{"product_id":"the-journalist-9781628976090","title":"The Journalist","description":"\u003cb\u003eA blend of postmodern metafiction and old-style bedroom farce, \u003ci\u003eThe Journalist\u003c\/i\u003e explores the elusive, sometimes illusive, boundaries between facts and the fictions we weave around them.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe novel's protagonist, living at a time that might be the present in a city that might be anywhere, has decided for reasons of mental hygiene to keep a detailed record of his thoughts, words, and deeds. Very quickly, however, the project begins to absorb his entire life, as the increasingly meticulous recording of experience threatens to supplant experience itself. To make matters worse, what he records offers its own grist for worry: his devoted wife suddenly grows secretive, his equally devoted mistress turns evasive, his frustratingly independent son might or might not be visiting that same mistress behind his back, and his closest friend begins acting in mysterious ways (and is it just his imagination, or is this friend having clandestine meetings with his wife?). His ever more convoluted perceptions breed a dark muddle of suspicion, leading to a climax that is at once intensely funny and excruciatingly poignant.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHarry Mathews\u003c\/b\u003e was born in New York City in 1930 and spent his adult life in the United States and in France, where he co-founded the influential journal \u003ci\u003eLocus Solus\u003c\/i\u003e with John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler in 1961. He was the first American member of the literary consortium Oulipo, alongside Raymond Queneau, Italo Calvino, and Georges Perec. His many writings, spanning novels, short fiction, poems, essays, and translations from the French, include \u003ci\u003eThe Conversions\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTlooth\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Sinking of the Odradek Stadium\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCigarettes\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Journalist\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMy Life in CIA\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Solitary Twin\u003c\/i\u003e. Mathews was honored by the French government as an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters and earned awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Endowment for the Arts. He died in Key West, Florida, in 2017.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJonathan Lethem\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of thirteen novels, including \u003cem\u003eThe Arrest\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eChronic City\u003c\/em\u003e, and his essays and stories have been collected in seven volumes. He's received the Berlin Prize, The National Book Critics Circle Award, and a Macarthur Fellowship. He lives in Los Angeles and Maine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Dalkey Archive Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51414755803410,"sku":"9781628976090","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_193f9a8e-7325-4518-bc43-4a7e6eaf855b.jpg?v=1751127284","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-journalist-9781628976090","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}