Stanley Elkin: 16 books

  Three witty and poignant novellas from a twentieth-century literary master at the peak of his craft   Van Gogh’s Room at Arles is Stanley Elkin’s second collection of novellas, a razor-sharp exploration of three characters suffering under the weight of intellectual, physical,...

  Elkin’s striking debut: The story of one man’s comic attempts at immortality   James Boswell is a professional strongman and a wrestler. He is also a loveable leech who amasses friends of wealth and influence as his own insurance policy against death, an obsession that...

Three novellas filled with humor and insight by one of America’s modern literary masters In Searches & Seizures, Elkin tells the story of the criminal, the lovelorn, and the grieving, each searching desperately for fulfillment—while on the verge of receiving much more than they bargained...

“This imagination of Elkin’s sneaks up, tickles, surprises, shocks, and kills. It makes stories that are deadly funny.” —The New York Times Each of the nine short stories collected here feature two types of people—the troubled and the troublemakers. In “The Guest,” a homeless...

With a wickedly witty touch, Elkin’s essays takes readers on a tour of American life in the 20th century. Stanley Elkin was one of our great American writers. “A divine exploiter of the idiocies and intricacies of our language,” as John Irving put it, and nowhere is that more clear than...

The comic story of a man’s obsessive quest to build a fast food empire across America For the better part of the 1970s, entrepreneur Ben Flesh could expand his business kingdom with the snap of his fingers. His fast food restaurants and electronics stores were all a part of his rapidly growing...

Elkin’s National Book Critics Circle Award–winning classic: The story of an elderly woman who suddenly becomes mixed up in a world of criminals and con artists After her beloved husband dies of cancer, Dorothy Bliss is consigned to a life of tedium, waiting out her remaining years in a...

An age-old family curse fuels this National Book Critics Circle Award winner: “Elkin’s imagination should be declared a national landmark” (Paul Auster). Since the time of the First Crusade, every generation of the Mills family has been consigned by fate to an unfulfilling, servile existence....

  A small-town Rabbi’s quiet life is turned upside down when his only daughter drops a bombshell   The only long-term occupants of Lud, New Jersey, reside in its cemeteries,a fact that suits Rabbi Jerry Goldkorn just fine. Never particularly passionate about his religious...

  “Among Mr. Elkin’s best works of fiction . . . A comedy that cuts so many ways that it leaves us bleeding with laughter.” —The New York Times   Eddy Bale’s twelve-year-old son died after a terrible, drawn-out illness. Now, determined to help alleviate the suffering...

Elkin’s darkly comic novel of the afterlife—the story of one man’s redemptive journey to hell and back When he is killed during a holdup at his Minneapolis liquor store, Ellerbee’s bad luck is only beginning. After a short stint in heaven, Ellerbee is banished to hell, abruptly and...

A radio host’s rise is the fodder for this “funny, melancholy, frightening . . . absolutely American” National Book Award finalist (The New York Times Book Review). Since childhood, Dick Gibson has longed for a successful radio career to make him a household name. Seeking to hone his...

  A municipal employee sets out to unravel a murder—and save himself from the split personality that is pushing him to the brink   At age fifty-eight, Robert Druff’s destructive alter ego has begun to take over his life. Frustrated with his job as Commissioner of the Streets...

A black market dealer must reconcile his lifetime of sins as he faces hard time in prison A born salesman, Leo Feldman can peddle anything from clothing and appliances to prostitutes, guns, and drugs. Although guilty of myriad crimes, Feldman is sentenced to prison as the result of a clerical...