American Purgatorio: A Novel

By John Haskell

Book Overview

A mesmerizing first novel about a man, a woman, and a disappearance. "I'm from Chicago originally. I went to New York, married a girl named Anne, and was in the middle of living happily ever after when something happened." So begins John Haskell's mesmerizing first novel, American Purgatorio, the story of a happily married man who discovers, as he walks out of a convenience store, that his life has suddenly vanished. In cool, precise prose, written as both a detective story and a meditation on the seven deadly sins, Haskell tells a story that is by turns tragic and comic, compassionate and gripping. From the brownstones of New York City to the sandy beaches of Southern California, American Purgatorio follows the journey of a man whose object of desire is both heartbreaking and ephemeral. It confirms John Haskell's reputation as one of our most intriguing new writers, "one of those rare authors who makes language seem limitless in its possibilities" (Susan Reynolds, Los Angeles Times).

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374104328
• ISBN13: 9780374104320
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Overreaches, but Still Should be Read

I loved Haskell's short story collection, 'I Am Not Jackson Pollack.' It was really something fresh and new. This novel is both compelling and heart-breaking. When Haskell's writing is at its best it is simultaneously highly readable and containing of great depth. There are stumbles in this book though. Parts of it just don't live up to other parts. That's not to say it isn't admirable or that any other writer out there could have done any better. The fact that he was able to create such a challenging plot to execute is alone worth a lot of praise. There were a fair amount of typos in the first printing I read. One of the editorial reviews above says the reader may feel tricked. I can't imagine a reader being so clueless that they'd be that surprised by any of the "revelations" in the book. The title alone tells you that such surprises might be coming. Haskell's style isn't for everyone, but I'd recommend to most anyone that they at least give this book a shot. p.s. Near the start the narrator talks about how glass flows and old glass is wobbly because of it. That's not true! Old glass is wobbly because it was made before the plate glass process was invented and in wide use. Glass is an amorphous solid and doesn't really flow.

Read it again

This book is astonishing: a beautiful, lyrical, philosophical work that needs to be read with care and due attention, (and not as if it were merely the latest offering from some TV book club). This is the real thing; it doesn't go out to win you over, it works on its own terms, and asks you to come along with it on an amazing journey - a journey which is more than worthwhile.

Haunted and Haunting

I stayed up too late finishing American Purgatorio, then woke up too early -- before the alarm -- rethinking what I had read. At daylight I was back in the book, checking key passages. An ending that at midnight made me groan aloud in sadness, was found at dawn to deliver an odd redemption. Jack -- a name the protagonist wears loosely -- is, for good reason, a man apart. He lives in his head. Like a transcontinental drive in the slow lane in a dying car, Jack's narrative of his crossing doesn't whip past. That's the book's challenge, but also its pleasure. At that pace you don't miss the sights, both real and mirage.