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Judith Goldman

    Wonderlands
    James Rosenquist: His American Life
    Sun Collective
    • From the National Book Award finalist and "one of our most gifted writers" ( Chicago Tribune )--a timely and unsettling novel about the people drawn to and unmoored by a local activist group more dangerous than it appears Once a promising actor, Tim Brettigan has gone missing. His father thinks he may have seen him among some homeless people. And though she knows he left on purpose, his mother has been searching for him all over the city. She checks the usual places--churches, storefronts, benches--and stumbles upon a local community group with lofty goals and an enigmatic leader who will alter all of their lives. Christina, a young woman rapidly becoming addicted to a boutique drug that gives her a feeling of blessedness, is inexplicably drawn to the same collective by a man who's convinced he may start a revolution. As the lives of these four characters intertwine, a story of guilt, anxiety, and feverish hope unfolds in the city of Minneapolis. A vision of modern American society and the specters of the consumerism, fanaticism, and fear that haunt it, The Sun Collective captures both the mystery and the violence that punctuate our daily lives.

      Sun Collective
    • James Rosenquist: His American Life

      • 124 pages
      • 5 hours of reading

      Exploring the work of a prominent figure in 1960s Pop Art, this book highlights his monumental, billboard-sized imagery that merges commercial themes with artistic expression. It examines how his background in advertising influenced his unique perspective, showcasing the intersection of consumer culture and artistic creativity.

      James Rosenquist: His American Life
    • Searching and erudite new essays on writing from the author of Burning Down the House. Charles Baxter’s new collection of essays, Wonderlands, joins his other works of nonfiction, Burning Down the House and The Art of Subtext. In the mold of those books, Baxter shares years of wisdom and reflection on what makes fiction work, including essays that were first given as craft talks at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. The essays here range from brilliant thinking on the nature of wonderlands in the fiction of Haruki Murakami and other fabulist writers, to how request moments function in a story. Baxter is equally at home tackling a thorny matter such as charisma (which intersects with political figures like the disastrous forty-fifth US president) as he is bringing new interest to subjects such as list-making in fiction. Amid these craft essays, an interlude of two personal essays—the story of a horrifying car crash and an introspective “letter to a young poet”—add to the intimate nature of the book. The final essay reflects on a lifetime of writing, and closes with a memorable image of Baxter as a boy, waiting at the window for a parent who never arrives and filling that absence with stories. Wonderlands will stand alongside his prior work as an insightful and lasting work of criticism.

      Wonderlands