A biting satire, JR features JR, an eleven-year-old capitalist, who embodies the cash culture he grows up in. The young JR manipulates his meagre economic beginnings including a shipment of Navy surplus picnic forks, a defaulted bond issue and turns them into a massive paper empire. The novel's satiric assault upon the American Dream, and the economics it represents makes a compulsive read and the seminal American novel.
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About the Author
WILLIAM GADDIS (1922-98) was one of the greatest writers in twentieth-century America. He wrote five novels and won two National Book Awards, for JR (1976) and for A Frolic of His Own (1995). His other landmark novels include: The Recognitions (1955) and Carpenter's Gothic (1985). Agapc Agape was published by Atlantic in 2002.
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-Money ...? in a voice that rustled. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
-Money ...? in a voice that rustled. Read the first page
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Format:Paperback
JR is a work of genius that ranks just below the greatest novels in English in this century. As other reviewers have said, it is a comic and satiric masterpiece. It also has passages of lacerating sadness--for example, Gibbs, Eigen and, one senses, Bast are profoundly depressing examples of youthful promise turned or turning very sour. For all its undeniable brilliance of insight and technique, however, I think JR falls slightly short of the best work of authors such as Joyce, Conrad, or Faulkner. Its major points about American capitalism and culture, though convincing, are not revelatory, and the book does not illuminate, explain or express human experience in quite the transcendent way that, say, Ulysses, Heart of Darkness or Absolam, Absolam (sp?) do. Still, after a little tough sledding early on, JR is an absolute joy to read and fully deserves all the praise accorded it.
Format:Paperback
Scathing. Funny. Horrific. Brilliant. Gloriously Gaddis. What we have here is a systematic dissection of capitalist culture that has all the grotesquerie, fascination,and humor of your 9th grade biology class. What I found truly enlightening was Gaddis's subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, examination of the effects of a free market economy on the psychological makeup and ethical systems of us humans: at once the only impetus and the most lowly cog in the great capitalist machine. The characters are fascinating and utterly believable, even in their complete eccentricity-I swear I had some of those teachers in high school. What with the unique subject matter and the fact that it is written entirely in dialouge, getting into JR is rather like riding a camel-a very weird rhythm at first but just utterly fabuluous en fin.
Format:Paperback
Gaddis' 'JR' has my nomination for the best American novel of the last half of the 20th century. It is also one of the two or three funniest American novels I can remember reading, right up there with 'Lolita'. It is composed entirely in dialogue, without any breaks at all, and it is sometimes difficult to tell who is talking, but once into the rhythm of the talk, it becomes clearer. It also helps to have an MBA or some business background, as the business deals it describes, to hilarious effect, are sometimes very intricate. It is the story of an 11-year old school kid wheeler-dealer who builds a gigantic paper empire 'bubble' from some army surplus items ordered from a comic book. He manages to involve various adults, including his teacher, in his capitalist schemes. It is a savage and entirely prescient view of America, foreseeing much of the present stock market madness (and it fact its comic hyperbole does not seem so wild now in light of our own real world stock market 'irrational exuberence'). It is unequalled as a depiction of the warping influences in people's lives caused by the capitalist ethic, where serious artists are devalued by the dictates of the market. If you enjoy Pynchon, Barth, or Joseph McElroy (another undeservedly unknown American writer) you will like Gaddis. This is a book to come back to again---read it now before our stock market bubble bursts!
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4.4 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Make the effort -- it's more than worth it!
There's no denying it; Gaddis's JR is a hard book to get into. But once you've got into it, it's even harder to get out of. Read more
Published on Mar 22 2000 by Curtiss Leung
4.0 out of 5 stars
Vicious and funny
The man has a perfect ear for talk. The catch is, it's talk of the stupidest, most insipid kind, betraying in its every word the breakdown of community between men and women that... Read more
Published on Jan 24 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars
A page turner for the few & brave
I was heartened to see other reader comments on this intensely subversive, fabulously funny and amazing novel of commerce, art and the American Century. Read more
Published on Mar 18 1999
4.0 out of 5 stars
Exceedingly difficult, satisfying, and good with soup.
See: one-line summary. A very, very good work of fiction. On the same level as John Barth's best work.
Published on Feb 6 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
The I on the Dollar Bill
A masterful foray into what makes American great (and grate), by a novelist who has amply earned his stripes as an underappreciated, even obscure presence in American literature. Read more
Published on Oct 11 1998 by kernmorrkern@earthlink.net
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply Outstanding
As in his "Recognitions", Gaddis has shown himself the true successor to Joyce. In wonderful verve he displays his understanding of America with the usual acute insight,... Read more
Published on May 19 1998
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unremittingly boring
This award-winning "novel" by William Gaddis is unremittingly boring and I recommend it only to your worst enemies. Read more
Published on Sep 22 1997 by brecherk@mskcc.org
5.0 out of 5 stars
An American masterpiece
JR is, and I think will come to be seen as, one of the greatest works of literature. Like the world¹s other masterpieces, it rewards persistence magnificently. Read more
Published on July 4 1997
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unforgivingly brilliant and totally protean genius.
You need to set aside your pride to read anything by William Gaddis, because at first you'll think he makes no sense. Read more
Published on Jun 24 1997
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