V.

More about the book

Winner of the coveted William Faulkner Foundation First Novel Award in 1963, V. is an ever popular novel by one of America's great modernists. V. is a wild, macabre tale of the twentieth century and of two men (one looking for something he has lost; the other never had much to lose so isn't looking for it) - and “V.,” the unknown lady of the title, who may be somebody's mother, somebody's mistress, or the world gone mad with despair. "Filled with wild humor, inventive wordplay and a darkly imaginative power. The story roams all over the map and features such characters as Benny Profane, an adventurer named Stencil and a mysterious woman known only as V." - Philadelphia Inquirer "Benny Profane['s] function in the novel is to perfect the state of 'schlemielhood' - that is to say being the victim... His friends are called the Whole Sick Crew... Set in contrast to Profane is a young adventurer named Stencil... obsessed by a self-imposed duty which he follows, somewhat joylessly - a Quest to discover the identity of V., a woman's initial which occurs in the journals of his father, a British Foreign Office man, drowned in a waterspout off of Malta." - New York Times Book Review "[V.] leaves the imagination spent and the mind reeling." - New York Herald Tribune