Carpenter's Gothic
WILLIAM GADDIS
Visit this book's Amazon.com page >>
Book Description |
This story of raging comedy and despair centers on the tempestuous marriage of an heiress and a Vietnam veteran. From their "carpenter gothic" rented house, Paul sets himself up as a media consultant for Reverend Ude, an evangelist mounting a grand crusade that conveniently suits a mining combine bidding to take over an ore strike on the site of Ude's African mission. At the still center of the breakneck action--revealed in Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialoge--is Paul's wife, Liz, and over it all looms the shadowy figure of McCandless, a geologist from whom Paul and Liz rent their house. As Paul mishandles the situation, his wife takes the geologist to her bed and a fire and aborted assassination occur; Ude issues a call to arms as harrowing as any Jeremiad--and Armageddon comes rapidly closer. Displaying Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialogue, and his startling treatments of violence and sexuality, Carpenter's Gothic "shows again that Gaddis is among the first rank of contemporary American writers" (Malcolm Bradbury, The Washington Post Book World). "An unholy landmark of a novel--an extra turret added on to the ample, ingenious, audacious Gothic mansion Gaddis has been building in American letters" --Cynthia Ozick, The New York Times Book Review "Everything in this compelling and brilliant vision of America--the packaged sleaze, the incipient violence, the fundamentalist furor, the constricted sexuality--is charged with the force of a volcanic eruption. Carpenter's Gothic will reenergize and give shape to contemporary literature." --Walter Abish |
Other Award Winning Books by William Gaddis |
William Gaddis Award Stats |
Major Prize* Nominations |
4 |
|
Unique Books Nominated for a Major Prize* |
3 |
|
Pulitzer Prize Wins |
0 |
|
Pulitzer Prize Nominations |
0 |
|
National Book Critics Circle Award Wins |
0 |
|
National Book Critics Circle Award Nominations |
1 |
A Frolic of His Own · |
National Book Award Wins |
2 |
A Frolic of His Own · JR · |
National Book Award Nominations |
2 |
A Frolic of His Own · JR · |
Man Booker Prize Wins |
0 |
|
Man Booker Prize Nominations |
0 |
|
PEN/Faulkner Award Wins |
0 |
|
PEN/Faulkner Award Nominations |
1 |
Carpenter's Gothic · |
|
*Major Prize = Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, and PEN/Faulkner Award
|
BACK
|