Book Description
Bestselling author Nicholson Baker, recognized as one of the most dexterous and talented writers in America today, has created a compelling work of nonfiction bound to provoke discussion and controversy -- a wide-ranging, astonishingly fresh perspective on the political and social landscape that gave rise to World War II.

Human Smoke delivers a closely textured, deeply moving indictment of the treasured myths that have romanticized much of the 1930s and '40s. Incorporating meticulous research and well-documented sources -- including newspaper and magazine articles, radio speeches, memoirs, and diaries -- the book juxtaposes hundreds of interrelated moments of decision, brutality, suffering, and mercy. Vivid glimpses of political leaders and their dissenters illuminate and examine the gradual, horrifying advance toward overt global war and Holocaust.

Praised by critics and readers alike for his exquisitely observant eye and deft, inimitable prose, Baker has assembled a narrative within Human Smoke that unfolds gracefully, tragically, and persuasively. This is an unforgettable book that makes a profound impact on our perceptions of historical events and mourns the unthinkable loss humanity has borne at its own hand. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Nicholson Baker is most famous for Vox, the phone-sex novel Monica Lewinsky gave President Clinton, but the vastly superior U and I contains Baker's own dirty little secret: an obsession with John Updike. Not since Salieri in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus has one man's genius so publicly tormented another. Baker's ambition is a naked thing shivering with sensitivity, like a snail bereft of its shell. Yet his book about himself thinking about Updike is as hilariously self-knowing as it is excruciatingly sincere. And Baker is not mad (not quite). He does have a few things in common with his idol: fiction precociously published in The New Yorker, psoriasis, insomnia, a keen eye for everyday minutiae, and a mischievously felicitous prose style. He is, however, funnier. Hunting for Updike at The Atlantic's 125th anniversary party, he gets brutally snubbed by Miss Manners--U and I is a fine comedy of literary manners--and cheers up when Tim O'Brien chats with him. But when O'Brien mentions that he golfs with Updike, Baker is hurt:

It didn't matter that I hadn't written a book that had won a National Book Award, hadn't written a book of any kind, and didn't know how to golf: still, I felt strongly that Updike should have asked me and not Tim O'Brien.

He justifies this reaction with a remarkably intricate series of associations between his life and Updike's, starting with the major impact a golf joke in an Updike essay once had on him. When Baker reads in the paper that his local cops offer to X-ray kids' candy for razors, he plausibly imagines the droll "Talk of the Town" piece Updike might have spun from the item, glumly noting that Updike's piece would have been better. He even teasingly confesses that U and I constitutes "a little trick-or-treating of my own on Updike's big white front porch." By the time he actually meets his hero (at Rochester's Xerox Auditorium!) in 1981, Baker has transformed him into a character in a Baker story. Quite a trick--and a treat.

In his elegy for Yeats, Auden wrote that a great poet's words are modified in the guts of the living, but Baker proves what really happens: at best we misremember and mangle, shamelessly remaking the master in our own image. --Tim Appelo Book Description
Baker muses on the creative process via his obsession with John Updike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Definitely not for everyone
That may be true for most books, but it's doubly true for this one.

This book appealed to me because the author and I share a common interest (though in the case of Baker, it's more like an obsession) in the form of Updike's writing.Even so, it must be said that I agree with the negative reviews;many of them are right on.This book is often frustating and exasperating, particularly in the way Baker focuses on himself, his insecurities, his worth as a writer, and the way he does and doesn't hold up next to Updike.Not to mention the fact that several times he seemed about to, yet never does, come up with an explanation for why Updike's writing is so memorable and his words and images so long-lasting in the mind of the reader.I found myself wanting to read Updike more and Baker less...probably not the intended result (and, for the record, if Baker's own reading list is accurate, I've read way, way more Updike than him...which I found strange and unexpected, considering).

Still...Baker's writing, about Updike's writing, is often dead-on.When he focuses on that topic, he more or less succeeds;he is insightful and intelligent, and there is something entertaining in the way he struggles, strains, and sweats to dissect an author whose own writing is so often effortless.

Don't read this because you like Updike
Because it is hardly about Updike at all.And if you read it because you like Baker, I'd wager there is a very good chance you will like him less afterwards.

Baker comes across as a smarmy, smirking, egotistical, overreaching, worrisome irritating twit.Maybe this is supposed to be funny; well, it isn't.He came up with a stupid idea for an essay, and despite its shortness, it is stretched out and completely empty.

I read this book because it came to hand, and I am interested in Updike.I finished it because it is so slight and quick a read, and I gave it numerous chances to turn around.Certainly I should have known enough to stop when he announces that writing novels is really the purview of women and homosexual men, and that he and Updike succeed only despite the fact that they are heterosexual males.Well, here's your opportunity to learn from my mistake: skip this thing.

This is a truly horrid, pointless little book.

The consciousness involved in the reading of fiction
Nicholson Baker is reputed to be a miniaturist.In Baker's opinion Updike's obituary in THE NEW YORKER for Nabokov was a model of its kind.

In the opening pages a crisis arises when Baker reads an AP story in his local paper that Donald Barthelme has died.He strives to compose an obituary of Barthleme for THE NEW YORKER.Baker's obituary comes out eventually in the 'Notes and Comments' section of the magazine.Baker considers working himself up to a fanatical receptivity of Barthelme's work, but then thinks to himself that Barthelme would never know.The intellectual surface given to the dead writer's work changes in texture and chemistry.In the dead, autobiographical fidelity in the work becomes less important.Baker comes to feel that Updike is more important to him than Barthelme, particularly because Updike is still alive.Baker resolves to make a book about his obsession with Updike.

At first Baker seeks to write a commissioned article on Updike.He contacts THE ATLANTIC.Baker, 25 years younger than Updike, notes that older writers are wary of younger writers.THE ATLANTIC responds.An editor says the results could be good or creepy.

Nicholson Baker started reading Updike at Christmastime, 1976, when he was on leave from college.Like the rest of us, Baker's actual coverage of Updike's works is spotty.Both Baker and Updike have psoriasis.Baker offers up the facetious suggestion that book reviews, not books, are the engines of intellectual change.In wonderful fashion, Baker teases out the meaning of, and circumstances surrounding, an Updike observation made pursuant to reviewing Edmund Wilson's journals that a set piece on a sunset would clog, would break the momentum in the writing of a novel.Writing involves an unbelievable amount of memory.A prolific writer works to avoid reapeating himself.

In the end THE ATLANTIC runs an excerpt of the author's essay on Updike.Belittling the Franklin Library, the author states that Updike teaches even in his transgressions.The book is a marvellous piece of writing and encompasses many writerly concerns.

