Объект Стив

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The bad news was dire: I was dying of something unprecedented. The Subject Steve is a dark, original satire on human mortality and our frantic attempts to escape it. Meet Steve (not his real name), a Special Case, or rather, a Terminal Case, and the antihero of this savagely funny novel. He learns from his doctors, the Philosopher and the Mechanic, that he is dying from a condition with no identifiable cause. Eager to make their mark, they label it Goldfarb-Blackstone Preparatory Extinction Syndrome, or PREXIS. This ordinary postmodern citizen—bitter ex-husband, quasi-deadbeat father, midlife adman, and creator of memorable dot.com slogans—finds himself at the center of a media frenzy when it’s revealed that he might be dying from sheer boredom. As his physicians are exposed as frauds, he retreats to the Center for Nondenominational Recovery and Redemption, under the control of the shadowy caregiver Heinrich of Newark. His journey then takes him to the desert, where a cultish media empire hinges on his demise. Yet, nothing can change Steve’s inevitable confrontation with death and synergy. This novel, manic, ebullient, and deadpan, solidifies Lipsyte's place among America’s master satirists, offering a dark comedy for our overlit times.