The Human Country

The Human Country


Collection Lannan Selections

The Human Country collects all of Mathews's shorter fiction, including the early stories from Country Cooking, the mid-career stories from The American Experience, and ten recent, previously uncollected pieces that are every bit as brilliant and surprising.

These stories include "The Broadcast," in which the narrator learns from a radio program that everything he needs in life should fit into one sock; "Clocking the World on Cue," an Oulipian story that employs the centuries-old literary form of the Chronogram; and "Calibrations of Latitude," which follows Sir Joseph Pernican on a meandering and seemingly aimless journey (through the city and through his imagination) that in the end proves not aimless at all, but rather—like all of Mathews's work—purposeful and deeply moving.

Details

Title The Human Country
Author Harry Mathews
Collection Lannan Selections
Title First Published 01 September 2002
Format Paperback
Nb of pages 186 p.
ISBN-10 1-56478-321-9
ISBN-13 9781564783219
Publication Date 01 September 2002
Nb of pages 186
Dimensions 5.5 x 8.5 in.
List Price $14.50
 

Summary

 

Reviews

Press Reviews

Bookforum
His accomplishments as a stylist shine forth with particular force, but with no diminution of inventiveness; his boldest flights of imagination are anchored in a nutball of precision of detail.

Guardian
Numerology meets haute cuisine in Harry Mathews's extraordinary stories . . . Bafflingly beautiful.

Booklist
Mathews's sly sense of humor and love of language shines through, beguiling readers to follow him wherever he goes.

Times Literary Supplement
Perfectly cooked . . . The stories in The Human Country treat of matters intrinsically resistant to denotation, enquiring after our desire for answers before seeking the answers themselves.

Library Journal
Mathews uses his stories as an outlet for imagination, creatively playing with words and ideas and thus keeping his readers surprised and interested with every turn of the page.

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Genres : Fiction : Movements and Schools : Oulipo
Genres : Fiction : Short Stories
Genres : Fiction : United States and Canada
Countries : United States of America


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