Anxiety of Influence
Baker has a gift for writing very funny pieces about subjects that are usually dry and serious. Nominally about John Updike, U and I is mostly concerned with how young writers are influenced by the "tradition" of past writers. He's anxious, for instance, about "The Anxiety of Influence." Has Harold Bloom covered the same ground already?Baker doesn't know, because he hasn't read Bloom, and now refuses to do so, for fear that the book will "take me over, remove the urgency I feel about what I'm recording here." His vague ideas of Bloom's argument have come second hand. "Book reviews, not books, being the principal engines of change in the history of thought." That doesn't stop him wildly speculating about what Bloom would say, and then sheepishly confessing to some of the books that have directly influenced his own work in progress, such as Exly's A Fan's Notes and Barnes' Flaubert's Parrot.

John Updike, in an interview that appeared in Salon, praised the book himself. "It has done me a favor, that book, because it's a book like few others. It's an act of homage, isn't it? He's a good writer, and he brings to that book all of his curious precision, that strange Bakeresque precision."

I'm so glad I wasn't there
Nicholson Baker's semi-demented account of his Updike fascination begins from perhaps the slimmest premise a writer ever attempted to build a book upon.He admits that he hasn't even read most, or even half of Updike's work all the way through, and yet he can't help measuring his achievement against Updike's.Which, when you look at the imposing bulk of Updike's work against the handful of slender volumes that is Baker's, seems fair enough, at least if you think quantity is a virtue.

Yet Baker writes so well, not just about the nuances of his quasi-Oedipal relation to Updike, but about Stuff Generally, that we keep reading.When he says that a particularly sarky remark of Samuel Johnson's "merited a shout and a thigh slap", the economy of that phrases reassures us about his own talent; likewise his description of a hamburger as "substantial, tiered, sweet and meaty" makes you want to go out and chow down straight away.This is not only about Updike - although it's very good on Updike - but chiefly about Baker, and his own determination to wring poetry out of the everyday.

Perhaps Baker's real direction, if the manic momentum of "U and I" is anything to go by, is more towards the torrential worry of a Thomas Bernhard than the Olympian repose of an Updike.I only began to read Updike years after I'd read this book, and I find him a bit of a let-down.But Baker has gone on to do some entertaining things with sex, some excellent essays and a kid's book.He has demons far more volatile than Updike's; I think he should let them roam a little more freely. ... Read more

Book Description
Baker has written a novel that remaps the territory of sex--solitary and telephonic, lyrical and profane, comfortable and dangerous. Written in the form of a phone conversation between two strangers, Vox is an erotic classic that places the author in the first rank of America's major writers. Reading tour. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (55)

Great Read
I was constantly asking myself if I was more blown over by the characters or the genius of the author's creativity. Imagine a man that indiscriminately worships the idea of womenmasturbating. That's hott! Or who considers himself a spokesperson for women freely expressing their sexuality. Still hott. This is a one chapter book about phone sex, but phone sex with debth. The characters and plot are great, but to witness the author's creativity, is even better. Enjoy.

Gen-X Neurotica
Loved this book. It's an enjoyably quick read of neurotic erotica that reminds me of a Douglas Coupland novel. It's funny, smart, and effortlessly unpretentious. Very cleverly crafted. Plus, it turns you on.

The plot involves a man and a woman in their late twenties who strike up a conversation on an adult partyline. They're drawn to each other's voices. Their neuroses are a perfect match. The conversation builds like sex builds. It's imaginative, funny, honest, revealing, shocking, innocent, jaded and sweet. There are laugh-out-loud moments that keep you reading. Then, in the last 30 pages, the masturbatory climax is realized, and we feel satisfied with the ending.

Wicked
A whole book filled with one particular phone conversation between a man and a woman. They begin as strangers and by the end of that one phone call they get to know each other better. They like each other's voice so much that they might even meet one day. Until then, they would be satisfied with talking on the phone. When they initiate the call they have the same goal in mind. They obtain it at the end but the journey in reaching it takes a lot of work told in stories. The idea for the story is amazing. The stories told during their chat are diverse. A short work that could be finished under three hours where there is nothing to think about except read.

ehh...
my best friend found this book at a bus stop... maybe someone got sick?

Masturbatory Crap
Masturbatory crap that belongs in Penthouse Forum.Young bachelor's bathroom reading.Go buy something from Anais Nin or Henry Miller and skip this garbage. ... Read more

Amazon.com
One man's simple, colloquial meditations on his past, his family, and his life's daily minutia are the substance of Nicholson Baker's A Box of Matches.Feeling that life is passing him by, Emmett, a middle-aged medical textbook editor, decides to wake up early each day to sit by a fire in his country house and record his thoughts in a diary."Good morning," Emmett begins, "it's January and its 4:17 a.m., and I'm going to sit here in the dark."From this vantage point, Emmett reflects stream-of-consciousness style on whatever occurs to him, no matter how mundane: his recent trip to Home Depot, how he met his wife, the habits of the family duck.Routines, such as how he makes his morning coffee in the dark or picks up his underwear with his toes, are described with childlike reverence and directness.All told, nothing much happens in A Box of Matches, which seems to be the point.Baker is more interested in the idea that for many, life is made up of such apparent trivialities, and that only by pausing to appreciate them can anyone gain any lasting satisfaction.Baker emphasizes this through the moments of understated wisdom and joy that Emmett derives from ordinary occurrences, such as the daylight through the window: "a simple light that goes everywhere but with no heat, aware that it is taken for granted and content to be so."This is the philosophical equivalent of a one-joke premise, however, and there are moments when Emmett's naiveté and laundry list-like narrative wear thin.Likely understanding this, Baker has wisely kept things short.A curious, often charming novel, A Box of Matches will inspire some readers, while inspiring frustration in others. --Ross DollBook Description
Emmett has a wife and two children, a cat, and a duck, and he wants to know what life is about. Every day he gets up before dawn, makes a cup of coffee in the dark, lights a fire with one wooden match, and thinks.

What Emmett thinks about is the subject of this wise and closely observed novel, which covers vast distances while moving no further than Emmett’s hearth and home. Nicholson Baker’s extraordinary ability to describe and celebrate life in all its rich ordinariness has never been so beautifully achieved.Download Description
Emmett has a wife and two children, a cat, and a duck, and he wants to know what life is about. Every day he gets up before dawn, makes a cup of coffee in the dark, lights a fire with one wooden match, and thinks.What Emmett thinks about is the subject of this wise and closely observed novel, which covers vast distances while moving no farther than Emmett¿s hearth and home. Nicholson Baker¿s extraordinary ability to describe and celebrate life in all its rich ordinariness has never been so beautifully achieved.Baker won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper. He now returns to fiction with this lovely book, reminiscent of the early novels¿Room Temperature and The Mezzanine¿that established his reputation.From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (53)

Hardly a page-turner, but read it for the sheer joy of reading
This is one of those books where nothing really happens, but that's not really a bad thing! It is the story of a man who get up every morning very early, while it's still dark, to light the fire with a box of matches.

The narrative takes us through the motions of each of these mornings, and the subsequent day, through his thoughts, and via a series of flashbacks, over some of the events of his life.

