- Category: Books » Fiction & Literature » Literary
- Format: Paperback Learn more about the Paperback format using Tower WIKI.
- Publisher: Random House Inc
- ISBN: 0679725768
- WAPI (Tower ID): 100063034
- Release Date: January 1, 1990
- Average Customer Review: There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!
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Product DescriptionMore Books by Nicholson Baker (Author)Run a Quick Search on "The Mezzanine" by Nicholson Baker to Browse Related Products:Browse more products related to "The Mezzanine"Browse more products related to "Nicholson Baker"Review"[A] wonderfully pedantic take on five minutes of normal life..." "THE MEZZANINE...has no story, no plot, no conflict. When somebody describes it to you it sounds stupid (which, by the way, is a characteristic of all good gimmick novels). Yet its 135 pages probably contain more insight into life as we live it than anything currently on the best-seller lists....THE MEZZANINE is a very funny book about the human mind, in particular that part of the mind that processes the triviality of daily events that seem to have no importance but end up occupying so much of our existence....[T]here is a first-rate comic mind at work here, so let's be thankful he's chosen to toil in the salt mines of fiction rather than making a fortune writing for David Letterman." "I confess to finding Nicholson Baker's prose so witty and hypnotic that I never want it to stop." "This novel traces a few hours in the life of an overly analytical, urban office worker named Howie. It sounds boring, but Nicholson Baker's first-person creation mixes old-fashioned wit with a keen eye for meaningful minutiae, giving the book a surprising heft." First lineAt almost one o'clock I entered the lobby of the building where I worked and turned toward the escalators, carrying a black Penguin paperback and a small white CVS bag, its receipt stapled over the top. Publisher's noteReaders follow the journey of our hero up the escalator and learn why straws don't sink in milk cartons; whether the hot air blowers in bathrooms are really more sanitary than towels; the physics of shoelaces; and how the most trivial of objects can lead to the deepest revelations of the human heart. Turns an ordinary ride up an office escalator into a meditation on our relations with familiar objects--shoelaces, straws, and more. Baker's debut novel, and a favorite amongst many of us here. AnnotationNicholson Baker's divinely nutty first book, THE MEZZANINE, takes place as Howie, the protagonist, rides down the escalator in the office building where he works, planning to buy a new shoelace because his has broken. From this series of nonevents in a plotless novel, Baker fashions a brilliant and hilarious narrative about nothing more (or less) than Howie's view of the world. As one digression leads to another (and to a whirlwind of elaborate, funny, and/or informative footnotes), Howie ponders such things as milk cartons, bathrooms, staples, the little thread you pull to open a band aid, Pez dispensers, doorknobs, and of course shoelaces (the physics of their breakage) and even footnotes themselves. Of all his novels, THE MEZZANINE seems the most accurate mirror of what the inside of its author's curious (in both senses) mind must look like: a roomy, well-stocked fusion of the astutely scientific and the purely childlike, full of fascinating facts, utterly unique observations, and an enviable way with the English language. Customer Reviews for "The Mezzanine (Paperback)" by Nicholson Baker (Author)There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review! Literary BestsellersFiction & Literature Bestselling Books
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