The Wasties: A Novel - Softcover

The Wasties (Paperback)

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CitiRetail
(Stevenage, United Kingdom)

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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. A NovelThe Wasties is a compassionate, darkly comic novel about a man who is slowly losing his ability to understand the adult world.In Frederick Reuss's highly praised novels, Henry of Atlantic City and Horace Afoot, we have the stories of people who find themselves strangely isolated from everyone around them. In The Wasties, Reuss takes us to a new level, giving us the story of Michael "Caruso" Taylor, a man who has lost his ability to speak and is gradually reverting to infancy. All of his most intimate relationships are redefined- His wife, Gina, must assume the role of mother; his day nurse becomes his nanny; and "Caruso" is reduced to drinking tomato juice through sippy straws and observing the world from a radically skewed perspective. Once a professor of literature, Michael's predicament is compounded by a deteriorating memory of his adult self, and he begins to "see" the famous-and often dead-denizens of his former learning in everyone from a bum in the park to a doctor in the hospital. Walt Whitman, John Muir, Ralph Ellison, and a host of others materialize before him as he tries to comprehend and articulate his plight. He calls his condition "the wasties"-but what kind of malady is it? Physical? Psychological? Or some sort of higher madness?Humane, funny, and deeply affecting, The Wasties is a satiric work of unique vision and voice about one man whose infantilization plays out a secret fantasy many of us share- to shun the responsibilities of life as an adult. Michael "Caruso" Taylor is a man with a problem. He can't speak. In fact, he can't do much of anything the way he once used to. A successful English professor, he can hardly compose a coherent sentence, or remember much of anything he once knew. On top of this, he is slowly regressing toward infancy. He calls it "The Wasties," a condition with no known cause and no known cure. He throws his sippy cup. He bites his nurse. He tries to wall himself into his bedroom. He tries to run away. But as Caruso slips further and further away from sanity and adulthood, his mental life begins to soar. Distinctive, funny and deeply affecting," The Wasties presents a unique vision that offers insights into madness, aging, notions of success, and the desire to abdicate from the responsibilities of adulthood. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780375725043

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