Once a literary novelist of some respectability, now brought low by the double insult of obscurity and crippling debt, Robert G. Mehlman is a man in need of money and recognition, fast. It is, of course, to cookery writing that he turns. A practiced decadent, a habitual spendthrift and a serial womaniser, he has, ostensibly, all the right qualities. But the path to fame is never a smooth one. Phantom Pain consists largely of the bitterly funny but unpublished manuscript of Mehlman's autobiography. In it, he tells the ...
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Once a literary novelist of some respectability, now brought low by the double insult of obscurity and crippling debt, Robert G. Mehlman is a man in need of money and recognition, fast. It is, of course, to cookery writing that he turns. A practiced decadent, a habitual spendthrift and a serial womaniser, he has, ostensibly, all the right qualities. But the path to fame is never a smooth one. Phantom Pain consists largely of the bitterly funny but unpublished manuscript of Mehlman's autobiography. In it, he tells the parallel stories of his decaying marriage and his puzzling affair with a woman he meets by chance and who accompanies him on the road. Their journey takes them on a chauffeur-driven, midnight run from New York to Atlantic City where they gamble away most of Mehlman's remaining funds and then north, to Albany, where his unlikely salvation and the inspiration for his book Polish-Jewish Cuisine in 69 Recipes lie. Framed by a son's account of his famous father, this novel-within-a-novel is a hilariously black account of a writer's fall and his subsequent rise. Phantom Pain has all the characteristic mixture of slapstick and dark despair that has made Arnon Grunberg one of the most interesting, certainly the funniest, and arguably the best Dutch writer working today.
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Add this copy of Phantom Pain to cart. $6.34, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2003 by Secker & Warburg.
Add this copy of Phantom Pain to cart. $7.95, very good condition, Sold by Colewood Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from San Francisco, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Other Press.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. 1st edition, 1st printing, Other Press hardcover w/ DJ, 2004. Book is Near Fine to Fine, w/ clean text, binding so tight it seems to have never been read. DJ is VG+, w/ very light edges/shelf wear. Free delivery confirmation.
Add this copy of Phantom Pain to cart. $10.98, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Other Press (NY).
Add this copy of Phantom Pain to cart. $11.00, very good condition, Sold by Priceless Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Urbana, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Other.
Add this copy of Phantom Pain to cart. $12.00, like new condition, Sold by May Day Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Los Altos Hills, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Other Press.
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Seller's Description:
Fine in dust jacket. 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches. A novel within a novel about a failed writer by the Dutch writer; translated from the Dutch by Sam Garrett.
Add this copy of Phantom Pain to cart. $13.00, very good condition, Sold by Penwicke's Book Shop rated 2.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Rocky Face, GA, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by OTHER PRESS.
Add this copy of Phantom Pain to cart. $15.95, very good condition, Sold by Daedalus Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Portland, OR, UNITED STATES, published 2003 by Secker & Warburg.
Add this copy of Phantom Pain to cart. $16.00, very good condition, Sold by The Book House - Saint Louis rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from St. Louis, MO, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Other Press.
Add this copy of Phantom Pain to cart. $131.76, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Other Press.
