Affiliates
| Works by
Stanley Elkin
(Aka Stanley Lawrence Elkin)
(Writer)
[May 11, 1930 – May 31, 1995]
|
Profile created November 16, 2009
Updated November 17, 2009
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Pieces of Soap
(1992)
A collection of witty, idiosyncratic essays offers
observations and reflections on American absurdities, ranging from show
business to the First Amendment, high literature to first sex. -
Why I Live Where I Live
(1983)
Only 30 unnumbered copies were printed.
Mrs. Ted Bliss
(1995)
In language that is "rich, musical and playful, like
that of a Joyce who grew up on Yiddish" (Michiko Kakutani, New York
Times), Stanley Elkin offers us the extraordinary Dorothy Bliss, an
eighty-two-year-old widow caught in a tragicomic world, forced to find
purpose in endless card games and "Good Neighbor Policy Night" at a
Florida retirement community. -
The MacGuffin
(1991)
In The MacGuffin, Elkin narrates with
accustomed panache the mysterious events that take place in something
under forty hours in the life of Bobby Druff, City Commissioner of
Streets, aged fifty-eight, whose ordered world of avenues and roads seems
suddenly a rather more complicated maze than he remembers. Events, in
fact, conspire against him, and his wife, his son, his new-found lover,
even his chauffeur, appear to be in on it. The novel combines a sort of
tough-talking, laugh-out-loud humor and that odd, amusing,
under-the-breath revenge of the powerless with the twists and killer
thrill rides of a plot to rival Hitchcock's.
-
The Rabbi of Lud
(1987)
Surrounded by cemeteries in the flatlands of New
Jersey, the small town of Lud is sustained by the business of death. In
fact, with no synagogue and no congregation, Rabbi Jerry Goldkorn has only
one true responsibility: to preside over burial services for Jews who pass
away in the surrounding cities. But after the Arctic misadventures that
led him to Lud, he wouldn't want to live (or die) anywhere else.
As the only living child in Lud, his daughter Connie has a different
opinion of this grisly city, and she will do anything to get away from
it--or at least liven it up a bit. Things get lively indeed when Connie
testifies to meeting the Virgin Mary for a late-night romp through the
local graveyards.
-
The Magic Kingdom
(1985)
Abandoned by his wife and devastated by the death of
his twelve-year old son, Eddy Bale becomes obsessed with the plight of
terminally ill children and develops a plan to provide a "last hurrah"
dream vacation for seven children who will never grow-up. Eddy and his
four dysfunctional chaperones journey to the entertainment capital of
America - Disney World. Once they arrive, a series of absurdities
characteristic of an Elkin novel - including a freak snowstorm and a
run-in with a vengeful Mickey Mouse - transform Eddy's idealistic wish
into a fantastic nightmare.
-
George Mills
(1982)
An ambitious‚ digressive‚ and endlessly entertaining
account of the thousand-year history of the George Millses‚ GEORGE MILLS
is the antithesis to the typical Horatio Alger story. Since the First
Crusade‚ there has always been a George Mills‚ who—despite his best
efforts—is unable to improve his position in life or that of his
descendants. Instead‚ all the George Millses are forced to accept their
lot as true blue-collar workers‚ serving important personages in a series
of odd jobs ranging from horse talker in a salt mine to working as a
furniture mover in contemporary St. Louis. But the latest in the long line
of George Millses may also be the last‚ as he obsesses about his family’s
history and determines that he will be the one to break this doomed cycle
of servitude.
-
The Living End
(1979)
Killed during a senseless holdup, kindhearted
Ellerbee finds himself on a whirlwind tour of a distressingly familiar
theme park Heaven and inner-city Hell, where he learns the truth about
God's love and wrath.
-
The Franchiser
(1976)
Ben Flesh is one of the men "who made America look
like America, who made America famous." He collects franchises, traveling
from state to state, acquiring the brand-name establishments that shape
the American landscape. But both the nation and Ben are running out of
energy. As blackouts roll through the West, Ben struggles with the onset
of multiple sclerosis, and the growing realization that his lifetime quest
to buy a name for himself has ultimately failed.
-
The Dick Gibson Show
(1971)
This novel anticipates talk radio and its crazed
hosts. Characters include Arnold the Memory Expert, Bernie Perk the
burning pharmacist, Henry Harper the 9-year-old orphan millionaire, a
woman obsessed by pierced ears, an evil hypnotist, various con men and
swindlers and Dick Gibson himself, a character who understands exactly
what Americans want and gives it to them.
-
A Bad Man
(1967)
Breaking the law in a foolhardy attempt to
accommodate his customers, unscrupulous department store owner Leo Feldman
finds himself in jail and at the mercy of the warden, who tries to break
Leo of his determination to stay bad.
-
Boswell: A Modern Comedy
(1964)
Comic odyssey of a twentieth-century groupie who collects celebrities as
his insurance policy against death. James Boswell -- strong man,
professional wrestler (his most heroic match is with the Angel of Death) --
is a con man, a gate crasher, and a moocher of epic talent. He is also the
"hero of one of the most original novel in years" (Oakland Tribune) --a man
on the make for all the great men of his time --his logic being that if you
can't be a lion, know a pride of them. Can he cheat his way out of
mortality? "No serious funny writer in this country can match him" (New
York Times Book Review).
-
Van Gogh's Room at Arles
(1993)
These three delicious novellas, from "a master of
language and black humor" ( New York Times), demonstrate the author's
mastery of the roller-coaster sentence, hair-pin narrative twist, and the
joke that leaves readers torn between tears and laughter.
-
Eligible Men
(1974)
This is the United Kingdom title; this book was
published in the United States as
Searches and Seizures
in 1973.
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