The Dead Father
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A wildly imaginative, absurdist adventure that redefines the boundaries of fiction.
In The Dead Father, Donald Barthelme crafts a gargantuan half-dead, half-alive, part mechanical being who, despite his condition, still clings to his hopes and vanities. This wise yet powerful figure is being dragged by a cable toward a mysterious goal, setting the stage for an extraordinary journey. Through the imaginative and inventive use of language that influenced a generation of writers, Barthelme offers readers a glimpse into his unique fictional universe.
As Donald Antrim notes in his introduction, "The Dead Father grants its author an almost complete artistic freedom... a permission to reshape, misrepresent, or even ignore the world as we find it." Blending humor, anxiety, and a sense of liberation, this novel invites readers to laugh along with its author and feel alive in the face of the unknown. A must-read for fans of literary fiction, postmodernism, and experimental novels that challenge traditional narratives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dennis Holland delivers a well-paced, entertaining performance of Barthelme s classic. As the titular character the Dead Father, a huge, half-dead, semimechanical godlike ruler is dragged by a group of his children across his lands toward his burial spot, bizarre and increasingly absurd exploits and conversations unfold. Holland, a seasoned reader of Barthelme s work, does ample justice to the tone and spirit of the text. His comedic timing is superb, as is his voice for the Dead Father. While the narration will delight Dead Father devotees, listeners less familiar with the author s work may be confused by the novel s experimental style and unconventional plot structure, which transitions unsteadily to audio book. A Farrar, Straus Giroux paperback.
