Notable American Women

Ben Marcus achieved cult status and gained the admiration of his peers with his first book, The Age of Wire and String. With Notable American Women he goes well beyond that first achievement to create something radically wonderful, a novel set in a world so fully imagined that it creates its own reality.

On a farm in Ohio, American women led by Jane Dark practice all means of behavior modification in an attempt to attain complete stillness and silence. Witnessing (and subjected to) their cultish actions is one Ben Marcus, whose father, Michael Marcus, may be buried in the back yard, and whose mother, Jane Marcus, enthusiastically condones the use of her son for (generally unsuccessful) breeding purposes, among other things. Inventing his own uses for language, the author Ben Marcus has written a harrowing, hilarious, strangely moving, altogether engrossing work of fiction that will be read and argued over for years to come.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 03/19/2002
ISBN: 9780375713781
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.36w x 0.56d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 12/17/2001 pg. 61
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/2002 pg. 12
Library Journal 01/01/2002 pg. 153
Vanity Fair 04/01/2002 pg. 162
New Yorker (The) 04/08/2002 pg. 89
New York Times 04/28/2002 pg. 21
Booksense '76 Jul/Aug 2002 07/01/2002 pg. 1