Synopses & Reviews
Meet Steve (not his real name), a Special Case, in truth a Terminal Case, and the eponymous antihero of Sam Lipsyte's first novel. Steve has been informed by two doctors that he is dying of a condition of unquestioned fatality, with no discernible physical cause. Eager for fame, and to brand the new plague, they dub it Goldfarb-Blackstone Preparatory Extinction Syndrome, or PREXIS for short. Turns out, though, Steve's just dying of boredom. The Subject Steve is a dazzling debut by turns manic, ebullient, and exquisitely deadpan Sam Lipsyte is in company with the master American satirists.
Review
"I laughed out loud -- and I never laugh out loud." Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club and Choke
Review
"Falls somewhere between Chuck Palahniuk and George Saunders. Let's throw Vonnegut in there as an influence too. And Pynchon...This is Satire with a capital S....An enormously likable first novel." Esquire
Review
"A spot-on DeLillo-like excavation of our consuming consumer culture, and the ultimate fear -- the fear of death -- that lurks behind it." San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
The dazzling debut novel from the author of The Ask and Home Land, Sam Lipsyte's The Subject Steve is by turns manic, ebullient, and exquisitely deadpan--and belongs in the company with the master American satirists.
Meet Steve (not his real name), a Special Case, in truth, a Terminal Case, and the eponymous antihero of Lipsyte's first novel. Steve has been informed by two doctors that he is dying of a condition of unquestioned fatality, with no discernible physical cause. Eager for fame, and to brand the new plague, they dub it Goldfarb-Blackstone Preparatory Extinction Syndrome, or PREXIS for short. Turns out, though, Steve's just dying of boredom.
About the Author
SAM LIPSYTE was born in 1968. He is the author of the story collection Venus Drive (named one of the top twenty-five books of its year by the Voice Literary Supplement) and three novels: The Ask, The Subject Steve and Home Land, which was a New York Times Notable Book and received the first annual Believer Book Award. He lives in New York.