Language English Publication date 1992 ISBN 0-14-023113-7 Country United States of America | Publisher Penguin Books Pages 251pp Originally published 1992 Genre Metafiction | |
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Media type Print Hardcover and paperback Similar Design And Truth, On Dialogue, American Vulgar, The Grace of Great Things, Boccaccio's Decameron and the C | ||
Book: A Novel (1992) is a metafictional novel by Robert Grudin.
Contents
Plot
The story follows English professor Adam Snell as he realizes that someone is trying to kill both him and his book, Sovrana Sostrata, a book about truth. As a metafiction work the novel parodies literary forms—each chapter is told in a different style ranging from traditional linear drama, to newspaper reports, to a playwright’s script, to a carefully annotated scholarly work from the 19th century—to the point where the novel’s footnotes come alive and literally try to take over the narrative.
Themes
The novel explores the power struggles that exist with academia and the lack of administration support for creativity within universities. They are similar to other works by Robert Grudin because they also place emphasis on liberty, determinism, and other political philosophies.
Reception
The novel was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in Literature.