escape Artist , Katz reveals that all human interactions consist of love and hate, deception and candor, altruism and self-interest. This is as true in our lives today as it was in an immigrant community at the turn of the last century. Judith Katz is the author of two published novels, The Escape Artist and Running Fiercely Toward a High Thin Sound , which won a Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction. She has received Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, and National Endowment fellowships for fiction.

Anzia Yezierska's "Children of Loneliness" explores the complex experiences of Jewish immigrants in New York City. This literary work delves into the challenges of social alienation and the struggles inherent in cultural assimilation. Through compelling prose, Yezierska examines the conflicts that arise between generations as they navigate new identities in a rapidly changing world. A poignant portrayal of the immigrant experience, "Children of Loneliness" offers a powerful glimpse into the lives of those seeking a new home while grappling with the loss of their traditions. The novel masterfully portrays the universal themes of identity, belonging, and the search for connection in an unfamiliar land, ensuring its enduring relevance. This carefully prepared print republication makes this important historical fiction accessible to all. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

"A blistering, brilliant novel from the Booker-shortlisted author, elegantly reflecting his Geoffrey Faber Memorial award-winning story collection The Quantity Theory of Insanity. In The Quantity Theory of Morality, Will Self 's unconventional new novel, his pen remains dipped in vitriol and elegance as ever. In this dark yet hilariously satirical "state-of-an-era novel," Self 's target is a collective morality that is nothing more or less than pure sociability. His middle-class, middle-English characters appear trapped in a timeless go-round of polite chitchat in dinner parties that refract like a hall of mirrors as the novel progresses, until one day someone says something to the effect of, "This way to the gas chamber, please, ladies and gentlemen." The Quantity Theory of Morality finally solves the equation of time and money that dominates our lives, in a way that is simultaneously deranging, destabilizing, and hilarious. With recurring-if defeated-appearances from now-canonical characters like Zack Busner, the repetition of each chapter, or "Proposition," shows Will Self to be both a master of satire and slapstick humor and a sublime and thoughtful critic of the alienation of modern life. With The Quantity Theory of Morality, Self provides the sequel to his award-winning debut of thirty-four years ago: The Quantity Theory of Insanity. That literary psycho-surgery proved there wasn't enough sanity to go around-now he's established what many of us fear to be the absolute truth: there isn't enough good to go around, either"-- Provided by publisher.

Literary, lyrical, and cuttingly satiric, Mother India is a brilliantly original novel about Jews who go to India to find transformation and eternal release from the sufferings of life. Narrated in luminous prose by Meena, a Jewish American lesbian who has claimed India as her home, the novel is vividly populated by the darkly comic universe of three generations of women along with other family members, as well as by the Indians whose world they seek to penetrate. There is Meena’s religiously observant mother, Ma, whose desire to remove herself from the wheel of life plays out in a Faulknerian funeral procession and cremation on the banks of the holy river Ganges; Meena’s daughter, Maya, a misunderstood child coming of age in an emotionally treacherous household; her ex-wife, Geeta, a privileged and hedonistic Indian woman who enters their world with devastating consequences; Meena's twin brother, Shmelke, a charismatic rabbi turned guru and international fugitive; and the Indian servant, Manika, whose loyalty to the family both sustains and shackles them. Identifying with the humanity of its characters, the reader is drawn into a vast, tragicomic, and fascinating epic, Homeric in scope, drama, discovery, and surprise. Universal yet intimate, brutal yet tender, satiric yet sympathetic, Mother India evokes reactions—intellectual, emotional, visceral—that are complex, even contradictory, containing the might and bite that our current cultural hubris and self-involvement deserve. In Mother India, Reich offers us her most poignant and astonishing novel to date.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1916 Edition.

This is a new release of the original 1926 edition.

In quest of the unpublished manuscript of a martyred Yiddish writer, the American novelist Nathan Zuckerman travels to Soviet-occupied Prague in the mid-1970s. There, in a nation straightjacketed by totalitarian Communism, he discovers a literary predicament, marked by institutionalized oppression, that is rather different from his own. He also discovers, among the oppressed writers with whom he quickly becomes embroiled in a series of bizarre and poignant adventures, an appealingly perverse kind of heroism. The Prague Orgy, consisting of entries from protagonist Nathan Zuckerman's notebooks recording his sojourn among these outcast artists, completes the trilogy and epilogue "Zuckerman bound," It provides a startling ending to Roth's intricately designed magnum opus on the unforeseen consequences of art. This Vintage edition is the first paperback publication of the epilogue.

