- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Hyperion (May 5 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0786869178
- ISBN-13: 978-0786869176
- Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 14.6 x 2.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 445 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,652,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
When UCLA professor Ted Street sits up in his coffin at his own funeral, mayhem ensues in this smart, satirical and engrossing novel by prolific Everett (Glyph; Erasure; etc.). Ted had been planning suicide, but a car accident conveniently sliced off his head. With reattached noggin, no pulse and a few strangely sharpened senses, Ted rejoins his stunned family, feeling "like a monster, a re-animated ghoul." But his wife, Gloria, takes him to bed for newly gratifying sex, and he has other heightened powers-of understanding and even telepathy. TV vans besiege their house, and preteen daughter Emily is briefly taken by Protective Services. Venturing out for groceries with his family, Ted is kidnapped by a religious cult led by menacing Big Daddy, who's convinced Ted's the anti-Christ. After being shot numerous times, Ted escapes into the desert, only to be caught by the Feds, who whisk him away to a reanimation laboratory outside Roswell, N.Mex., to study him (they remove his organs while he's awake and put them back "much as one might stuff a turkey"). These varied confinements give Ted time to reflect on his frustrating, untenured status at the university, the birth of his beloved children, his philandering ways and his troubled marriage. Escaping yet again, this time with help from a man who makes Jesus clones, Ted rescues a group of children held hostage by Big Daddy before returning home to a family that has been forever changed. Thoughtful, darkly comic and full of heart, the novel offers a wonderfully unusual story about retrospection and forgiveness.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Theodore Street, a middle-aged college professor, husband, and father, is on his way to commit suicide, unable to bear any longer the failures of his life. He is decapitated in a freak accident with a UPS truck but is resurrected three days later at his funeral with his head clumsily reattached to his body. Is he dead or alive? That question ignites a storm of unwanted publicity, hysteria, and soul-searching as Ted struggles with heightened senses that give him a keener self-awareness and prescience about others. He had always felt "unweighted, uncentered" in his life. In his unsettled afterlife, he is more loving to his wife and children, but he is also the object of fear and curiosity. He is abducted by a cult leader and later by government agents working at a secret installation in Roswell, New Mexico. Everett (Erasure, 2001) is biting and satirical in this novel about the meaning of life and death and one man's search for redemption. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
THAT THEODORE STREET WAS dead was not a matter open to debate. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
THAT THEODORE STREET WAS dead was not a matter open to debate. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Where am I, now?,
By
This review is from: American Desert (Hardcover)
Mildly comical look at an unfortunate man's mistimed suicide attempt, his regenereation and subsequent hodge-podge of adventures, most too fantastical to believe. The author's many tangents when introducing new characters as they appear, in the form of childhood histories that only can be known from the narrative due to 'supernatural powers', makes for a slightly choppy and, at times, monotonous read. Abrupt ending.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews) 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Keep your head up....,
By Keith G "I can not live without books.....Tho... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: American Desert (Hardcover)
Percival Everett startled me with this book. The first few pages jump out and grab you and haul you into what seems like what will be a sad story. A man on his way to committ suicide is accidently involved in a traffic collision with a truck and decapitated. All presume he is dead until he sits up at his funeral with his head crudely attached on to his shoulders by what seems almost like fishing line.American Desert is more than just a modern day "Frankenstein" story. It is about a man who thought life was dead, only to find life in death. It is a novel about second chances and how our relationships can be anything we want them to be. In this book, we see the hurt that a family can go through because of choices a member of that family may make. Ultimately, we see that life is more than just the mundane everyday existence we know. We see that sometimes the purpose of our life can only be found when we see that we think we have no purpose. Don't let the name fool you. American Desert is a well in the dry land of everyday reading. A good book from start to finish and an almost draw dropping ending make this book a solid form of entertainment.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Original story told by a first class author,
By Robert J. Roid Jr. - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: American Desert (Hardcover)
One of the best novels I've read for quite some time. The premise is fantastic and Everett carries it off with style and aplomb.His language is economical yet rich and the tone balances faultlessly between satire and sadness, with solid doses of insight and philosophy thrown in for good measure. The narrative arc sails along at perfect pace and we are rewarded in the end with with something so rare as a proper ending. What more could one ask from a novel? Thus far I've only otherwise read 'Damned If I Do' (short stories) by Mr. Everett, but I am looking forward to reading more by this truly fascinating author.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Oddly satisfying,
By E. S. Charpentier - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: American Desert (Hardcover)
Odd, existential, yet delightful, American Desert is the story of Ted Street, who, on his way to committing suicide, is decapitated by a UPS truck. However, Ted is not dead. Or is he? Sitting up in his coffin at his own funeral, Ted begins a whole new kind of life. Is Ted a devil? An angel? A ghost? The Messiah? Or, something else entirely?This book grapples with questions of life and death in a wholly unique and hilarious way. It's laugh-out-loud funny, but also gets one thinking about what kind of life she is living and what she would do with a second chance if it was handed to her. Ted is both bizarre and relatable. His wife seems off, but genuine. The reactions of his children to this situation are heartbreaking and also incredibly genuine. Everett also gives obscurely fitting names to each of the characters, some of which are obvious, but all can be discovered or confirmed by checking Wikipedia. My one complaint is that I wish there was a bigger payoff at the end. The conclusion is fitting, but a little anti-climactic. |
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