Prescription for a Superior Existence

By Josh Emmons

Jack Smith is your average single thirtysomething businessman. That is, his life revolves around work, failed relationships, alcohol, painkillers, and pornography, and he sees no reason to change. But... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416561056
• ISBN13: 9781416561057
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Amazing New Novel.

I loved Emmons' first book, "The Loss of Leon Meed," and was similarly blown away by "Prescription for a Superior Existence," which is about a man who taken under by the sometimes sound, sometimes strange, sometimes suicidal beliefs of an American cult. The thinking of this book is so rich and detailed that I found myself taken into philosophical musings about the nature of belief, love, and why we live. It's true, the book takes up some of the deepest, and darkest, of human questions, but it is also a page-turner of twists, suspense, and humor. Emmons proves again that he is a novelist of meticulous craft and heartbreaking skill, as I absorbed not only the story but each sentence for its mastery and surprise. A must read.

A Brief Wondrous Novel by Emmons.

Prescription for a Superior Existence tells the story of an insecure man (the reader discovers that he's been battling not only with weight but with unpopularity), who finds an alternative to his existential dilemma by giving up desire willingly, at 34. Yes, giving up desire willingly at 34; the desire to eat excessive amounts of calories, the desire to take innumerable pills, the desire to sleep around. He finds not love, but PASE, Prescription for a Superior Existence. For the religious reader, it is the ultimate understanding of the self: you give up desire as it generates every other problem in the world. For those away from any kind of organized religion, PASE is a cult that takes over your mind, body, intellect and emotions. In either case, Emmons manages to create a West Coast world where both perspectives (religious organization and cult) coincide in order to tell the story of a man who has struggled with his identity and with his desires since the day he was left behind by his biological mother and adopted by a pair of New Age parents. For those who read for the sake of literature, Prescription for a Superior Existence is not only heartbreakingly influenced with the by Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughther," but also with the best conflicts in Tolstoy. For those who read in search of optioning a novel for a film, you can compare this novel to Tom Perrota at his very best, not desire in The Abstinence Teacher, but desire in Little Children. For everyone else, you should get your PASE t-shirt as soon as possible. But for those who read for the beauty and art of reading, Prescription for a Superior Existence involves the reader insecurities (through the recently liposuctioned Jack [do we need a neologism here?]) as if were a self-help text, a religious one, or one for anyone who has ever felt left behind. All to say that Prescription for a Superior Existence is a a magnetic story and a brief wondrous novel by Emmons.