{"product_id":"notknowing-the-essays-and-interviews-9780679409830","title":"Not-Knowing: The Essays and Interviews","description":"\u003cp\u003eDonald Barthelmes premature death at the age of fifty-eight brought to an end one of the most provocative careers in the history of American literature. Groundbreaking works such as Come Back  Dr. Caligari; The Dead Father; Snow White; Great Days; Overnight to Many Distant Cities; Guilty Pleasures; and his two short-fiction collections  Forty Stories and Sixty Stories  have earned him a place among the most influential and imitated authors of the last half-century. With his marvelously strange and darkly ironic vision of the world  his wizard satire and deadpan humor  Barthelme spoke of and for our time like no one else. He spoke of our national obsessions and weirdnesses  our unspeakable practices and unnatural acts  in what is for many the distinctive voice of postmodern America.  Not-Knowing is the second posthumous collection of Donald Barthelmes work. Like The Teachings of Don B. (1992)  it brings together shorter works now almost impossible to come by. While the first volume featured the authors tantalizing experiments in satire  parable  fable  and playwriting  this new volume focuses on his diverse nonfiction pieces  collectively referred to here as essays  although  as always with Barthelmes work  they are feistily resistant to any label. Categorizable or not  Not-Knowing contains Barthelmes pungent comments on writing  art  literature  film  and city life  which are  as John Barth says in his Introduction  among the permanent literary treasures of American postmodernist writing. Also here are several interviews with the author--invaluable for understanding this very private man--including two never before available. The interviews range over the last eighteen years of Barthelmes life  and they give readers the opportunity to watch his ideas as they expand  change  and settle.  Kim Herzinger has gathered here an eclectic selection of pieces for Barthelmes many admirers  creating a work that will confirm his rightful standing as  in the words of Robert Coover  \"one of the great citizens of contemporary world letters.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45652000374837,"sku":"ByrdShop_0679409831","price":82.12,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780679409830.jpg?v=1781848086","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/notknowing-the-essays-and-interviews-9780679409830","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}