Will it keep you on the edge of your seat? No. Is it worth reading for sheer skill of the storytelling? I think so

Seems written by someone trying to imitate Nicholson Baker's style
I have read many of N.B.'s novels and essays, and he is a favorite author of mine.This novel, however, seems more like it was written by someone else in his writing style, rather than written by Baker himself.It lacks the substantive punch of his earlier works, lacks the beauty and emotion of a narrator relating to others in his world.The pet duck in the story seems more real, compelling, and finely drawn than the narrator's wife and children.(Maybe this is intentional?)In addition, whereas past Baker narrators have described the minutiae of their lives with freshness and wonder, this narrator gets pedantic.Does the reader really need to be told how a rear-window defroster works, or how to wash a dish?I think for Baker fans, this might be a disappointment.For a first-time Baker reader, however, it's a peaceful little book that might lead to his better ones.

A bit disappointing
Count me among the many fans of Nicholson Baker's body of work. Upon first cracking the pages of A Box of Matches I was quite pleased to discover that it is a return to the style of writing that made him famous - focusing in on the beauty of detailed minutiae within a story-arc comprised of a few reflective moments. This is the same stuff that made me love The Mezzanine and Room Temperature. In this case, our protagonist is a medical texts editor who details his early morning ritual of making a cup of coffee, starting a fire in his fireplace, and ruminating on his life. Like any piece of fiction by Baker, the descriptive details are dazzling and his use of metaphor and simile unparalleled among his peers. Those who, like me, appreciate a particularly inventive turn of phrase will find much to delight in this small book. Ultimately however, I found A Box of Matches not entirely satisfying. I think it has to do with the age of the narrator. In The Mezzanine and Room Temperature, both narrators were experiencing things both new and old, but mostly new and came at things with a palpable sense of wonderment. By contrast, the narrator in A Box of Matches seems a bit world-weary and lacks that same sense of wonderment. I think that takes away from the soul of the narrative that really shines through in the earlier two tomes. Detailed descriptions of things new and exciting make for a stirring read. Detailed descriptions of the old, the tried and true, come out a bit dull and perfunctory. It has always been a tightrope walk for Baker to make the mundane details of everyday life come alive exquisitely, and unfortunately with A Box of Matches it seems he's lost his balance.

Nuanced, balanced.
Baker's prose and topics of discussion are incredibly nuanced here, and by the end of the book he's uncovered a whole new type of humor based on soft, delicate minutiae. He has a gift for the sort of highly personal aesthetic observations I would normally associate with a new friend or a lover's uniquely individual tastes, but here these things are communicated in a short and sweet book. Baker loves to observe things with a microscope, that's his style, but here he balances his desire for a radical literary form by channeling it through a very comfortable, somewhat bittersweat, and incredibly observant voice. I still hear the voice two years after reading this work, very subtle and very powerful.

You've got to get cold to get warm
Every one of the thirty-three chapters in `A Box of Matches' by Nicholson Baker begins with a "good morning" and the time. The main character is a forty-four year old man named Emmett who earns a living by editing medical textbooks. He's married to a woman named Claire and together they have two children: a fourteen-year-old daughter named Phoebe and an eight-year-old son named Henry. The family has two unusual pets: an aggressive, territorial cat and a duck that lives in a doghouse and enjoys antagonising the cat.

Every morning Emmett wakes up at around four in the morning, before the sun has risen, before he has to drop his daughter off at school and go to work. The first things that he does in the morning are make coffee and start a fire in the fireplace... all in the dark. As he performs this morning ritual, he is sometimes distracted and begins thinking about events that happened when he was much younger or even events in his life that happened as recently as the previous day. Each chapter, or morning rather, he shares amusing, interconnecting stories about things such as his old Fuji camera, the suitcase his father gave to him, tiles from an old railroad station that he and his father put into their fireplace, and how he came to have a duck for a pet.

Often whilst reading `A Box of Matches' I was struck by how entertaining it was despites its seeming ordinariness. This book is not ordinary, far from it. In my opinion, it was rather brave to write a book that will basically be love it or hate it with readers. Emmett has his idiosyncrasies that we recognise in others and ourselves. The stories may seem dull if you are not paying attention to Nicholson Baker's subtle sense of humour. His ruminations vary from memories to sentimentalities to observations about the world and the people around him.

If you enjoy the sort of comedy in shows like Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, there's a good chance that you will like this book. ... Read more

Amazon.com
The Fermata is the most risky of Nicholson Baker's emotional histories. His narrator, Arno Strine, is a 35-year-old office temp who is writing his autobiography. "It's harder than I thought!" he admits. His "Fold-powers" are easier; he can stop the world and use it as his own pleasure ground. Arno uses this gift not for evil or material gain (he would feel guilty about stealing), though he does undress a good number of women and momentarily place them in compromising positions--always, in his view, with respect and love. Anyone who can stop time and refer in self-delight to his "chronanisms" can't be all bad!Like Baker's other books, The Fermata gains little from synopsis. The pleasure is literally in the text. What's memorable is less the sex and the sex toys (including the "Monasticon," in the shape of a monk holding a vibrating manuscript) than Arno's wistful recollections of intimacy: the noise, for instance, of his ex-girlfriend's nail clipper, "which I listened to in bed as some listen to real birdsong."Book Description
Having turned phone sex into the subject of an astonishing national bestseller in Vox, Baker now outdoes himself with an outrageously arousing, acrobatically stylish "X-rated sci-fi fantasy that leaves Vox seeming more like mere fiber-optic foreplay" (Seattle Times). "Sparkling."--San Francisco Chronicle. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (53)

unimpressive
The short summary of this book is that it's about a guy who can stop time. He uses his talent mainly to undress women without them knowing. He's a nice guy about it so nothing overly disagreeable happens to them, he pretty much just looks, no harm done (arguably).

Having read the reviews for this book, I was expecting a book that approached sexuality in a thoughtful way. I knew the book would involve a lot of sex, but was expecting it to be done in an insightful way. Indeed, the first quarter of the book was really well done, just what I was hoping for. The writing was beautifully done and there were thoughts every few pages that would make me stop and think for a minute. And the titillating plot kept things moving at a nice pace.

Unfortunately, after the first quarter or so the book turns into pornographic garbage. Eventually the main character decides to write erotica in order to leave it for the women he undresses. To me this seems like an excuse for the author to indulge himself and try to pass it off as literature. There's nothing thoughtful about these situations involving the UPS man, the lawn-boy, the lonely divorcee, and way too many dildos.

Overall the book was disappointing. Oh, it's entertaining. I even enjoyed much of it just for the shock value, but that's all it was. And it certainly isn't enough to consider this a "good book". It depends what you're looking for I suppose.

Almost Shocking
You can read a hundred reviews where people mention "sexual" and I still don't think they'll ever prepare you for how blatantly graphic this novel is.And it's not graphic in an erotic way, it's just detailed to the point of being absurd and somewhat hilarious. If you watch movies or HBO in this day and age, it's hard to consider things shocking, but this novel becomes pretty close.Youkeep thinking that the author can't possibly top himself, then 20 pages later you find the narrator doing or thinking something even more outlandish or absurd.

