The Anthologist

A Novel

customer reviews

Paul Chowder is trying to write the introduction to a new anthology of rhyming verse, but he’s having a hard time getting started. The result of his fitful struggles is The Anthologist, Nicholson Baker’s brilliantly funny and exquisite love story about poetry.

* * *

A New York Times Notable Book, 2009

Favorite Fiction of 2009–Los Angeles Times

Best Books of 2009–The Christian Science Monitor

Best of 2009–Slate.com

"A Year’s Reading" Favorites, 2009–The New Yorker

Best Books of 2009–Seattle Times

Choose a format:
Trade Paperback
eBook

Choose a format:

Book details:

Simon & Schuster |
256 pages |
ISBN 9781416572459 |
July 2010

$19.99 List Price

Buy from another retailer:

see more

Praise

“

”

“[The Anthologist is] startlingly perceptive and ardent...Chowder is possibly the most appealing narrator Baker has invented....You don't have to agree with these opinions; you just savor the tartness of a raw take....Baker is a... ”

– David Orr, The New York Times Book Review

“[A] light, funny, deeply literary hybrid that functions both as a novel...and a lip-smacking Bakersian treatise on the joys of poetry.”

– Sam Anderson, New York magazine

“Mr. Baker...slips effortlessly into the eager, friendless voice of a man who is every bit as glamorous and dynamic as his name suggests....funny, self-deprecating...delivers unexpectedly illuminating thoughts....But the real beauty... ”

– Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“The Anthologist is a slyly intelligent rant about the crazy paradoxes of artistic careerism, and a casual and hilarious series of lessons on poetry...Baker's comic brio and high-energy pace make [Chowder's] lurching progress a... ”

– Mark Doty, O, the Oprah Magazine

“Baker's best novel to date... You'll laugh, you'll howl, you might even recite. You will learn useful stuff...Chowder is not just one of Baker's great inventions. ...[he] is instantly unforgettable, one of the most concretely... ”

– Simon Schama, Financial Times (London)

“[A] novel inside a novel, a life within a life....Baker is a hybrid of past and future. His style has a meditative echo, like a man in a cave walking toward a light on the other end....On paper, in his essays and his fiction, he... ”

– Susan Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

“[The] wonderful new novel The Anthologist...offers something different and (after all the books that have been written about tortured artists) better...The drama and emotion in The Anthologist builds subtly. You become so engaged... ”

– Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly

“The happiest felicity in a book full of them is that such a loving and superbly witty homage to poetry -- and to life -- could have been achieved only through the prose sentences of Nicholson Baker.”

– William H. Pritchard, The Boston Globe

“In the brisk and entertaining The Anthologist, Nicholson Baker...writes a completely successful novel about poetry....The book is constantly appealing in its witty approach to its ostensible subject -- the charms, rewards and... ”

– Robert Allen Papinchak, The Seattle Times

“We come to see that Baker has written, here as elsewhere, a book of associations...in which he celebrates the superfluous details of life....He is an expert craftsman...[The Anthologist] is a testament to -- indeed an anthology of... ”

– Stephen Abell, The Times Literary Supplement (London)

‹ ›

Read an Excerpt

HELLO, THIS IS PAUL CHOWDER, and I’m going to try to tell you everything I know. Well, not everything I know, because a lot of what I know, you know. But everything I know about poetry. All my tips and tricks and woes and worries are going to come tumbling out before you. I’m going to divulge them. What a juicy word that is, “divulge.” Truth opening its petals. Truth smells like Chinese food and sweat.

What is poetry? Poetry is prose in slow motion. Now, that isn’t true of rhymed poems. It’s not true of Sir Walter Scott. It’s not true of...

Get our latest book recommendations, author news and sweepstakes right to your inbox

Resources

To download a file to your computer right-click on the link and choose 'save file as'

High Resolution Images

Book Cover Image (jpg): The Anthologist
Trade Paperback 9781416572459

(1.1 MB)

Author Photo (jpg): Nicholson Baker
Elias Baker

(0.1 MB)

Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit

Book Reviews

‹ ›

Simon & Schuster

The Anthologist

A Novel

Choose a format:

Choose a format:

Book details:

Buy from another retailer:

Praise

Read an Excerpt

Resources

High Resolution Images

Book Reviews

More Books from this Author

CONNECT WITH SIMON & SCHUSTER