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Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories (Paperback or Softback)
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Located in: Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States
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eBay item number:364643949623
Item specifics
- Condition
- ISBN
- 030738747X
- EAN
- 9780307387479
- Binding
- TP
- Book Title
- Dangerous Laughter : Thirteen Stories
- Item Length
- 8in
- Publisher
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Publication Year
- 2009
- Format
- Trade Paperback
- Language
- English
- Item Height
- 0.7in
- Genre
- Fiction
- Topic
- Short Stories (Single Author), Literary
- Item Width
- 5.2in
- Item Weight
- 9.8 Oz
- Number of Pages
- 272 Pages
About this product
Product Information
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Martin Dressler --hailed by The New Yorker as "a virtuoso of waking dreams"--comes a dazzling collection of darkly comic stories united by their obsession with obsession. "Remarkable ... Not just brilliant but prescient." -- The New York Times Book Review In Dangerous Laughter , Steven Millhauser transports us to unknown universes that uncannily resemble our own. The collection is divided into three parts that fit seamlessly together as a whole. It opens with a bang, as "Cat 'n' Mouse" reimagines the deadly ritual between cartoon rivals in a comedy of dynamite and anvils--a masterly prologue that sets the stage for the alluring, very grown-up twists that follow. Part one, "Vanishing Acts," features stories of risk and escape: a lonely woman disappears without a trace; a high school boy becomes entangled with his best friend's troubled sister; and a group of teenagers play a treacherous game that pushes them deep into "the kingdom of forbidden things." Excess reigns in the vivid, haunting places of Part two's "Impossible Architectures," where domes enclose whole cities, and a king's master miniaturist creates objects so tiny that soon his entire world is invisible. Finally, "Heretical Histories" presents startling alternatives to the remembered past. "A Precursor of the Cinema" proposes a new, enigmatic form of illusion. And in the astonishing "The Wizard of West Orange" a famous inventor sets out to simulate the sense of touch--but success brings disturbing consequences. Sensual, mysterious, Dangerous Laughter is a mesmerizing journey through brilliantly realized labyrinths of mortal pleasures that stretch the boundaries of the ordinary world to their limits--and occasionally beyond.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-10
030738747x
ISBN-13
9780307387479
eBay Product ID (ePID)
13038259245
Product Key Features
Book Title
Dangerous Laughter : Thirteen Stories
Format
Trade Paperback
Language
English
Topic
Short Stories (Single Author), Literary
Publication Year
2009
Genre
Fiction
Number of Pages
272 Pages
Dimensions
Item Length
8in
Item Height
0.7in
Item Width
5.2in
Item Weight
9.8 Oz
Additional Product Features
Lc Classification Number
Ps3563.I422d36 2009
Reviews
Dangerous Laughter/ Steven Millhauser We have received the following praise for the above: "Dangerous Laughtergroups three sets of smart, darkly obsessive stories around the themes of risk-taking, imaginary places, and ersatz biographies, all led off by a crazy cartoon cat-and-mouse slapstick drama rendered with pure cloak-and-dagger delight." Lisa Shea,Elle "Tales fueled by curiosity and wonder, from a master . . . [who] is consistently so much fun to read . . . Everything one has come to want and expect in Millhauser's fiction is herespooky attics, fantastic inventions, artists driven mad, and ambitious enterprises that become overattenuated and impossible to sustain. The result is almost a Steven Millhauser primer, a much needed fix for fans . . . and a perfect introduction for those unacquainted with his writing. . . . ['A Precursor to the Cinema' and 'The Wizard of West Orange' are] marvelous stories that make the suspension of disbelief feel like no work whatsoever . . . Millhauser has done nothing here to diminish his reputation as one of our most dazzling storytellers. 'It was said that no matter how closely you examined one of the Master's little pieces, you always discovered some further wonder,' he writes of his obsessive court miniaturist [in 'In the Reign of Harad IV']. The same could be said of Steven Millhauser." Jeff Turrentine,The Washington Post Book World "Steven Millhauser's best story collection. [Dangerous Laughter] sums up everything he has been driving at since the beginning of his writing career. Adolescents sulk, break down, and die. Other charactersartists and ordinary people alikedisappear except for the barest trace, or create works of art impossibly small (really invisible) or structures impossibly large (encompassing the world). . . . ['The Room in the Attic'] is the most powerful evocation of adolescence that Millhauser has ever given us. . . . It is as if Millhauser imagined his stories so meticulously that he brought their contents into being . . . Every reader knows of writers who are like secrets one wants to keep yet whose books one wants to tell the world about. Steven Millhauser is mine. Of course, having won the Pulitzer Prize, he is no one's secret, but he is the writer I tell people about, confident they will be enthralled." David Rollow,Boston Sunday Globe "Prose wizardry . . . infused with magic: readers seeking the perfect introduction to Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Millhauser need look no further. His latest book,Dangerous Laughter,draws on every facet of his imagination, using bright, homespun Americana as a springboard into the cosmic and surreal. It lifts pop-culture artifacts and fairy-tale motifs into rich cerebral spheres. It delights in the paradoxical, the outlandish and the out-of-this-world. And it delivers its treats in a prose of such