The plot is pretty simple:Arno is a guy with a special power.He can stop time.But, like Faustus, he doesn't use his power to achieve greatness.He doesn't do magnificent good or evil.He simply uses the power to freeze time and undress women.Sometimes he leaves them a gift or some self-penned erotica.

I don't know that I really liked this novel, but I enjoyed reading it and I would tell any person to give it a shot, even though they may end up offended by all the graphic content.Baker is an extremely gifted writer and has a firm grasp of language, but it's impossible to figure out if the character he's writing is the weirdo, or if Baker himself is the weirdo for dreaming him up.

Fascinating; High sexual content
Without question, one of the most original and fascinating premises I've ever encountered.What would you do if you were able to stop time?Think about it.This is a relatively short book and extremely sexually charged.Not for the prudish or even the moderately straight laced.

For people who enjoy hating themselves
The book is amazing, it so well describes........ well... sex.In reality it is like living out a fantasy if your fantasy got progressively more perverted and disturbing.Yet, throughout its unbelievably graphic "intercourse" scenes, the writing is flawless.Indeed, if I were to describe pornographic sex, I could only dream of being half as good as Nicholson baker.The first half of the book is almost designed for any guy who has imagined stopping time - and what you'd HONESTLY do if you could.The rest I'd say "enter at your own risk" but if you ate light and have a strong gut, it is still very well written and even... dare I say it... enjoyable.Give it a shot.If you're a conservative republican, don't even bother looking the direction of the book, but for the rest of us, maybe you'd enjoy giving it a shot. I'm glad I did.

all I can say is "wow"
Not for the prude--but wow I wish I had written this. Really really elegantly done. ... Read more

Book Description
Turns an ordinary ride up an office escalator into a meditation on our relations with familiar objects--shoelaces, straws, and more. Baker's debut novel, and a favorite amongst many of us here. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (41)

a great book from a neat writer
I had to read Nichelson Baker for my critical thinking class in 1995 and was undeniably impressed with his book, outside of the classroom. Some have a knack, others have a gift, and Mr Bakers pen has been touched by the comedic hand of god settling him firmly in the later.
From the ergonomics of turn signal devices in japanese cars(they feel like human joints when you activate them) to the bathroom stall noises of public restrooms soundling like soup cans, Mr Baker has a keen zen like perception with the word that puts the reader in distinct focus by using very common settings. His awareness of the world around him and his acute attention to detail lend a lot of credibility to those of us who are fascinated with randomness, the placement of everything, physical objectivity in our personal experiences of the world. One of my favorite writers. The Fermata is very funny too.

Just Pleasure in Reading
There is very little to take away from this book.And that is praiseworthy.

If you feel you must find some kind of meaning, you could make a case that our life is lived in the minutiae that we ignore and not in the grand momentswe choose to remember.

Follow a man on his common trip out of a building and across the square.Use this book to fill some idle minutes reading rather than on a sitcom.

How do YOUR Shoelaces Break?
You just have to read this. You will never look at a plastic straw the same way again. What should I say? That it's about escalators and shoelaces and personal-care products? This is a true example of a story being about HOW it's told, not what it's about. A hundred obervations of everyday minutiae, and voila. Life.

Grab the escalator into Howie's world of ideas...
We drown in information. Terabytes and petabytes of it slosh over us every day. Many decide to remain oblivious to this assault and ignore the fascinating minutiae that lurk in obscure peripheral corners. They miss a lot. Howie, the "hero" of Nicholson Baker's first novel, "The Mezzanine," provides an antidote for this myopia. Throughout the short novel, he pulls back, like onion skin, the conceptual strata of common experience to reveal the wonderous microcosms beneath. Where many of us see a plastic straw, Howie sees a spectrum of engineering discoveries, plastic-to-paper buoyancy and porosity ratios, and tiny ebbs and flows in the quality of life. He scrutinizes things at the quantum level, such as the differences between "oop" and "oops," the various ways to end a conversation with a co-worker, and the theoretical means by which a shoelace wears to breaking point. Howie thrives on micro-analysis. He floats in information as though it were a soothing amniotic fluid.

A portrait in text, "The Mezzanine" presents a first person character study of a detail fanatic. One hundred and thirty five pages relate the mental and physical events of a single lunch hour. Anything worthy of the slightest notice receives apt attention and many of the observations steer Howie into his past or into his private life. For instance, he lists his major developmental advances. These include "shoe tying," "brushing tongue as well as teeth," and "putting on deodorant after I was fully dressed." Worried about reaching his "majority," he calculates the number of new thoughts required to overtake the puerile thoughts that have collected in his brain since age six. Only when these new thoughts preponderate will he consider himself "fully developed" and able to "really understand things." Later on, he reflects on the periodicity of thoughts. How often a person thinks about a thing may reveal more about them than their professed beliefs. Howie analyzes his own thoughts and includes a chart with rows for "Subject of Thoughts" and "Number of Times Thought Occurred in Year." This does reveal a lot about Howie. In particular, the most affection he shows for his girlfriend, referred to obliquely as "L.," is by placing her name at the top of this list. Other references to her seem devoid of emotion. But the fact that he actually made such a list probably says more about Howie than the items that appear on it. Parallel to the main text, copious footnotes capture Shandean digressions that sublimate ancillary thoughts for pages on end. These often flood the main narrative, leaving a mere few lines bobbing atop the page. No branch of Howie's ruminations gets neglected.

"The Mezzanine" defies summary. The figures, ideas, facts, theories, images, and metaphors zoom by at hyperspeed, sometimes to an overwhelming degree. Collectively they turn the brain into a bloated sac teeming with an incomprehensible degree of data. Somehow this intellectual miasma becomes a highly engaging read. As if listening to someone ramble on about every detail that occurs to them moment by moment could be entertaining. Somehow it is and the effect remains spellbinding and illuminating throughout. The highly readable, verging on gimmicky, prose and the often hilarious imagery move the book along at a surprising pace. Regardless, at times the text lumbers down and sags under its own weight, but these moments don't come often enough to detract from the book as a whole. And though it lacks a plot, the book nonetheless suggests new ways of seeing and experiencing everyday life. Either that or the reader will thank their lucky stars that they didn't turn out like Howie. He does at times seem rather cold and emotionless, as though ideas and facts have replaced the very blood in his veins. What does L. think of him? One can only imagine after Howie relates the earplug story that ends with L. pleading "See how much I love you?" Even that doesn't seem to move him. Some questions remain: does Howie's life, though bursting with information and fascinating trivia, have any meaning? Is this a concrete-sequential horror story about someone stuck in the sterile world of facts? Or does Howie represent the modern enlightened individual basking in technology and ideas? The reader of course must decide, but one thing seems certain: "The Mezzanine" provides enough food for thought to survive multiple readings.

the visible hand
If you don't spend a lot of time contemplating your shoe laces, this book may come as somewhat of a revelation to you.A very, very minor revelation.The fact is that someone probably spent a good part of their professional life developing and testing that shoe lace, and someone else spent many hours fine-tuning it to make it as pleasing as a shoe lace can possibly be.Same goes for escalators, plastic straws, and staplers.The neat thing about a market economy is that so many people spend so much time improving such minor commodities, just so they can exchange them with each other.Nicholson Baker has written a humorous and almost touching tribute to this system.Very enjoyable (although I don't think I would have wanted it to be any longer). ... Read more

Book Description
From Nicholson Baker, best-selling author of Vox and the most original writer of his generation, his most audacious novel yet.

