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Overview
In this truly one-of-a-kind book, the author/narrator - a representative, in extremis, of contemporary American obsession with beauty, celebrity, transmitted image - finds himself suspended, fascinated, in the remoteness of our new wall-to-wall mediascape. It is a remoteness that both perplexes and enthralls him. In 52 short takes, he attends a warm-up session for a taping of Oprah ... discovers he has been airbrushed out of a photograph that appears in The New York Times ... considers the existential implications of (and winds up completely identifying with) a movie actor forever consigned to playing the sidekick ... diagnoses "information sickness" ... wonders why he finds women wearing eyeglasses so erotic ... arranges a hundred bumper stickers into a kind of autobiography ... and experiences other dizzying phenomena of the late twentieth century. Through dazzling sleight of hand in which the public becomes private and the private becomes public, the entire book - clicking from confession to family-album photograph to family chronicle to sexual fantasy to pseudo-scholarly footnote to reportage to personal essay to stand-up comedy to cultural criticism to literary criticism to film criticism to prose-poem to litany to bumper sticker to outtake - becomes both an anatomy of American culture and a searing self-portrait.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Mixing journalism, cultural criticism and autobiography, the 52 original short pieces collected here document novelist Shields's obsession with celebrity, images and the general ephemera of popular culture. He joins a test audience viewing potential sitcoms, follows A Current Affair reporter Mike Watkiss on assignment, muses on stuttering Howard Stern sidekick John Melendez and collects people's dreams about late rocker Kurt Cobain. What makes Shields's perspective on popular culture so interesting is its highly personal, even confessional nature: his essays often examine the private connections he feels to public figures and events. At times, however, Shields (Dead Languages) slips into narcissism; at others, such as in his "found" essays, composed entirely of bumper-sticker slogans, he is sterile if clever. But Shields is a gifted writer capable of surprising perceptions and considerable wit, and his idiosyncratic book offers intriguing insights into the ways the media can shape both the identities and the perceptions of its viewers. (Feb.)Book Details
Published
June 6, 1996
Publisher
New York : Alfred Knopf : 1996.
Pages
224
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780679445913