UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · GENERAL
Stanley Elkin
Stanley Elkin was a Jewish American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. His extravagant, satirical fiction revolves around American consumerism, popular culture, and male-female relationships. Source and more information
Most acclaimed
Pieces of soap
With a wickedly witty touch, Elkin's essays takes readers on a tour of American life in the 20th century. Stanley Elkin was one of our great American writers. A divine exploiter of the idiocies and intricacies of our language, as John Irving put it, and nowhere is that more clear than this collection of essays, which find Elkin wresting hilarity and heartbreak from the most unlikely of sources.
Magic Kingdom
1985
"Abandoned by his wife and devastated by the death of his twelve-year old son, Eddy Bale becomes obsessed with the plight of terminally ill children and develops a plan to provide a "last hurrah" dream vacation for seven children who will never grow-up. Eddy and his four dyfunctional chaperones journey to the entertainment capital of America - Disney World. Once they arrive, a series of absurdities characteristic of an Elkin novel - including a freak snowstorm and a run-in with a vengeful Mickey Mouse - transform Eddy's idealistic wish into a fantastic nightmare."--BOOK JACKET.
The rabbi of Lud
1987
"Surrounded by cemeteries in the flatlands of New Jersey, the small town of Lud is sustained by the business of death. In fact, with no synagogue and no congregation, Rabbi Jerry Goldkorn has only one true responsibility: to preside over burial services for Jews who pass away in the surrounding cities. But after the Arctic misadventures that led him to Lud, he wouldn't want to live (or die) anywhere else.". "As the only living child in Lud, his daughter Connie has a different opinion of this grisly city, and she will do anything to get away from it - or at least liven it up a bit. Things get lively indeed when Connie testifies to meeting the Virgin Mary for a late-night romp through the local graveyards."--BOOK JACKET.