Meet Jay.

Meet Ben.

Jay has summoned his old friend Ben to a hotel room not far from the nation’s capitol. During the course of an afternoon, they will share a delicious lunch and will crack open a bottle of wine from the hotel minibar. They will chat about everything from Ben’s new camera to Iraq to the unfortunate fate of a particular free-range chicken.

And Jay will explain to Ben exactly why and how he is planning to commit a murder that will change the course of history.Download Description
Nicholson Baker was born in 1957 and attended the Eastman School of Music and Haverford College. He has published six previous novels and three works of nonfiction, including Double Fold, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2001.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (43)

a friend stopping a friend
This is a very politically motivated book where two guys get together and one has a plan to assinate the President. What transpires are the goals of both guys--one to stop his friend from his sick plan, the other to carry out his sick plan. A pretty good fast read.

Not clear what this was meant to accomplish
This book is billed as a novel, but it's really a short story told entirely in dialogue form -- there's a guy who's threatening to assassinate George W. Bush, and his old high-school buddy is trying to talk him out of it. The would-be assassin, Jay, seems to be delusional: I don't think we're supposed to believe that his intended plans (or weapons) could possibly work. At the same time, he's very well-informed about recent events, especially the Iraq war. I suppose that combination makes him potentially an interesting character, and the book might work as a character study -- but if that's the intention, it's too short; we don't have enough to go on to really understand this guy, and we certainly don't get anything like a thorough political assessment of the Bush Administration (or even just the Bush Administration's crimes). So I'm not sure what the book really means to provide. I like Nicholson Baker's writing, but I don't know..... maybe too little is expected of novelists these days. This isn't a bad read, but it seems dashed-off and insubstantial -- certainly not the novel that will be looked back on as defining this era.

Horrible and boring
I read this in 2 hours. It's a boring, short book (in script form). There's no real fowarding of the plot, and the character are annoying. Even if you hate Bush, you wont like this book.

Not a political book
I think that people who try to take the political content of this book seriously are missing the point. The point of the book, like any good novel, is not in scoring political points but exploring the lives of the people involved in the novel. Because the political point of view of the two protagonists is contemporary, it's hard not to react to the political statements being made. Not surprisingly, then, many reviewers have considered the book as a political tract and have commented on how valid the political analysis is (maybe it helps to be Canadian).

But that's not the point: The point is seeing two people living in the United States in 2002/2003. While the protagonists do, occasionaly, make points that real political commentators make, they also make absolutely loony points. Like a David Mamet or Harold Pinter play, the pleasure in this book is the dialog (the book is all dialog), the characters, and their relationship.

When reading this book it might be worthwhile to take the long view: Assume that the protagonists are living in the time of Louis XIV and are considering assissinating the king. In that frame of mind, you wouldn't care about the politics and would only interested in the people. On that basis, I enjoyed the book. What is impressive to me is how much the author reveals about the characters and their values through the incidentals of the character's conversation. We see two people who really have given up on any hope of influencing their country's direction (or even the direction of their own lives) and who can not tell the difference between fact and supposition. They have come to the point where the only difference they believe that they can make in the public sphere is through some spasmodic dramatic action.

Not too much too it, but timely and worth reading
Generally, I find the two-guys-sitting-in-a-room-talking format for works of fiction to be uninteresting.It just doesn't exercise the imagination much.Nothing really happens; there's not really a story.And in this case, I think many readers will themselves have recently engaged in conversations very similar to the one depicted here, making many of the same arguments and expressing many similar feelings.The book does score some points with me, insofsar as it might help raise certain issues from obscurity into everyday discourse (eg maybe some things about napalm in Iraq, or about the Pentagon Papers).It also works hard to depict the empathy that we sometimes know we ought to have for each other human being, but nevertheless are unable to achieve.Both characters, and Jay especially, feel the pain of certain events acutely.Imagine if we all did.

It's a very brief, quick read, most likely one sitting.Worth checking out. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

just as fascinating as reading one of Baker's own books. . .
What a great read.This book truly let's you into the psyche of Baker.Reads sort of like a bio in many ways.Definetly a must read for Baker fans. ... Read more

Book Description
The ostensible purpose of a library is to preserve the printed word. But for fifty years our country’s libraries–including the Library of Congress–have been doing just the opposite, destroying hundreds of thousands of historic newspapers and replacing them with microfilm copies that are difficult to read, lack all the color and quality of the original paper and illustrations, and deteriorate with age.

With meticulous detective work and Baker’s well-known explanatory power, Double Fold reveals a secret history of microfilm lobbyists, former CIA agents, and warehouses where priceless archives are destroyed with a machine called a guillotine. Baker argues passionately for preservation, even cashing in his own retirement account to save one important archive–all twenty tons of it. Written the brilliant narrative style that Nicholson Baker fans have come to expect, Double Fold is a persuasive and often devastating book that may turn out to be The Jungle of the American library system. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (40)

Interesting but often unreasonable
Nicholson Baker's Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper is a fiery polemic dedicated to the task of protecting what he sees as one of our nation's most important resources: our libraries' massive stockpile of seldom-used older books and newspapers. As Baker explains, the extent of our paper reserves of old newspapers and rarely read old books is dwindling, often being chopped up and "preserved" (that is, their content, rather than their form, is preserved) in either microform or a digital format.

Baker's position is not a nuanced one; we need to save everything. To do this, libraries need to purchase warehouses, warehouses basically without end, so that not a Sun-Times or musty tome is thrown aside. The very first sentence in the summary on the back cover reads "The ostensible purpose of a library is to preserve the printed word" which shows Baker may have a basic confusion between the definition of a library and the definition of a repository, but never mind: the point is, Baker says, a library neglects its duties when it throws away disused materials.

Baker's writing style is eloquent and engaging; however, the entire book is dominated by a one-sided and hostile tone, along with his distinctly uncharitable characterization of his opponents.

I think the basic philosophical difficulty in Baker's position can be found in the chapter with the title "A Swifter Conflagration." Here, Baker fully reveals his philosophical position that all pieces of written media are valuable as individual objects. It is not merely enough that a rarely-used book's contents are preserved somewhere; merely disposing of a particular object is itself always a dereliction of duty.

Baker says:
"The truth is that all books are physical artifacts, without exception, just as all books are bowls of ideas [i.e. textual content]. They are things and utterances both. And libraries, [Baker's ally] believes, since they own, whether they like it or not, collections of physical artifacts, must aspire to the conditions of museums. All their books are treasures, in a sense..."

