{"product_id":"flatscreen-a-novel-isbn-9780062090331","title":"Flatscreen: A Novel","description":"“OMFG, I nearly up and died from laughter when I read \u003cem\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/em\u003e. This is the novel that every young turk will be reading on their way to a job they hate and are in fact too smart for.” —Gary Shteyngart, author of \u003cem\u003eSuper Sad True Love Story\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eIndie-lit star and \u003cem\u003eFaster Times \u003c\/em\u003eeditor Adam Wilson delivers the gleefully absurd, effortlessly heartwarming story of one young man’s struggle to shake off the listless, sexless, stoned mantle of suburban teenage life and become something better. Fortunately (maybe) for Eli, his apathetic quest finds a catalyzing agent in one Mr. Seymour J. Kahn, a paraplegic sex addict and two-bit silver screen star who initiates a mad decent into debasement and (of course) YouTube stardom—a transformation from which there will be no going back.\u003cbr\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/em\u003e tells the story of Eli Schwartz as he endures the loss of his home, the indifference of his parents, the success of his older brother, and the cruel and frequent dismissal of the opposite sex. He is a loser par excellence—pasty, soft, and high—who struggles to become a new person in a world where nothing is new.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInto this scene of apathy rolls Seymour J. Kahn. Former star of the small screen and current paraplegic sex addict, Kahn has purchased Eli’s old family home. The two begin a dangerous friendship, one that distracts from their circumstances but speeds their descent into utter debasement and, inevitably, YouTube stardom.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy story’s end, through unlikely acts of courage and kindness, roles will be reversed, reputations resurrected, and charges (hopefully) dropped. Adam Wilson writes mischief that moves the heart, and \u003cem\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/em\u003e marks the wondrous debut of a truth-telling comic voice.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Adam Wilson is a gutsy, funny, and often beautiful writer, and \u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the most hilarious and commanding debuts I’ve read in a long time.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSam Lipsyte\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“OMFG, I nearly up and died from laughter when I read \u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e. This is the novel that every young turk will be reading on their way to a job they hate and are in fact too smart for.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGary Shteyngart\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An auspicious debut that promises, in Wilson, a standout addition to a new generation of writers.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A frequently funny subversion of the coming-of-age story…the voice is strong and the characters indelible…” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[Wilson’s] prose is relentless, and his world view is on fire. \u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e is a wickedly funny, absurdly engaging debut. I’d recommend it for fans of Sam Lipsyte and anyone looking for an unconventional coming-of-age story.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eJami Attenberg\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Reading \u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e in public without cracking up was a challenge, one that I did not meet, and I frequently looked like a crazy person reading the book. Wilson balances heartbreak with humor in a way that is affecting and real. In the book we meet Eli Schwartz, college dropout, failed Hebrew, and culinary master. Eli’s struggle to assert himself in a digitized world, as a fleshed out man, is as scary-real as it is funny. Eli longs for what all twenty-somethings long for, a sense of belonging, to be loved, worshiped. \u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e is a treasure. Bravo, Mr. Wilson!” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eZach Sampinos, Sam Weller's Books, Salt Lake City, UT (March 2012 Indie Next Pick)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Wilson expertly crafts explosively hilarious scenes ranging from a Viagra\/Oxycontin\/cocaine-driven meltdown during a high school football game to the complete destruction of what might have been a reasonably pleasant Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eForward\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘’…hilarious and edgy…” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBaltimore Sun\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Perverse, subversive, and hilariously outrageous, the book delivers memorable characters, a rollicking plot, and a new voice that comes across as anything but flat.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBarnes and Noble Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Wilson pulls you in with smart, self-deprecating comedy, and you never see the sting that’s coming. Through the seemingly-familiar prism of a disaffected young man wandering through his Massachusetts hometown, Wilson examines questions of class, intimacy, and our relationship to the media that surrounds us every day.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eL Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Comic novelist Adam Wilson makes his swaggering debut in \u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Eli’s narration in \u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e is darkly funny…” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Wilson gives us something  depressingly hilarious and undeniably real....Low-level angst is still angst, and Wilson captures it perfectly.