Dogma
A Novel
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
A plague of rats, the end of philosophy, the cosmic chicken, and bars that don’t serve Plymouth Gin—is this the Apocalypse or is it just America?
“The apocalypse is imminent,” thinks W. He has devoted his life to philosophy, but he is about to be cast out from his beloved university. His friend Lars is no help at all—he’s too busy fighting an infestation of rats in his flat. A drunken lecture tour through the American South proves to be another colossal mistake. In desperation, the two British intellectuals turn to Dogma, a semi-religious code that might yet give meaning to their lives.
Part Nietzsche, part Monty Python, part Huckleberry Finn, Dogma is a novel as ridiculous and profound as religion itself. The sequel to the acclaimed novel Spurious, Dogma is the second book in one of the most original literary trilogies since Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Iyer's sequel to Spurious (and the second in an as-yet-incomplete trilogy) can best be labeled a "philosopher's novel," insofar as it suffers from many of the shortcomings that generally turn readers off philosophical literature: it's abstract and dry. The novel relates the travels of two British academics as they pass through American cities on a lecture tour. The narrator, Lars, has been invited to travel alongside W., who is professionally engaged in waxing Marxian about matters too clich to be convincing: "Capitalism is the evil twin of true religion, said W....And money is the false God we worship." W. and Lars chat amongst themselves while the specter of some kind of perceived cultural apocalypse which Lars dubs "The Age of Shit" looms on the horizon. There are moments of insight and humor scattered throughout, but in the end the novel collapses into abstraction and it's hard to tell Lars and W. apart. Both narrator and protagonist lack meaningful physical attributes they're merely thoughts.