This is a rather overstated thesis. Some books and newspapers are valuable essentially for their own sake, rare books such as the Gutenberg Bibles, for example. However, it doesn't follow that every library must preserve every non-duplicate book or newspaper on its shelves, some of which, such as pulp novels, are almost certainly disposable once their shelf-life is over. What Baker calls for is for libraries to devote large portions of their physical holdings to items that, not virtually, but literally, do not circulate.

Clearly, there are some documents for which preserving the content, as opposed to the object, is enough. Sometimes a microform copy may be enough. But in any case, a non-print version of some kind will be enough for a large number of items, such as research and journal articles is certainly enough.

There are times in Double Fold when Baker seems to be using the sheer confidence of his vituperation to slip some questionable logic past the reader. At one point Baker complains that the Library of Congress threw out ten million dollars worth of public property. However, his criterion for this figure is replacement value. This is a somewhat meaningless, almost sneaky figure. A lot of otherwise worthless things might be rather pricey to replace. Being difficult to replace does not make something valuable in the first place.

This is not say there are not some worthwhile themes in Double Fold. Baker's complaints about microform are well taken, his call for a national repository even more so. While I may disagree that individual libraries are responsible for every physical document they've ever possessed, it would be nice for historians if they could expect to find them somewhere.

Baker also provides the reader with an entertaining and occasionally fascinating history of book "preservation," including the disastrous use of large, book-filled, black-goo spurting tanks of explosive gas, formerly owned by NASA. Another memorable anecdote involves the creation of paper from the wrappings of Egyptians mummies.

The fact that Baker's book is quite biased and sometimes infuriating should not dissuade an intelligent reader from giving it a shot; however, some practical knowledge of libraries and a questioning attitude are prescribed.

Librarians or vandals?
Well, pretty clearly vandals. Let me give another example or two of how right Baker is. I've been doing some historical research on various topics in 19th and early 20th century New Hampshire and Vermont history. Newspapers of the time are full of relevant information. Alas, actual copies of the newspapers I need no longer exist. Specifically, the Hanover (NH) Gazette, Burlignton (VT) Free Press, etc. All have been destroyed and now exist only on microfilm, much of which is simply unreadable. It would be one thing if librarians had microfilm copies of newspapers produced AND kept the originals so that those of us who needed to consult the originals could do so. But they didn't. They tossed the originals and these no longer exist. If this isn't vandalism, I don't know what is.

I See No Conspiracy
I don't doubt the author's word that there are isolated examples of libraries discarding old papers but I dont see any Orwellian conspiracy.
As a graduate student in Library Science and Information Studies, I would much rather manage e-books simply because paper is a big hassle.I also get tired of seeing trees cut down for untouched books.
Furthermore, managing information technology as opposed to baby sitting books has more appeal to employers and provides more cover for higher salaries.
Schools of Library Science/Information Studies can attract better students and more students to degree programs that provide skills as opposed to esoteric book studies.
However, there is no conspiracy against paper.To the contrary, the State University of Iowa offers graduate classes dealing purly with book studies.

An eye opener for the realists
Would suggest this be listed in the Hall of Fame.

Hilarious and ridiculous
...to even think of blaming libraries.Maybe if high powered political figures on library boards across America didn't feel the need to make their served institutions "All Things to All People" and got back to core values, and if the American public could turn off American Idol and reality TV long enough to end the Reign of the Retard, there would be the support for libraries needed to house all the items ever published anywhere, and every Podunktown can have it's own Library of Congress.Guess you've truly made it when you've sold enough books you can bite a hand that feeds you, Mr. Baker.

However that does not detract from the quality of his writing, stellar as usual. ... Read more

Book Description
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Nicholson Baker has established himself as one of our most brilliant observers of everyday experience. With his keen perception, flawless prose, and endless wit, he has composed both fiction and nonfiction that has become an essential part of our literature.

Vintage Baker contains generous selections from the novels Vox, The Fermata, The Mezzanine, and A Box of Matches; essays from The Size of Thoughts; and portions of the NBCC award winner Doublefold.

Vintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of the great modern writers, presented in attractive, affordable paperback editions. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Novelist and essayist Nicholson Baker has had a small but well-deserved cult following since his first book, The Mezzanine, and the publication of the literary sex-bombVox saw his popularity mushroom. Baker's great gift is a precision of observational detail that has a peculiarly incisive effect on a reader's consciousness. Here is over a decade's worth of his essays and articles, includingthe much-praised card catalogue article first published in the New Yorker.The Size of Thoughts, through its varied forays into the realms of the overlooked, the underfunded, and the wrongfully scrapped, is a funny and thought-provoking book by one of the most distinctive stylists and thinkers of our time.Book Description
The bestselling author of Vox and The Fermata devotes his hyperdriven curiosity and magnificently baroque prose to the fossils of punctuation and the lexicography of smut, delivering to readers a provocative and often hilarious celebration of the neglected aspects of our experience. 368 pp. 15,000 print. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Absolute Rubbish
I've read and enjoyed other works by Baker (The Fermata, Vox), but this collection of magazine articles is absolute rubbish.Random musings on arcane topics such as fingernail clippers, cinema projectors and model airplanes not only fail to entertain, they appear to have no redeeming value whatsoever.

Baker is without question a talented writer, but this collection aptly demonstrates that even the best author needs adequate subject matter with which to work.I'm stunned at just how bad this collection actually is.The first time I've ever awarded a one star rating.

Lumber!
This is a brilliant book. It consists of several short essays on varied subjects; fingernail clippers, a review of a slang dictionary, and the demise of card catalogues to name a few, and one long essay on the history and usage of the word 'lumber'.

Nicholson is a master of finding the sublime in the mundane and his essays bring into focus the understated beauty of everyday objects. Eccentric and and at times almost comically over-erudite? Sure, but you'll find yourself nodding in silent recognition at his apt descriptions of the minutiae of daily life.

Puny Thoughts
The world is full of whiners, and this guy is the king. As a pup, Nicholson Baker attended the School Without Walls where, "learning has no limit." Unfortunately for us, the only message he got resulted in his permanent low self-image.

If you purchase ANY of this poor misbegotten soul's books, you are doing nothing more than feeding the mouth of a permanent pessimist.

Nicholson, we're praying for you and your children.

Books, wood, lumber, libraries
Which brings us to the book of the month: The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber by Nicholson Baker. With all this travel and displacement, I didn't read that much in the past month except for a few scant pages of this or that book, or leafing though New York Girls, or the Doris Kloster book, or flipping through pages of The Complete Reprint of John Willie's Bizarre. Baker's book was sort of a meditative book after enjoying the "over the top" quality of a Kern or a Kloster. Baker is a very intelligent man as an essayist and this sober and funny book reminds me of the thoughtfulness of his previous novels, The Mezzanine or The Fermata.

