The Catastrophist [Paperback]

Lawrence Douglas Ph.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 2007

Meet Daniel Wellington: art historian, academic star, devoted husband, and total basket case. Although Daniel has known nothing but success, he’s convinced the future promises nothing but disaster. When his wife, known simply as R., presents him with a tiny, size-XXS Yale sweatshirt, Daniel is seized by the impulse to bolt; the specter of imminent fatherhood sends him into a full-blown existential crisis. Soon this well-intentioned young professor finds himself plotting bigamy, lying about his past, imagining his pregnant wife in the arms of an androgynous grad student, and explaining to the dean his obscene e-mail to the lead in a student production of Miss Julie.

From an idyllic New England campus to the rarefied art worlds of Berlin and London, The Catastrophist charts the rise and fall and partial rebound of an ambivalent but endearing Everyman and heralds the appearance of a major new comedic voice in American fiction.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The narrator of this morbidly comic debut novel is Daniel Wellington, a 30-something art historian recounting the arc of his own self-destruction. Married, tenured, a rising star at Massachusetts's fictional Franklin College, Daniel falls apart piece by piece, beginning with the onset of "prepartum dread" when his wife "R." gets pregnant. He briefly recovers when she loses the baby, but the damage to their marriage is already done. The hapless Daniel proceeds to make a series of personal and professional misjudgments, including several unconsummated affairs. An expert on war memorials (he's at work on a manuscript titled Art and Atrocity), Daniel is appointed to the commission for a Berlin Holocaust Memorial, a position he jeopardizes by impulsively and falsely claiming to be the child of Holocaust survivors. Though Douglas covers familiar territory—the insularity of academia and the neurotic male in crisis—he does so with arch homage to Philip Roth. Even if the novel's landscape feels derivative, Daniel's maddening, pitiable voice is all his own. (May 16)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

With a wit so dry that, at times, it comes off as flat, and with inspired touches of tomfoolery, this first novel, which is part midlife-crisis story and part academic satire, will reward patient readers. Academic superstar Daniel Wellington is on the fast track and is very happily married. However, when his wife informs him that she is pregnant, he is stricken with a catastrophic fear of the responsibilities of fatherhood. His behavior becomes increasingly erratic. While working as a consultant on a project to build a Holocaust memorial in Berlin, he finds himself compulsively lying in interviews, claiming to be the child of survivors. He accuses his wife of infidelity and then makes a lewd comment to a former student, who reports him to the administration. As Daniel's life implodes on all fronts, Douglas takes increasingly funny shots at marriage, academia, and modern art. But his most sublime comic creation is wildly eccentric English professor Rosalind Roth, who offers Daniel whimsical and encouraging words while clad in a Swedish air force T-shirt and vintage hot pants. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (May 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156031779
• ISBN-13: 978-0156031776
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,149,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Author of ones fears, August 8, 2006

By 

M. Galishoff "drmlg" (Lanett, Al USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Catastrophist (Hardcover)

A catastrophic reaction is defined as the disorganized behavior that is the response to a severe shock or threatening situation with which the person cannot cope. In Lawrence Douglas' "Catastrophist," the protagonist, Daniel Wellington, experiences a series of subtle catastrophic-type reactions to everyday life stressors (family, career, travel etc.). It is not entirely clear why Daniel is having these reactions. The author suggests that these may be part of the protagonist's generalized anxiety. The reactions are not violent displays of emotional turmoil such as predicting the end of the world, seeing unrealistic danger or doom in a situation or a total psychiatric breakdown. Rather, these catastrophic reactions are introspective and eat away at Daniel until they ooze out in the form of self-destructive behavior that is never consummated but yet harmful. Most of this behavior is in the form of flirtations that lead nowhere until one day he foolishly sends a sexually explicit e-mail to a former student and gets in trouble at work for possible sexual harassment. Another such "ooze" is Daniel's careless lies to the press and public about being a child of a Holocaust survivor. He does this at the pinnacle of his career in Berlin after making an important speech and being named to a prestigious Holocaust Memorial Board of Directors. He is eventually found out and forced to resign. The worst of these episodes is falsely leading his wife to believe that he was having affairs. In each of these three areas, he reacts to his fear of the worst (professional failure, sexual harassment charges and jealousy over his wife) by a disorganized, passive-aggressive and self-destructive behavior that paradoxically causes the worst to happen where it would not have been otherwise. Funny and tragic, the novel explores our fear of failure and loss and how our responses to these fears, if dysfunctional, can actually bring them into being. The author's technique is subtle, plot patiently developed and main characters realistic. This is also a real syndrome and the story is plausible and sound, full of humor and pathos.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars smart and funny, June 12, 2006

By 

Elizabeth Bennett (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Catastrophist (Hardcover)

This is a hilarious romp through male mid-life crisis told with dry comic wit by its intelligent, neurotic protagonist. While the setting (and the butt of several acerbic jokes) is academia, the theme is universal and the focus is the personal life of Professor Daniel Wellington. It is the unique comic voice of this character that makes this story so entertaining.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars loved this book, October 17, 2006

By 

LUCY, New York "Lucy" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Catastrophist (Hardcover)

This is a memorable book, incredibly funny with serious underlying themes related to marriage, family, self esteem and struggles with inner demons. Douglas uses language very creatively. I loved the book and would highly recommend it.