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTime Out New York\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A fine debut from Wilson.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Wilson’s sharp, heartrending prose is captivating and comically laced, and an ultimately satisfying read.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eJewish Book Council\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“…immensely satisfying … Wilson has created a thoroughly lovable slacker, part hilarious, part poignant.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Adam Wilson delivers rapid fire prose that is distinctively intelligent, hilarious, artful, and perverse. While never failing to entertain, \u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e stealthily exposes the psychic abyss that haunts every fit of laughter. A dark jewel of a book.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHeidi Julavits\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Wilson’s prose is original and arresting … he approaches, in his loftier moments, the tortured grace of George Saunders. This is Cheever on Xanax, or maybe lithium, but the voice is still there; sardonic, hilarious, and very much of our time. Wilson is a writer to watch.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDaily Beast\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Rollicking…Comedy and pathos abound in Seymour’s absurdist world, and in Eli’s fantasies of a better life that come in the form of hilariously familiar cinematic scenarios in which, for instance, the screwup becomes the star chef.  Fans of Jack Pendarvis and Sam Lipsyte will enjoy Wilson’s fresh, fantastical perspective…” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Five things we emphatically endorse this month … a laugh-out-loud literary debut …” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDetails\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Sure, it’s another chubby stoner loser protagonist who is forced to turn into a real person when he gets irritating real-world problems dumped on his lap, but Adam Wilson does it with special aplomb.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFlavorwire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“If you smashed \u003ci\u003eThe Catcher in the Rye\u003c\/i\u003e into \u003ci\u003eJesus’ Son\u003c\/i\u003e, you might have something quite close to \u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e, a narrative of wayward youth for our beguiled new century on the brink of a discovery we might not welcome.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBookForum\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Truth be told -- I’ve sold books with Adam, shared food and drink on occasion with him, and have critiqued an untold amount of writers in his presence.  But having worked nearly three decades in the business of books, I’ve rarely encountered a more fully-realized debut novel.  Written with wit and wisdom, \u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e is an audacious, smart, and riotously funny work that demands serious attention”. - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eChad Bunning, BookCourt, Brooklyn, NY (March 2012 Indie Next Pick)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Ignatius J. Reilly is swiftly transplanted from the pages of \u003ci\u003eA Confederacy of Dunces\u003c\/i\u003e to the suburbs of Boston in this hilarious and winsome debut in the form of Eli Schwartz, slacker.  That Quinosset is a stand-in for Newton is trivia (though it’ll be hard to pass the former Gino’s Pizza\/former Filene’s Basement parking garage on Needham Street as innocently as in the past): the real news is that Adam Wilson has written a very funny and keenly-observed novel with an anti-hero who really is a hero. Reading \u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e is the equivalent of standing on the lawn and holding a boombox blaring anthems over your head. Once you dry your eyes and the illegal smoke clears, you’ll be cheering for Eli, and maybe be a little wiser about the movement of the human heart in the bargain.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eJaime Clarke, Newtonville Books, Newton, MA (March 2012 Indie Next Pick)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e is a bleakly funny and totally outrageous debut from an exciting new writer. Adam Wilson has written the slacker novel to end all slacker novels.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTom Perrotta\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Adam Wilson’s \u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e is the sort of novel we’ve heard nobody is able to write anymore: erudite and hilarious, raunchy and topical, and flat-out fun. Nicholson Baker meets Barthleme with a dash of Nabokov - Wilson is not a writer for the faint-of-heart. But quit mourning the so-called death of the great novel and buy this altogether magical book.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDarin Strauss\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eFlatscreen\u003c\/i\u003e is the sort of novel we’ve heard nobody is able to write anymore: erudite and hilarious, raunchy and topical, and flat-out fun. Nicholson Baker meets Barthleme with a dash of Nabokov….[B]uy this altogether magical book.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDarin Strauss\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Adam Wilson struts into that dark destination of post-high-school misery and emerges with a story full of energy and hilarity and emotion. What a great read!” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDeb Olin Unferth\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44888058396901,"sku":"NP9780062090331","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780062090331.jpg?v=1730228052","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/flatscreen-a-novel-isbn-9780062090331","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}