Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser

Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Martin Dressler--hailed by The New Yorker as "a virtuoso of waking dreams"--comes a dazzling collection of darkly comic stories united by their obsession with obsession.

"Remarkable ... Not just brilliant but prescient." --The New York Times Book Review

In Dangerous Laughter, Steven Millhauser transports us to unknown universes that uncannily resemble our own.

The collection is divided into three parts that fit seamlessly together as a whole. It opens with a bang, as "Cat 'n' Mouse" reimagines the deadly ritual between cartoon rivals in a comedy of dynamite and anvils--a masterly prologue that sets the stage for the alluring, very grown-up twists that follow.

Part one, "Vanishing Acts," features stories of risk and escape: a lonely woman disappears without a trace; a high school boy becomes entangled with his best friend's troubled sister; and a group of teenagers play a treacherous game that pushes them deep into "the kingdom of forbidden things."

Excess reigns in the vivid, haunting places of Part two's "Impossible Architectures," where domes enclose whole cities, and a king's master miniaturist creates objects so tiny that soon his entire world is invisible.

Finally, "Heretical Histories" presents startling alternatives to the remembered past. "A Precursor of the Cinema" proposes a new, enigmatic form of illusion. And in the astonishing "The Wizard of West Orange" a famous inventor sets out to simulate the sense of touch--but success brings disturbing consequences.

Sensual, mysterious, Dangerous Laughter is a mesmerizing journey through brilliantly realized labyrinths of mortal pleasures that stretch the boundaries of the ordinary world to their limits--and occasionally beyond.

Millhauser, Steven: - Steven Millhauser was born in 1943 in New York City, and grew up in Connecticut. He received a B.A. from Columbia University in 1965, and went on to pursue a doctorate in English at Brown University. He never completed his dissertation, but did complete a novel that was eventually published in a pared-down form under the title From the Realm of Morpheus-as well as Edwin Mullhouse. However, it was for his stories that Millhauser became best known; immaculately written, curiously vivid, they trod on fantastic boards in a manner reminiscent of Poe or Borges, but with a distinctively American voice. After In the Penny Arcade, Millhauser's collections continued with The Barnum Museum (1990), Little Kingdoms (1993), and The Knife Thrower and Other Stories (1998). Steven Millhauser lives in Saratoga Springs, New York, and teaches at Skidmore College.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780307387479
ISBN 10	030738747X
Title	Dangerous Laughter
Author	Steven Millhauser
Series	Vintage Contemporaries
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2009-02-10
Number of pages	272
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.