In fact, Nicholson Baker has been assaulted once or twice in the past by a reviewer or two for being a minor pornographer on the last two novelistic outings, and I guess that he is now asking for our forgiveness. He portrays himself here as a regular guy, with a great interest in the most minute particles. The careful essays are about simple things: changing your mind as opposed to making decisions, the size and shape of thoughts, and rarity in life and experience. Baker is also a physical guy and likes his hands on the machinery, so he devotes a word or two about typewriters, model airplanes, clipping your nails, and the movie projectionist.

He is a severe literary critic (refer to U and I), and Baker here elaborates his views on the literary profession which include the art of reading aloud, the history of punctuation, thoughts about Alan Hollinghurst and J. E. Lighter's The Historical Dictionary of American Slang. Things read at weddings, typos, a recipe, dewey decimal system, and books as furniture are thrown in the shuffle; glue keeps it all together. And finally a long essay about the history of lumber, where he comes out in favor of lumber, is his most strongly political. I say that I love lumber! Ever since I was hit on the head by a two by four as a child.

So what size are they?
"So what size are they?" I heard a voice asking. Blinking in the Queensland sunshine I looked up from my book and smiled when I realised what my questioner meant. "There's only one way to answer that question" I said, and proceeded to read the opening paragraph of the book aloud, while my questioner listened, spellbound.

Back in rainy Britain I'd woken up with a dry mouth and aching head after one of my farewell parties in a friends house. Desperate for something to read I spied this book upon a shelf. Attracted by the tasteless pink and orange cover adorning this particular edition I picked it up and immediately disappeared, enthralled, into the lumber-room of someone else's mind. This charming book is filled with some of the irrelevant bits and pieces that somehow sneak into our brains. We turn them over from time to time, pulling them out of our subconscious like a paper covered boiled sweet from a fluff-filled pocket.

The author leads you down the byways and alleys of his thought processes, challenging and amusing you by turn and always asking questions that you wish you had thought of. This gentle philosophical meandering leads you to look at your surroundings with fresh eyes and broadens your horizons because you suddenly understand how at least one other human being thinks. It's a charming book to suit a wistful mood, a beach, a cloud, a river. Pack it in your holiday suitcase and wander gently through it at a holiday pace when the mood takes you. You won't be disappointed. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Although we may have been taught not to judge a book by its cover, photographer Abelardo Morell reverses the old saying and delightfully shows us how to relish a book by its look. This inventive and clever photographic ode to the printed word captures all the powerful possibilities contained on the page. A Book of Books gives us images that range from formal studies of shape and texture to the joyously whimsical.

Most luminous are the sculptural renditions, fluid pages curving over their spines like majestic mountains in the distance. The abstract pattern of a dictionary takes on the enigmatic characteristics of crop circles, while a water-damaged book shows itself as a twisted organic form. An aging book slowly decays in a stark image of paper so fragile it has practically turned to dust. Library stacks seen from above become a labyrinth through Morell's lens. Includes a lovely preface by Nicholson Baker. Perfect for any book enthusiast. (52 duotone photographs) --J.P. CohenBook Description
Although we may have been taught not to judge a book by its cover, photographer Abelardo Morell reverses the old saying and delightfully shows us how to relish a book by its look. This inventive and clever photographic ode to the printed word captures all the powerful possibilities contained on the page. A Book of Books gives us images that range from formal studies of shape and texture to the joyously whimsical.Most luminous are the sculptural renditions, fluid pages curving over their spines like majestic mountains in the distance. The abstract pattern of a dictionary takes on the enigmatic characteristics of crop circles, while a water-damaged book shows itself as a twisted organic form. An aging book slowly decays in a stark image of paper so fragile it has practically turned to dust. Library stacks seen from above become a labyrinth through Morell's lens. Includes a lovely preface by Nicholson Baker. Perfect for any book enthusiast. (52 duotone photographs) --J.P. Cohen ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A Book of Books
This is a great book and very interesting for everyone, not just artistic photographers. I love it! The only thing that was disappointing was that the label on the back of the book put on by Amazon was incredibly sticky and very hard to remove. I nearly damaged the book trying to get it off so be careful. Rubbing alcohol and a dull scraper of some kind works pretty good.

A Book of Books
For anyone who appreciates the beauty of books or black and white photography, this is an absolute must have.It is beautiful.Highly recommended.

Peace in a disturbing world
When I first saw this book in a book store last December, and began looking through the pages, my eyes welled up with tears at the sheer poetry of the images.It was as if doors opened into other levels of awareness.When I put the book down, I realized that I had been looking at it for over an hour, and that's when I knew I simply needed to own it. Since then, the detail and depth of the images have provided a refuge from the news in the world today.There is still beauty and peace.Thank you, Abe Morell.

Exquisite.
Everything Abelardo Morell does is gorgeous but what makes him such a genius is the mudane things he works with.The only photographer I can compare him to is Josef Sudek.

Let's be honest.Anybody can go to a beautiful place like Yosemite or Big Sur, take a view camera and wait for nice light.Instant Ansel Adams; you can't miss unless you kick the tripod.

But how many people can make a heartbreakingly beautiful photograph from a crumpled ball of paper or some peeling paint?Get this book of books and you'll see what I mean.

A wonder of wonders
Some of the photographs in Abelardo Morell's A Book of Books are of great books: A Tale of Two Cities, A Farewell to Arms, Alice in Wonderland.And in placing these photographs together in this wonder-filled volume, Morell has created a great book of his own.For like all great books, this one makes you see the familiar in new ways; offers layers upon layers of meaning; and pushes you to make connections among objects and ideas that sometimes appear to have little, if anything, in common.At the same time, it is a glorious book to look at, to sink into, again and again.If you love books, you'll love this one. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Susie Bright celebrates the first amendment, lesbianism, single motherhood and fantasizes an eventful night with Dan Quayle in this uninhibited and quirky collection of essays, articles and book reviews written over the past few years. Offbeat and sexy, Bright defends Madonna, attacks Dr. Ruth and is snubbed by Camille Paglia herself in this rather amazing and outspoken collection. Bright is gay and proud of it and considers herself a serious and first-rate pornographer. She gets into endless trouble with right-wingers and kicks and screams her way out of it thoughout these pages.Witty, fearless and thought-provoking. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Info On This Title:
Since there are no Publisher's Comments or Editorial Reviews available here, I am including the following in hopes it may be of some help:


Susie Bright's Sexwise: America's Favorite X-Rated Intellectual Does Dan Quayle, Catharine MacKinnon, Stephen King, Camille Paglia, Nicholson Baker, Madonna, the Black Panthers and the GOP

ANNOTATION
Candid, campy, and sexy, Susie Bright's latest pop culture primer on sex raises more than an eyebrow as she looks at the state of sex in America. Along with essays, interviews, and reviews, Sexwise includes new writing that traces Bright's development as America's most daring (or darling?) sexpert.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
Susie Bright is an American Treasure. Once again, her sharp wit and erotic imagination put a spin on modern culture unlike any other...
- Sallie Tisdale

X-rated Intellectual, Indeed!
Ah, the delectable Susie Bright.This book, though several years old, is fabulous. In it, Ms. Bright cunningly explores several themes and individuals with wit and intelligence.Her description of a discussion she had with adult film (and I do mean film) director Andrew Blake on her dislike of his lack of realism in his films' lesbian scenes is right on.Another great tale is her fantasy involving Dan Quayle.Yes, that's right, J. Danforth himself is lucky enough to have been the subject of one of Ms. Bright's sexual fantasies, or, at least, she will have us think so.

