In the godless world of Madison Avenue television reigns the deity,
Golk. Neither good nor evil, he "golks" those about him into
obeisance, exposing with his impartial camera eye the proud and
powerful "golks" - statesmen, millionaires - and the trampled
"golks" - the vulnerable and corrupt poor. On his staff, a part of
the trinity, are an intellectual young man, Hondorp, shrewd but
lacking the real strength of Golk, and Hendricks, a twenty-three
year old debutante, original, bitter, and vital. When Golk tires of
his vast but paralleled power on television, the power to entertain
he turns his talents to the dangerous business of overthrowing
national idols. He is dismissed from the network, his show given
over to his two assistants. For a year they bask in the reflected
glory of Golk until Golk mysteriously begins to appear on their,
shows, a great bald dome in a crowd scene. Convinced that Golk has
mystically willed his doom, Hondorp symbolically commits suicide by
publishing his own death notice in place of his father's, a
travesty against the old man who measured success in terms of the
length of obituaries. Hendricks returns to the hell which is her
natural domain, and Golk gets along. The impact of this book is not
derived from the brutal frankness of Richard Stern's style, which
to some will be offensive, but rather from the consistency with
which he sustains the existential climate of his novel. A promising
writer, for the readers of Camus, Kafka, and Nathaniel West.
(Kirkus Reviews)
In midcentury America, the golden age of television, a man named
Golk is wreaking havoc with the medium. Through a devastating
series of exposures-"You're on Camera"-Golk manipulates the high
and mighty, the lowdown and dirty, and the outrageous weird; all
are within the compass of Richard Stern in this early novel, a
comedy with as many inspired maneuvers as its rambunctious
protagonist has for taking the measure of a profligate world. "Golk
is a rich and marvelously detailed novel by a man with a cultivated
intelligence; it is also the first really good book I have read
about television."-Norman Mailer "An original: sharp, funny,
intelligent, rare. . . . Working in a clean, oblique style
reminiscent of Nathanael West, Mr. Stern has written in Golk a
first-rate comic novel, a piece of fiction that is at once about
and loaded with that kind of recognition that junkies call the
flash."-Joan Didion, National Review "Golk is fantastic, funny,
bitter, intelligent without weariness. Best of all Golk is
pure-that is to say necessary. Without hokum."-Saul Bellow "Golk
(like Golk himself) is a wonderous conception. Its world responds
to personification, not analysis, and personify it Mr. Stern has
done. A book in a thousand."-Hugh Kenner "What I like about Mr.
Stern's fantasy is that it has been conceived and written with so
much gaiety. Far from a political melodrama, it reminds me of a
Rene Clair movie, and even the surrealist touches needed to bring
out the power and pretense of the television industry are funny
rather than symbolically grim."-Alfred Kazin, Reporter "A mighty
good book, altogether alive, full of beans and none of them
spilled."-Flannery O'Connor
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
bundle available
(1)
(1)
