Introduction “Why are you so unhappy?” That’s the question that Zeke Pappas—a thirty-three-year-old widower and scholar who directs the Great Midwestern Humanities Initiative—asks almost everybody he meets as part of an obsessive project, “The Inventory of American Unhappiness.” Yet he remains delightfully oblivious to the increasingly harsh realities that threaten his own life, opting instead [...]
Archive of posts tagged humor
Dear American Airlines: A Novel by Jonathan Miles
Introduction When Bennie Ford’s flight is cancelled, he finds himself stranded at Chicago’s O’Hare airport with the growing realization that he will miss his daughter’s wedding. Worse, he’s breaking their deal: that they will spend time getting to know one another before his daughter, whom he hasn’t seen or contacted in more than twenty years, [...]
The Obituary Writer by Porter Shreve
Downloadable Guide for Group Discussion and Classroom Use “A fine novel, whose surprises are—very pleasingly—inevitable and right.” —Charles Baxter “It’s a delightful read, the kind of book one simply wants to nestle into . . . The reader is propelled forward quite willingly through the book’s own special world.” —Elizabeth Strout “It’s a gem [...]
When the White House Was Ours by Porter Shreve
About When the White House Was Ours “Porter Shreve has always had a keen feel for a story and an instinct for what is interesting in the world. He is a wonderful and accomplished young writer.” — Lorrie Moore Loosely based on Porter Shreve’s own childhood, WHEN THE WHITE HOUSE WAS OURS is the [...]
Crackpots by Sara Pritchard
About Crackpots “The writing is dazzling, yes, but Pritchard allows the pathos — and there’s a lot of it — to rise out of her sentences like a scent . . . In the middle of tragedy she makes you laugh out loud.” — New York Times Book Review “A passionate and absorbing novel [...]
