false 266756 1 "Double or Nothing" is a concrete novel in which the words become physical materials on the page. Federman gives each of these pages a shape or structure, most often a diagram or picture. The words move, cluster, jostle, and collide in a tour de force full of puns, parodies, and imitations. Within these startling and playful structures Federman develops two characters and two narratives. These stories are simultaneous and not chronological. The first deals with the narrator and his effort to make the book itself; the second, the story the narrator intends to tell, presents a young man's arrival in America. The narrator obsesses over making his narrative to the point of not making it. All of his choices for the story are made and remade. He tallies his accounts and checks his provisions. His questioning and indecision force the reader into another radical sense of the novel. The young man, whose story is to be told, also emerges from his obsessions. <P>Madly transfixing details-- noodles, toilet paper, toothpaste, a first subway ride, a sock full of dollars-- become milestones in a discovery of America. These details, combined with Federman's feel for the desperation of his characters, create a book that is simultaneously hilarious and frightening. The concrete play of its language, its use of found materials, give the viewer/reader a sense of constant and strange discovery. To turn these pages is to turn the corners of a world of words as full as any novel or literary discourse ever presented. "Double or Nothing" challenges the way we read fiction and the way we see words, and in the process, gives us back more of our own world and our real dilemmas than we are used to getting. <P>"Invention of this quality ranks the book among the fictional masterpieces of our age..." --Richard Kostelanetz, author of "The End of Intelligent Writing" and "The Old Fictions & the New" <P>"Federman takes the novel to the point of obsessive, ultimate reflexiveness-- and a 258635 1 4 1999 Double or Nothing total:26|5:10|4:12|3:2|2:2|1:0| 26 108 48 0 0 0 false false Sat Nov 07 21:28:45 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 07 21:28:45 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Nov 07 18:06:48 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 07 18:06:48 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sat Oct 10 06:50:53 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 06:50:53 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Oct 08 05:11:26 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 05:11:26 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Oct 03 21:32:12 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 21:32:12 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue Jul 21 17:40:39 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 21 17:40:39 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Jun 22 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 10 15:35:40 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 15:35:40 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat May 23 00:13:10 -0700 2009 Sat May 23 00:13:10 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu May 07 10:11:08 -0700 2009 Thu May 07 10:11:08 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Apr 05 21:47:21 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 17:08:39 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Mar 14 03:45:09 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 14 03:45:09 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Mar 13 15:22:30 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 13 15:23:09 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Mar 02 00:39:50 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 00:39:50 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 06:20:28 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 06:20:33 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Mon Jan 19 15:07:03 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 15:07:03 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Wed Dec 17 18:23:20 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 17 18:23:20 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Tue Dec 16 18:16:54 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 18:16:54 -0800 2008 2 0 false false Fri Dec 05 19:04:29 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 05 19:04:32 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Mon Dec 01 17:58:43 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 17:58:43 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Fri Nov 28 12:36:14 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 16 17:36:30 -0800 2009