{"product_id":"the-system-of-vienna-from-heaven-street-to-earth-mound-square-9781564785503","title":"The System of Vienna: From Heaven Street to Earth Mound Square","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn astonishing and fantastical autobiographical novel--reminiscent of Italo Calvino and Laurence Sterne--\"The System of Vienna\" details Jonke's travels through Vienna by streetcar, reporting the bizarre and frustrating encounters he experiences as he progresses--and meanwhile moving not just from trolley-stop to trolley-stop, but through life as well, from innocence to disillusionment, birth to death. Jonke meets a paranoiac fish wholesaler who believes he is directing all of Austrian politics from his little stall, a stamp collector in such deadly earnest he hopes to be appointed to a professorship in philately, and a compulsive talker who has developed a rigorous economic philosophy out of the most common objects to be found in a Vienna neighborhood. Slowly increasing the comic and fantastic elements in his story until they overwhelm all pretense to autobiography--culminating in a strangely touching love scene between Jonke and a caryatid--\"The System of Vienna\" reminds us that the very act of describing a life turns it into fiction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Dalkey Archive Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/01\/2009\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781564785503\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 125\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.74h x 6.25w x 0.32d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/21\/2009 pg. 36\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/15\/2009 pg. 66\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gert Jonke","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36659933479068,"sku":"9781564785503","price":11.01,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_63d1c24d-1a67-4eed-9ca1-bfa6c8ce9e28.jpg?v=1603895722","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-system-of-vienna-from-heaven-street-to-earth-mound-square-9781564785503","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}