School for Atheists (Green Integer: EL-E-PHANT 53)

Rating:
Summary: Schmidt's Joycean Comedy
Review: This is one of Schmidt's "superbooks," a large format novel with unusual page layouts, illustrations, and puns a'plenty. Nowhere near as difficult as Zettel's Traum or Evening Edged in Gold, it's a rollicking tale of culture-clash set in the near future (with an extended flashback to 1969), and features a typical Schmidt protagonist (a walking encyclopedia of an old codger), two delightful 17-year-old girls, a visiting American Secretary of State nicknamed Isis, and many more. If you've read & like Schmidt, you'll love this (once again heroically translated by the amazing John E. Woods). And if you don't know Schmidt, you don't know one of the greatest writers of the 20th century--which means you have some catching up to do, and may as well start here.

Rating:
Summary: Schmidt's Joycean Comedy
Review: This is one of Schmidt's "superbooks," a large format novel with unusual page layouts, illustrations, and puns a'plenty. Nowhere near as difficult as Zettel's Traum or Evening Edged in Gold, it's a rollicking tale of culture-clash set in the near future (with an extended flashback to 1969), and features a typical Schmidt protagonist (a walking encyclopedia of an old codger), two delightful 17-year-old girls, a visiting American Secretary of State nicknamed Isis, and many more. If you've read & like Schmidt, you'll love this (once again heroically translated by the amazing John E. Woods). And if you don't know Schmidt, you don't know one of the greatest writers of the 20th century--which means you have some catching up to do, and may as well start here.