Nicholson Baker Books

From the author of the acclaimed Human Smoke comes a brilliantly funny and skillfully crafted new novel.

At a time when the West seems ever more eager to call on military aggression as a means of securing international peace, Nicholson Baker's provocative narrative exploring the political misjudgements and personal biases that gave birth to the terrifying consequences of the Second World War could not be more pertinent. With original and controversial insights brought about by meticulous research, Human Smokere-evaluates the political turning points that led up to war, challenging some of the treasured myths we hold about how war came about and how atrocities like the Holocaust were able to happen. Baker reminds us, for instance, not to forget that it was thanks in great part to Churchill and England that Mussolini ascended to power so quickly, and that, before leading the United States against Nazi Germany, a young FDR spent much of his time lobbying for a restriction in the number of Jews admitted to Harvard. Conversely, Human Smokealsoreminds us of those who had the foresight to anticipate the coming bloodshed and the courage to oppose the tide of history, as Gandhi demonstrated when he made his symbolic walk to the ocean. Praised by critics and readers alike for his gifted writing and exquisitely observant eye, Baker offers a combination of sweeping narrative history and a series of finely delineated vignettes of the individuals and moments that shaped history.

Our supreme fabulist of the ordinary now turns his attention on a 9-year-old American girl and produces a novel as enchantingly idiosyncratic as any he has written. Nory Winslow wants to be a dentist or a designer of pop-up books. She likes telling stories and inventing dolls. She has nightmares about teeth, which may explain her career choice. She is going to school in England, where she is mocked for her accent and her friendship with an unpopular girl, and she has made it through the year without crying.Nicholson Baker follows Nory as she interacts with her parents and peers, thinks about God and death-watch beetles, and dreams of cows with pointed teeth. In this precocious child he gives us a heroine as canny and as whimsical as Lewis Carroll's Alice and evokes childhood in all its luminous weirdness.

Delving into the often-overlooked realms of punctuation and the lexicography of adult content, the author combines sharp wit with a rich, elaborate writing style. This exploration serves as both a provocative and humorous tribute to the intricacies of language, highlighting how these neglected elements shape our communication and experiences. The book promises a unique perspective that intertwines curiosity with a celebration of linguistic quirks.

Ten years into researching the potential use of biological weapons by the United States during the Korean War, Nicholson Baker faced frustration and disillusionment, particularly with the FOIA process. He encountered long waits for responses, often receiving documents heavily redacted to the point of being illegible. Rather than remain stagnant, Baker decided to keep a personal journal of his obstructed research, documenting his correspondence with government officials who hindered his requests. This led to a unique and compelling narrative that delves into some of the darkest secrets of the CIA and US government, which are often concealed despite the Freedom of Information Act. In his clear and unpretentious style, Baker reveals disturbing stories of CIA programs involving weaponized insects and the intentional spread of Lyme disease, as well as dangerous military experiments on unsuspecting citizens and harmful chemical munitions used against innocent civilians abroad. Alongside these revelations, he shares poignant moments from his life in Maine, such as feeding his dogs and watching the dawn. The result is a powerful exploration of waiting, bureaucracy, the horrors of war, and the lethal secrets that the US government keeps hidden from its people.

Turns an ordinary ride up an office escalator into a meditation on our relations with familiar objects--shoelaces, straws, and more. Baker's debut novel, and a favorite amongst many of us here.

Paul Chowder is a poet, but he's fallen out of love with writing poems. He hasn't fallen out of love with his ex-girlfriend Roz, though. In fact he misses her desperately. As he struggles to come to terms with Roz's new relationship with a doctor, Paul turns to his acoustic guitar for comfort and inspiration, and fills his days writing protest songs, going to Quaker meetings, struggling through Planet Fitness workouts, wondering if he could become a techno DJ, and experimenting with becoming a cigar smoker.

Nicholson Baker's novels, The Mezzanine and Room Temperature, have been highly praised for their sparkling originality, deadpan humor, and eccentric style. Now, with U and I, Baker has written the most idiosyncratic and deftly illuminating essay on literary influence in recent memory, as he reveals his preoccupation with the work of John Updike.

Having turned phone sex into the subject of an astonishing national bestseller in Vox, Baker now outdoes himself with an outrageously arousing, acrobatically stylish "X-rated sci-fi fantasy that leaves Vox seeming more like mere fiber-optic foreplay" (Seattle Times). "Sparkling."--San Francisco Chronicle.

Emmett wants to know what life is about. Every day he gets up before dawn, makes a cup of coffee, lights a fire with one wooden match, and thinks. What Emmett thinks about is the subject of this wise and closely observed novel, which covers vast distances while moving no farther than Emmett's hearth and home.