As is true of all of her books, Sexwise by Susie Bright is not to be missed. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Sex and the adult cerebellum have tended to be Nicholson Baker's cherishedsubjects, and not necessarily in that order. In The Everlasting Story of Nory,however, he turns his literary microscopy in an entirely new direction, exploring theconsciousness of a child. Nory, we are told, "was a nine-year-old girl from Americawith straight brown bangs and brown eyes. She was interested in dentistry or being apaper engineer when she grew up." This future dentist or paper engineer is alsoensconced for a year in the English town of Threll, where her family is taking asabbatical from life in Palo Alto.

Baker's novel is endearing, entertaining, and most of all, accurate. The authorrecognizes that an authentic nine-year-old is incapable of long, intricate narratives, so hedivides Nory's story into short (and comically abrupt) chapters. He never credits Norywith precocious wisdom or insight. Instead, Baker concentrates on exactly how anine-year-old mind works. There is, for instance, that wonderful literalism, which subjects acliché to strict, heartbreaking scrutiny: "Nory suspected that the straw thatbroke the camel's back was an unsensible idea anyway, because first of all, stop and thinkof that poor camel. How could it happen? Doesn't he have something to say about thesituation? Also, camels' backs are pretty strong things. If you've ridden on them, youknow that they can support at least two people, if not three."

Nory slowly makes friends at school, where she's exposed to the usual level of childishcruelty. She fills us in on her family and plays with her kid brother, Frank (a.k.a.Littleguy). And for a large portion of the book she regales us with stories, which are shorton narrative logic and long on amusing malapropisms. But this compulsive teller of talesworries about how to keep her material straight in her head: "You live your lifealways in the present. And even in the present, this day, dozens and hundreds of tinythings happen, so many that by the end of the day you can't make a list of them. You losetrack of them unless something reminds you." No Nicholson Baker fan can readthat rather touching thought without thinking of The Mezzanine and Room Temperature--novels inwhich the author seemed intent on recording precisely those "dozens andhundreds" of minuscule events. The Everlasting Story of Nory, then, ispartially a meditation on what lasts, and what doesn't. "You can't mummify a nicememory in someone's head," Nory announces. You can, however, keep one alive,as Baker has done in this deeply charming and delightful book. --James MarcusBook Description
Our supreme fabulist of the ordinary now turns his attention on a 9-year-old American girl and produces a novel as enchantingly idiosyncratic as any he has written. Nory Winslow wants to be a dentist or a designer of pop-up books. She likes telling stories and inventing dolls. She has nightmares about teeth, which may explain her career choice. She is going to school in England, where she is mocked for her accent and her friendship with an unpopular girl, and she has made it through the year without crying.

Nicholson Baker follows Nory as she interacts with her parents and peers, thinks about God and death-watch beetles, and dreams of cows with pointed teeth. In this precocious child he gives us a heroine as canny and as whimsical as Lewis Carroll's Alice and evokes childhood in all its luminous weirdness. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

perfect nothingness
Baker manages to perfectly encapsulate the mind of a nine year old in all its semi-logical, semi-nonsensical glory. Nory feels like a living, breathing child, as do her classmates and younger brother. A beautiful book.

Nicholson Baker is still a great writer
The book is about Nory, a nine year old who is a bad speller and tries to get along with her parents, friends and brother while standing up for herself and others.That's really it.I disagree with other reviewers, in that I think Nicholson Baker did an amazing job of making it seem like most, if not all of the story was coming from Nory herself.It doesn't sound like a middle aged man pretending but more like a middle age man who does a great job of creating a book for adults that seems like it could be for kids.Where the book is flawed, and I think this is where others who reviewed this book will agree, is that you just don't really care about Nory or her friends.There's no real interest, and as such it takes forever to read this 200 page book.Nothing is really resolved at the end because there is no progression.It's Nory telling stories, most of which, although clever, are generally uninteresting and not that fun to read.Nicholson Baker tries to put his amazing writing style into a 9 year old and although it works in his prose, it doesn't work in its ability to create a good story.Sure, it's still Nicholson Baker, who I think is the greatest user of the English language, and you should still read this book if you have nothing else to read and are a fan of his work, but it's not important if you don't.You don't miss too much.

A late-middle-age man imagines life as a nine-year-old girl
A fan of Nicholson Baker, I was thoroughly disappointed by a book that I had looked forward to reading. Nine-year-old Nory relates to the reader her observations of her life to date. Although the dusk-jacket blurbs would lead the reader to believe that Nory's observations about her parents, her teachers and fellow children will leave the reader laughing out loud, I found that Nory's voice sounded very much like that belonging to a late-middle-age man working hard to imagine life as a nine-year-old girl. For Baker fans, skip this one.

Indeed, Everlasting
The everlasting story of Nory starts well. I was hooked to the first pages who offer something unique and different - a good look into the mind of a nine year old girl. It seems that all parents spend time in one stage or another discussing the issue of how their children think... here is a serious effort to answer this question. Although Nory seems at times like a too mature person (with too-good-to be true parents) who spends a lot of time dwelling about "heavy" issues (she is very concerned with the way Achilles mother held him while dipping his body into the river and not - as Nory thinks would have been better, by cradling him in her arms and stepping into the water with him), but also about subjects I am more familiar with from my kids such as problems with other children, nightmares and trying to be "a good girl". All in all Nicholson Baker does give us pretty good directions. However, once the thrill is over, and the appreciation to Nicholson Baker's genius (no sarcasam here) wears out, you are left with a somewhat tedious feeling. This happened to me around middle book where I realized this book is taking me forever to finish and I had to struggle through the rest of the book wishing that something would finally happen or that the book would end already. The story could have been interesting had it centered around Nory's social life at school and the many problems it presents - especially Nory's relations with Pamela, a very unpopular girl which Nory seems to like. These parts and the real life conflict they present are indeed interesting but the story is filled with the many stories Nory invents - which are, to say the truth, not so interesting for an adult. It is like the feeling you have after spending too much time with your kids... you do love them, but sometimes you crave for an adult conversation.

2 1/2* Too Long For Its Content
Nicholson Baker is a very original writer, and he excels here at writing about a young girl's observations and fantasies in the third person. The main problem is that the myriad observations-- divided into 54 short excerpts-- fail to advance a plot, although we do get deeper into Nory's head. It just gets very tedious after awhile.

I would recommend this as a book from which to read snippets, but Baker would have done better to write a shorter book, or to have so