{"product_id":"a-meaningful-life-isbn-9781590173008","title":"A Meaningful Life","description":"L.J. Davis’s 1971 novel, \u003ci\u003eA Meaningful Life\u003c\/i\u003e, is a blistering black comedy about the  American quest for redemption through real estate and a gritty picture of New York  City in collapse. Just out of college, Lowell Lake, the Western-born hero of Davis’s  novel, heads to New York, where he plans to make it big as a writer. Instead he finds  a job as a technical editor, at which he toils away while passion leaks out of his  marriage to a nice Jewish girl. Then Lowell discovers a beautiful crumbling mansion  in a crime-ridden section of Brooklyn, and against all advice, not to mention his  wife’s will, sinks his every penny into buying it. He quits his job, moves in, and  spends day and night on demolition and construction. At last he has a mission: he  will dig up the lost history of his house; he will restore it to its past grandeur.  He will make good on everything that’s gone wrong with his life, and he will even  murder to do it.\"... one of the strangest novels I have ever read: a crazed parable in which the protagonist, Lowell Lake, and his marriage undergo a constantly regenerating process of mental and physical disintegration. Quite mad, it can be read poolside, roadside or mountainside: wherever you are, you'll be Lake-side.\" – Geoff Dyer,\u003ci\u003e The Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The story, delivered with terrific brio, proceeds as a phantasmagoria of urban decay and heightened obsession. It is also extremely funny if you can put politically correct scruples to the side - which should be easy enough as the true butt of the novel is Lowell himself.\"    —Katherine Powers, \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Stultified by his job (editing a plumbing magazine) and his mind-numbing marriage ('a cross between \u003ci\u003eLong Day's Journey into Night \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eFather Knows Best\u003c\/i\u003e'), frustrated novelist Lowell Lake welcomes a new obsession: renovating a monstrously dilapidated mansion in a Brooklyn slum. What follows, in L.J. Davis's deadpan 1971 novel \u003ci\u003eA Meaningful Lif\u003c\/i\u003ee, reissued by NYRB Classics, is pure chaos, as Lowell confronts a cast of urban squatters, in some of the most brilliant comic turns this side of \u003ci\u003eAlice in Wonderland\u003c\/i\u003e. A cathartic read for urban pioneers.\" --\u003ci\u003eO, The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A rediscovered American classic from the 1970s, this is a darkly comic portrayal of broken dreams.\" --\u003ci\u003eWaterstone Books Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Here's a real rediscovery...This strange comic masterwork is compared to the work of Kingsley Amis in Jonathan Lethem's new introduction. That's almost right, but the feel is darker, and there's a touch of Patricia Highsmith too; it's all about gentrification, and, ultimately, madness.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe Los Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“He has an erring sense of timing, of taste, of restraint. He has written some truly marvelous passages about New York. He has an absolute eye for the telling detail…An author who is clearly capable, funny at the proper times, both brutally and cheerfully perceptive.” –\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA novel that “has the authentically crazy tintinnabulation of our times…Mr. Blandings in a situation comedy by Kafka.” –\u003ci\u003eBook World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Davis] has a fine comic gift; a clear-eyed view of those who imagine that mere accumulation is life itself.” –Paula Fox\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Davis is seen by some as a kind of Evelyn Waugh of the American urban crisis.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003eL. J. Davis was  an author and prize-winning journalist who has contributed to \u003ci\u003eThe  New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMother Jones\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eHarper’s\u003c\/i\u003e, among other publications.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJonathan Lethem is the author of seven novels, including \u003ci\u003eMotherless Brooklyn\u003c\/i\u003e and  \u003ci\u003eThe Fortress of Solitude\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in Brooklyn and in Maine.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305144766693,"sku":"NP9781590173008","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590173008.jpg?v=1767720639","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/a-meaningful-life-isbn-9781590173008","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}