Sam Savage was an American novelist and poet whose work delved into the complexities of human existence. His style, marked by sharp insight and precise language, drew readers into the depths of the human psyche. Savage's writings are characterized by a unique blend of melancholy and humor, lending them an unmistakable literary quality. Both his prose and poetry stand as testaments to his profound understanding of the human condition and his skill in articulating it through literature.
This is a novel told through the voice of a rat. Firmin is born in the basement of a ramshackle old bookstore, but because he is the runt of the litter, he is forced to complete for food and ends up chewing on the books that surround him. He soon realizes his source of nourishment has endowed him with the ability to read!
Living on a diet of fried Spam, vodka, sardines, cupcakes, and Southern Comfort, Andrew Whittaker is slowly being sucked into the morass of middle age. A negligent landlord, small-time literary journal editor, and aspiring novelist, he is—quite literally—authoring his own downfall. From his letters, diary entries, and fragments of fiction, to grocery lists and posted signs, this novel is a collection of everything Whittaker commits to paper over the course of four critical months. Beginning in July, during the economic hardships of the Nixon era, we witness our hero hounded by tenants and creditors, harassed by a loathsome local arts group, and tormented by his ex-wife. Determined to redeem his failures and eviscerate his enemies, Whittaker hatches a grand plan. But as winter nears, his difficulties accumulate, and the disorder of his life threatens to overwhelm him. As his hold on reality weakens and his schemes grow wilder, his self-image as a placid and slow-moving sloth evolves into that of a bizarre and frantic creature driven mad by solitude. In this tragicomic portrait of a literary life, Sam Savage proves that all the evidence is in the writing, that all the world is, indeed, a stage, and that escape from the mind’s prison requires a command performance. Sam Savage is the best-selling author of Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife , a debut novel selected as an American Library Association Notable Book and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award finalist. A native of South Carolina, he now lives in Madison, Wisconsin.