melodic wit and finesse that it's more akin to musicmaking than storytelling.DangerousLaughterreminds us once again how lucky we are to be privy to Millhauser's shadowy, funhouse visions." Michael Upchurch,Seattle Times "Reviewers use words like enchantment recklessly, as though it happens to us all the time. Book reviewers are especially prone to describing books as 'enchanting,' pretending that a spell has actually been cast over us. If only it were so. As often as not, it is a spell of boredom. Steven Millhauser's books are the exception. . . . ['Cat 'n' Mouse'] sounds like a 'Tom and Jerry&ary, "Remarkable. . . . Not just brilliant but prescient." -D. T. Max,The New York Times Book Review "Readers seeking the perfect introduction to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steven Millhauser need look no further. . . .Dangerous Laughterdraws on every facet of his imagination. . . . It's more akin to music-making than storytelling." -Michael Upchurch,The Seattle Times "Millhauser's best story collection. . . . Every reader knows of writers who are like secrets one wants to keep yet whose books one wants to tell the world about. Steven Millhauser is mine." -David Rollow,The Boston Globe "Enchanting. . . . Steven Millhauser is a marvel." -Daniel Dyer,ThePlain Dealer "Millhauser . . . is our most brilliant practicing romantic, for whom surface reality is merely an uninteresting illusion." -Charles May,San Francisco Chronicle "[An] absorbing, impeccably imagined collection." -Gregory Kirschling,Entertainment Weekly "Beautiful and profound. . . . Millhauser's work is among the most thought-provoking I've ever encountered." -David L. Ulin,Los Angeles Times Book Review "Dangerous Laughtergroups three sets of smart, darkly obsessive stories around the themes of risk-taking, imaginary places, and ersatz biographies, all led off by a crazy cartoon cat-and-mouse slapstick drama rendered with pure cloak-and-dagger delight." -Lisa Shea,Elle "Tales fueled by curiosity and wonder, from a master . . . [who] is consistently so much fun to read . . . Everything one has come to want and expect in Millhauser's fiction is herespooky attics, fantastic inventions, artists driven mad, and ambitious enterprises that become overattenuated and impossible to sustain. The result is almost a Steven Millhauser primer, a much needed fix for fans . . . and a perfect introduction for those unacquainted with his writing. . . . ['A Precursor to the Cinema' and 'The Wizard of West Orange' are] marvelous stories that make the suspension of disbelief feel like no work whatsoever . . . Millhauser has done nothing here to diminish his reputation as one of our most dazzling storytellers. 'It was said that no matter how closely you examined one of the Master's little pieces, you always discovered some further wonder,' he writes of his obsessive court miniaturist [in 'In the Reign of Harad IV']. The same could be said of Steven Millhauser." -Jeff Turrentine,The Washington Post Book World "Reviewers use words like enchantment recklessly, as though it happens to us all the time. Book reviewers are especially prone to describing books as 'enchanting,' pretending that a spell has actually been cast over us. If only it were so. As often as not, it is a spell of boredom. Steven Millhauser's books are the exception. . . . ['Cat 'n' Mouse'] sounds like a 'Tom and Jerry' cartoon as written by Franz Kafka. Or Sigmund Freud. . . .[It is] indelibly vivid . . . hard-edged and bright as a plasma screen . . . In 'The Disappearance of Elaine Coleman,' a young woman disappears from inside her apartment without a trace. . . . Millhauser turns an ordinary whodunit into a tale of obscure people who slowly disappear out of apparent volition. . . . There is no more poignant note in Millhauser than this: the sense of life that has come to nothing, as we understand that Elaine Coleman has committed a metaphysical form of su
Copyright Date
2009
Target Audience
Trade
Lccn
2009-291077
Dewey Decimal
813/.54
Series
Vintage Contemporaries Ser.
Dewey Edition
22
Item description from the seller
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:364643949623
Shipping and handling
Item location:
Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States
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Worldwide
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APO/FPO, Africa, Alaska/Hawaii, Asia, Barbados, Brazil, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, Libya, Martinique, Middle East, New Caledonia, Oceania, Reunion, Russian Federation, Southeast Asia, US Protectorates, Ukraine, Venezuela
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Seller feedback (1,229,399)
n***d (110)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past month
Verified purchase
Seller is great and responsive. USPS is awful. They gave my package to the wrong address, it was opened and another expected packaged Blu Ray was opened, lost it original mail packaging, and inserted into this order's package, then put infrpn of my door later that day. Thankfully nothing was damaged. Overall great nostalgic X-men comic, and great repsonsive seller. USPS is the only problem here.
h***e (21)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past month
Verified purchase
I ordered this book May 14th and didn't receive it until May 28th. I waited 5 days to contact the seller after purchase because they hadn't shipped yet. They thanked me for reaching out but still they exceeded the delivery date. I have never had to wait this long for a delivery. Very poor customer service. Booked arrived in good condition despite inadequate packaging. I will not purchase from this seller again.
n***4 (138)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past month
Verified purchase
Fast shipping, and packaged nicely. Item in good condition, not “brand new” as listed. Still enjoy my purchase.
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