{"product_id":"the-american-novel-now-isbn-9781405167574","title":"The American Novel Now","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe American Novel Now\u003c\/i\u003e navigates the vast terrain of the American novel since 1980, exploring issues of identity, history, family, nation, and aesthetics, as well as cultural movements and narrative strategies from over seventy different authors and novels.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003eDiscusses an exceptionally wide-range of authors and novels, from established figures to significant emerging writers\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eToni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Louise Erdrich, Don DeLillo, Richard Powers, Kathy Acker and many more\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eExplores the range of themes and styles offered in the wealth of contemporary American fiction since 1980, in both mainstream and experimental writings\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eReflects the liveliness and diversity of American fiction in the last thirty years\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eWritten in a style that makes it ideal for students and scholars, while also accessible for general readers\u003c\/li\u003e \u003c\/ul\u003e  \u003ci\u003eAcknowledgements.\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePreface\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart I: Before 1980.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart II: From New Realisms to Postmodernism.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis American Life”.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Dirty Realisms\".\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOnly Wor(l)ds.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMagnifying Reality, Multiplying Genre.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart III: Becoming Identities.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eReinventing Character.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRacing Identity.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEngendering Narrative.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eToward the Posthuman.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart IV: What Happened to History?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Past is Prologue.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTunneling In.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eImagining Epoch.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnother History.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCatastrophe:  The Ends of History.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart V:  Relations Stopping Nowhere.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Postnuclear Family.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Reach of Community.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNation and Migration:  From There to Here.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEpilogue.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNotes.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eReferences.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIndex.\u003c\/p\u003e  \"In this extremely accessible discussion, O'Donnell (Michigan State Univ.) reveals his as an authoritative voice on novels from the 1980s to present. His selections are, by his own admission, eclectic: he writes in the introduction that he \"chose to discuss, where appropriate, both widely read novels published by the mainstream commercial presses and less visible, often experimental work published by independent presses.\" He looks at work from more than 70 authors, including central figures of the American literary canon--Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Louise Erdrich, and Don DeLillo, to name only a few. O'Donnell divides the book (and his approach) into five distinctive parts, discussing, respectively, work leading to the 1980s; realism and experimentation; identity, as it pertains to character--gender, ethnicity, and so on; historicity and \"end times\"; and social emergence within the novel. All this leads to an intriguing \"excursus that speculates on the future of the novel.\" This is a comprehensive discussion of the novel and present circumstances influencing it--an interesting study on many levels.\" \u003ci\u003e(CHOICE,\u003c\/i\u003e December 2010)\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e   \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"The American Novel Now\u003c\/i\u003e provides an accessible introduction to the many strands of post-1980 American fiction.\" (\u003ci\u003eTLS,\u003c\/i\u003e June 2010)\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003ePatrick O'Donnell\u003c\/b\u003e is Professor of English and American Literature at Michigan State University, where he served as department chair from 1997 to 2007. He has written and edited a number of books and collections on contemporary American fiction and film, including \u003ci\u003eLatent Destinies: Cultural Paranoia in Contemporary U.S. Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e (2000), \u003ci\u003eEcho Chambers: Figuring Voice in Modern Narrative\u003c\/i\u003e (1992), \u003ci\u003ePassionate Doubts:\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eDesigns of Interpretation in Contemporary American Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e (1986), and \u003ci\u003eNew Essays on The Crying of Lot 49\u003c\/i\u003e (edited, 1991). He is an associate editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Columbia History of the American Novel\u003c\/i\u003e (1991), a former editor of \u003ci\u003eModern Fiction Studies\u003c\/i\u003e, and a co-editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e (forthcoming from Wiley-Blackwell).  Contemporary American fiction since 1980 is known for its remarkable liveliness, diversity, and rigor. \u003ci\u003eThe American Novel Now\u003c\/i\u003e navigates this exciting and vast terrain, offering a symptomatic reading of contemporary American fiction that considers both mainstream and experimental writing from over seventy different authors and novels. Featured authors include Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Louise Erdrich, Don DeLillo, Richard Powers, Kathy Acker, and many more.  \u003cp\u003eWritten in a lively and accessible style, the book explores a wide range of themes offered in the wealth of contemporary American fiction, including identity, history, family, nation, and aesthetics, as well as cultural movements, styles, and narrative strategies. \u003ci\u003eThe American Novel Now\u003c\/i\u003e provides an excellent guide for those who wish to be introduced to the contexts, vitality, and diversity of the contemporary American novel over the last thirty years.\u003c\/p\u003e  \"O'Donnell's authoritative organization of the field, capacious discussions of individual novels, and lucid prose will provide readers-from advanced students to the broad general audience for contemporary writing- with an engaging, judicious, and vastly well-informed survey of the American novel since 1980. In this invaluable new guide to the populous domain of contemporary US fiction O'Donnell brilliantly charts multiple tracks through hundreds of novels, identifying common aesthetic, social, and historical concerns through the period.  Reflecting O'Donnell's expertise as one of the field’s leading specialists, this is a confident, evolved, and utterly reliable consideration of one of the liveliest eras for fiction in the nation's history.  Readers will be grateful for it.\"\u003cbr\u003e —John T. Matthews, Boston University","brand":"Wiley-Blackwell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47990155673829,"sku":"NP9781405167574","price":82.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781405167574.jpg?v=1761786715","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-american-novel-now-isbn-9781405167574","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}