Misterioso is the final work of Gilbert Sorrentino's trilogy, the first two volumes of which, Odd Number and Rose Theatre, attempted to discover the shifting, evasive truth concerning a myriad of characters, all vaguely connected with the arts, whose lives become more contradictory and unaccountable the more we learn about them. In Misterioso, set on the last Sunday of August 1982, an encyclopedic survey is made of all the people, places, and objects from the first two novels. Beginning and ending at an A&P supermarket, the ...
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Misterioso is the final work of Gilbert Sorrentino's trilogy, the first two volumes of which, Odd Number and Rose Theatre, attempted to discover the shifting, evasive truth concerning a myriad of characters, all vaguely connected with the arts, whose lives become more contradictory and unaccountable the more we learn about them. In Misterioso, set on the last Sunday of August 1982, an encyclopedic survey is made of all the people, places, and objects from the first two novels. Beginning and ending at an A&P supermarket, the novel spontaneously generates out of the store's rack of "magazines which promise stories of action," a trashery of ludicrous and perverse exploits and ads well suited to the actions of the novel's large cast of ludicrous and perverse characters and the trashy culture they inhabit. All hope of discovering the truth behind the apparent death of Sheila Henry (in Odd Number) is finally abandoned in this hilarious attempt to organize the facts, a task made hopeless by new information that contains further facts and incidents, scenarios and conversations, as isolate, mysterious, and ambiguous as ever. How does one account for the procession of flight attendants, all named Karen, who break in with chipper greetings from the skies? Or the frequent apparitions of buffoonish demons and devils like "Astaroth, Angel of earthly Beauty, a luscious broad with a knockout figure and a lot of bad threads?" And what is one to make of Buddy and His Boys on Mystery Mountain, the obstreperously overwritten text that keeps interrupting the orderly progression of the novel? The characters--despite the candor of their presentation--remain unknowable. A masquerade of the substantive, Misterioso is a comic inquiry into details that are, at once, revelatory and enigmatic, and concludes a major fiction series of the 1980s.
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Add this copy of Misterioso to cart. $10.00, good condition, Sold by Last Word Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Olympia, WA, UNITED STATES, published 1989 by Dalkey Archive Press.
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Seller's Description:
Good in Good jacket. Size: 9x6x1; Light to moderate shelf wear to boards and dust jacket. Binding square and tight. No loose pages or creasing to spine. No highlighting, notation, or remainder marks. Stated First Edition with full number line. Thank you for supporting Last Word Books and independent bookstores.
Add this copy of Misterioso to cart. $17.00, like new condition, Sold by Common Crow Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Pittsburgh, PA, UNITED STATES, published 1989 by Dalkey Archive.
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Seller's Description:
Fine in near fine jacket. First edition, 1989. Cloth hardcover in dust jacket, 282 pp., clean unmarked text, Fine copy in Near Fine dust jacket, light rubbing and creasing to the edges of the dust jacket. Dust jacket housed in archival dust jacket protector.
Add this copy of Misterioso to cart. $23.45, like new condition, Sold by Wm Burgett Bks & Collectibles rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from San Diego, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1989 by Dalkey Archive Press.
Add this copy of Misterioso to cart. $30.00, very good condition, Sold by Between the Covers-Rare Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gloucester City, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1989 by Dalkey Archive Press.
Add this copy of Misterioso to cart. $40.92, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1989 by Dalkey Archive Press.
Add this copy of Misterioso [Signed] to cart. $45.00, good condition, Sold by Second Story Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Rockville, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1989 by Dalkey Archive Press.
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Seller's Description:
Book. Octavo; 1st edition; G+/VG-; Hardcover with DJ; DJ spine, black with white print; DJ has slight edgewear, else clean and bright; Boards in black cloth, light warping, else clean and strong; Text block clean and tight; Inscribed in ink by the author on the front flyleaf and signed in ink by the author on the title page; 282 pages. 1356109. FP New Rockville Stock.
Add this copy of Misterioso to cart. $62.93, new condition, Sold by Just one more Chapter, ships from Miramar, FL, UNITED STATES, published 1989 by Dalkey Archive Press.