A delightfully clever contemporary novel inspired by the Louisa May Alcott classic In Katharine Weber's third novel, The Little Women , three adolescent sisters--Meg, Jo and Amy--are shocked when they discover their mother's affair, but are truly devastated by their father's apparently easy forgiveness of her. Shattered by their parents' failure to live up to the moral standards and values of the family, the two younger sisters leave New York (and their private school) and move to Meg's apartment in New Haven, where Meg is a junior at Yale. They enroll in the local inner-city public high school, and, divorced from their parents, they try to make a life with Meg as their surrogate mother. Written in the form of an autobiographical novel by Joanna, the middle sister, the pages of The Little Women are punctuated by comments from the "real" Meg and Amy. Their notes and Jo's replies form a second narrative, as they argue about the "truth" of the novel. Why do readers insist on searching for the autobiographical elements of fiction? When does a novelist go too far in mulching actual experience for a novel? What rights, if any, does a writer have to grant the people in her life and story? An ingenious combination of classic storytelling in a contemporary mode, The Little Women confirms Katharine Weber's reputation as a writer who "astutely explores the gap between perception and reality." ( The New York Times Book Review )

In France, on the eve of the Revolution, a young man named Claude Page sets out to become the most ingenious and daring inventor of his time. In the course of a career filled with violence and passion, Claude learns the arts of enameling and watchmaking from an irascible, defrocked abbé, apprentices himself to a pornographic bookseller, and applies his erotic erudition to the seduction of the wife of an impotent wigmaker. But it is Claude's greatest device-a talking mechanical head-that both crowns his career and leads to an execution as tragic as that of Marie Antoinette, and far more bizarre. Hailed by critics for the shimmering brilliance of its inventions and its uncanny fidelity to the textures of the past, A Case of Curiosities places Allen Kurzweil securely in the ranks of the finest literary artists of our time.

Herod: A Biography is a book written by Jacob S. Minkin that explores the life and legacy of one of the most notorious figures in biblical history, Herod the Great. The book provides a detailed and comprehensive account of Herod's life, from his rise to power in Judea to his death and the aftermath of his reign. Minkin draws on a wide range of historical sources, including ancient texts, archaeological evidence, and modern scholarship, to paint a vivid portrait of this complex and often controversial figure. The book covers Herod's many accomplishments, including his impressive building projects and his efforts to modernize Judea, as well as his many personal flaws and failures. Minkin also explores the political and religious context of Herod's reign, including the tensions between the Jewish people and their Roman rulers, and the various factions and power struggles that shaped the region during this time. Overall, Herod: A Biography is a fascinating and insightful look at one of the most intriguing figures in ancient history, and a must-read for anyone interested in biblical history, ancient politics, or the complexities of human nature.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

"Climats" is a profound and elegant psychological novel that explores the intricate complexities of human relationships, love, and the shifting emotional landscapes of the heart. Written by the celebrated French author André Maurois, this masterpiece delves into the lives of Philippe Marcenat and the women who shape his existence, offering a searingly honest portrayal of the joys and devastations of romantic obsession. The narrative is divided into two compelling perspectives. The first part follows Philippe as he recounts his tumultuous marriage to the ethereal but elusive Odile, whose need for freedom clashes with his possessive nature. In the second part, Philippe's second wife, Isabelle, provides a contrasting viewpoint, revealing the challenges of living in the shadow of a past love and the struggle to create a lasting bond. Through these dual narratives, Maurois examines how personal "climates"-the emotional atmospheres individuals bring to their relationships-can both attract and repel, leading to cycles of misunderstanding and longing. Regarded as a classic of 20th-century literature, "Climats" remains a timeless meditation on the nature of jealousy, the difficulty of truly knowing another person, and the pursuit of happiness within the confines of marriage. Its lyrical prose and keen psychological insights continue to resonate with readers seeking a deep understanding of the human condition. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you may see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.