ONLY $9.90 DELIVERY INFO

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

A Meaningful Life

L.J. Davis Jonathan Lethem

$36.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

QTY:

English
NYRB Classics
15 May 2009
L.J. Davis's 1971 novel, A Meaningful Life, is a blistering black comedy about the

American quest for redemption through real estate and a gritty picture of New York

City in collapse. Just out of college, Lowell Lake, the Western-born hero of Davis's

novel, heads to New York, where he plans to make it big as a writer. Instead he finds

a job as a technical editor, at which he toils away while passion leaks out of his

marriage to a nice Jewish girl. Then Lowell discovers a beautiful crumbling mansion

in a crime-ridden section of Brooklyn, and against all advice, not to mention his

wife's will, sinks his every penny into buying it. He quits his job, moves in, and

spends day and night on demolition and construction. At last he has a mission- he

will dig up the lost history of his house; he will restore it to its past grandeur.

He will make good on everything that's gone wrong with his life, and he will even

murder to do it.
By:  
Introduction by:  
Imprint:   NYRB Classics
Country of Publication:   United States
Edition:   Main
Dimensions:   Height: 204mm,  Width: 131mm,  Spine: 14mm
Weight:   253g
ISBN:   9781590173008
ISBN 10:   1590173007
Pages:   232
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

L. J. Davis was an author and prize-winning journalist who has contributed to The New York Times, Mother Jones, and Harper's, among other publications. Jonathan Lethem is the author of seven novels, including Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude. He lives in Brooklyn and in Maine.

Reviews for A Meaningful Life

He has an erring sense of timing, of taste, of restraint. He has written some truly marvelous passages about New York. He has an absolute eye for the telling detail...An author who is clearly capable, funny at the proper times, both brutally and cheerfully perceptive. - The New York Times <br>A novel that has the authentically crazy tintinnabulation of our times...Mr. Blandings in a situation comedy by Kafka. - Book World <br> [Davis] has a fine comic gift; a clear-eyed view of those who imagine that mere accumulation is life itself. -Paula Fox <br> Davis is seen by some as a kind of Evelyn Waugh of the American urban crisis. - The Washington Post


See Inside

See Also