Baker, Nicholson

The Fermata with: Ephemera

ISBN: 0679415866
New York, NY, USA: Random House, 1994. First Edition. Hardcover. "Arno Strine likes to stop time and take women's clothes off. He is hard at work on his autobigraphy, The Fermata . It proves in the telling to be a very provocative, funny, and altogether morally confused piece of work." (from inner front cover flap). Born in New York City, New York, novelist and essayist Nicholson Baker (b. 1957) is known for fiction that generally de-emphasizes narrative in favor of careful description and characterization, emphasizing the inspection of his characters stream of conciousness. In the critically controversial The Feramata , one of three erotic novels written by Baker, Arno Strine, a temp in Boston, discovers he can stop time when he is a young man. He works on this power, and learns how to trigger and control these time stoppages. Instead of becoming rich and famous, Strine turns diabolical and becomes an elaborate voyeur. He stops time so that he can see women naked, and eventually creates scenarios that he can watch after he allows time to start again. Despite his enjoyment of this power, Arno wants a real relationship, and he overcomes his shyness to begin one. When he finally consummates this relationship, his power to stop time passes to his girlfriend, whose own time misadventures begin. Arno works on the story of this time power, under the title The Fermata. Baker also wrote the non-fiction book U and I: A True Story (see item #6725) about his relationship with one of the greatest American fiction writers of his generation, John Updike (1932-2009). We have found and retained a clipped review of this novel (in relatively fine condition with mild age-toning to mostly edges, folded once horizontally and vertically) from the New York Times Book Review at the time of release by Michele Slung ("Magic Voyeurism", NYTBR 1994 ). Hardcover with dust jacket: First edition as stated at copyright page, first printing as indicated by number sequence thereon (beginning with "2" per contemporary custom of this publisher). An interesting relic of twentieth-century American literature & an essential Baker collectible in its rarest original form. Book in relatively fine-to-very fine condition with the slightest wear & fading at thin edges & corners of front, back cover & spine (with silver-gilt letters, on spine & front cover completely bright & intact), minor age-toning/staining mostly to edges of same; moderate staining and spotting to text block, mainly at top and side. Interior relatively fine-to-very fine with only tiny bumps at corners and minor age-toning to a few page leaves. Dust jacket relatively fine-to-very fine with mild age-toning and rubbing to front and back cover, minor creasing at lower spine of same. Fine-Very Fine. [Item #7883]

Price: $50.00