{"product_id":"the-teachings-of-don-b-isbn-9781640090262","title":"The Teachings of Don B.","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"Barthelme . . . happens to be one of a handful of American authors, there to make us look bad, who know instinctively how to stash the merchandise, bamboozle the inspectors, and smuggle their nocturnal contraband right on past the checkpoints of daylight 'reality.'\" —Thomas Pynchon, from the Introduction\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSixty–three rare or previously uncollected works by a master of the American short story form\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e *A hypothetical episode of Batman hilariously slowed down to soap–opera speed. \u003cbr\u003e *A game of baseball as played by T. S. Eliot and Willem \"Big Bull\" de Kooning. \u003cbr\u003e *A recipe for feeding sixty pork–sotted celebrants at your daughter's wedding. \u003cbr\u003e *An outlandishly illustrated account of a scientific quest for God. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e These astonishing tropes of the imagination could only have been generated by Donald Barthelme, who—until his death in 1989—seemed intent on goosing American letters into taking a quantum leap. Gleeful, melancholy, erudite, and wonderfully subversive, The Teachings of Don B. is a literary testament cum time bomb, with the power to blast any reader into an altered state of consciousness. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"A small education in laughter, melancholy, and the English language.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Barthelme, who died in 1989, was a distinctive master of fragments . . . Anger, wit, extravagant associations and disassociations; these would be less memorable if it were not for Barthelme's ability to evoke dreams and the tenderness with which he does it.” —\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThe Teachings of Don B.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Barthelme's art was pre–eminently one of surprises, darting from satire to lyricism to poker–faced banality in a single paragraph.... \u003ci\u003eThe Teachings of Don B.\u003c\/i\u003e is a small education in laughter, melancholy and the English language.” —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Donald Barthelme may have influenced the short story in his time as much as Hemingway and O'Hara did in theirs.” —\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Barthelme happens to be one of a handful of American authors, there to make us look bad, who know instinctively how to stash the merchandise, bamboozle the inspectors, and smuggle their nocturnal contraband right on past the checkpoints of daylight 'reality.'“ —Thomas Pynchon, from the Introduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for Donald Barthelme\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Donald barthelme almost single–handedly has revived the genre of the short story and made it into a fresh art form... He can, and does, write stories of every kind.” —\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Probably the most perversely gifted writer in the United States.” —\u003ci\u003eLife\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Among the leading innovative writers of modern fiction.” —\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The delight he offers readers is beyond question; his individuality is unmatched.” —\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Alongside Raymond Carver, the most emulated short story writer in America.” —Chris Power, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A sophisticated entertainer and an elegant stylist...There are \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e captions which would look at home in Barthelme's dialogue, just as there are lines in his stories which the cartoonists might envy.” —Patrick Parrinder, \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Barthelme's fiction is affected, weightless, utterly original. One wouldn't have it any other way.” —\u003ci\u003eArizona Republic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Every sentence I read makes me want to stop and write something of my own. He fires all of my synapses and connects them in new ways. He sends a herd of wildebeest through my mind. It's a whole jungle full of animals, really, every color and shape, and he sends them scurrying all over my brain, screaming, defecating, fornicating.” —Dave Eggers, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Circle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“One of the great citizens of contemporary world letters.” —Robert Coover, author of \u003ci\u003eGoing for a Beer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eDonald Barthelme\u003c\/b\u003e is a winner of the National Book Award and is the author of over seventeen books, including \u003ci\u003eFlying to America\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCity Life\u003c\/i\u003e (one of \u003ci\u003eTime Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e’s Best Books of the Year), and \u003ci\u003eSixty Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN\/Faulkner Award, and the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize. He was a founder of the renowned University of Houston Creative Writing Program, where he taught for many years. He died in 1989.","brand":"Counterpoint","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304360300773,"sku":"NP9781640090262","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781640090262.jpg?v=1767741797","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-teachings-of-don-b-isbn-9781640090262","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}