Remote [INSCRIBED AND SIGNED]
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. First edition. Hardcover. Octavo (8 1/4 x 5 1/2"). [12], 203, [7]pp. Original decorative dust-jacket over half green cloth and blue & red paper covered boards, with yellow lettering to spine, and black lettering to covers. Title page inscribed and signed by the author.
"In this truly one-of-a-kind book, the author/narrator - a representative, in extremis, of contemporary American obsession with beauty, celebrity, transmitted image - finds himself suspended, fascinated, in the remoteness of our wall-to-wall mediascape. It is a remoteness that both perplexes and enthralls him.
Through dazzling sleight of hand in which the public becomes private and the private becomes public, the entire book-clicking from confession to family-album photograph to family chronicle to sexual fantasy to pseudo-scholarly footnote to reportage to personal essay to stand-up comedy to cultural criticism to literary criticism to film criticism to prose-poem to litany to outtake-becomes both an anatomy of American culture and a searing self-portrait.
David Shields reads his own life - reads our life - as if it were an allegory about remoteness and finds persuasive, hilarious, heartbreaking evidence wherever he goes." (From the Publishers).
Dust-jacket, binding and interior in very good condition. vg. Item #41835
ISBN: 9780679445913
Price: $35.00