FLOATER [Hardcover]

Calvin Trillin (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 204 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; First Printing edition (October 22, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0899190170
• ISBN-13: 978-0899190174
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,201,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Small Comedic Masterpiece, December 28, 2003

By 

W. C HALL (Newport, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FLOATER (Hardcover)

This novel is a comedic delight. "Floater" is the writing job at a fictional news magazine held by the book's central character Fred Becker. (It's also a job Trillin once held in his pre-New Yorker days.) A "floater" does not have a permanent assignment, but moves from one section of the magazine to another as illness or other reason creates a temporary need. The story takes place over one week in the life of the magazine, and finds Becker wrestling with an intriguing news tip, that, if true, could lead to a significant change in his life.

Trillin's gift for illuminating the absurdities of life really shine here. The plot, while entertaining, takes a back seat to the stable of realistic characters that just about anyone who has spent time in an office will recognize--the glad-handler, the martyr, the hypochondriac, the guy you want to avoid going to lunch with, the champion of political correctness, and others.

It's a puzzle to me that this hilarious book has been allowed to go out of print. Though I've been a fan of Trillin for some time, I have to given thanks to Sara Nelson and her recent book, "So Many Books, So Little Time," for calling my attention to this forgotten gem.--William C. Hall

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just-about-perfect novel, September 30, 2000

By 

Christopher Lamb (Bangor ME) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FLOATER (Hardcover)

This book from 1980 is startlingly fresh. If we adjust the dollar amounts for book contracts to today's values, and concede that one character might have started the SUV craze, it is absolutely contemporary.

The book's insistence on Manhattan Island as the center of the universe would be annoying to non-New Yorkers. This is unfortunate, since the characters are mostly from outside Manhattan (as is the author) and their interaction doesn't depend at all on their location.

If the reader is able to deal with the Manhattan smugness, he will be amply rewarded with a plot and a cast of characters as perfectly drawn as any by Eric Ambler, in addition to a sly sense of humor which builds imperceptibly to a perfectly hilarious conclusion.

Trillin almost could have dispensed altogether with his lovely plot, as his characters could carry most novels all by themselves.

In addition to being a just-about-perfect exposition of the writer's craft, this book is also laugh-out-loud funny, literally.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Literate and witty, February 23, 2008

By 

S. Chalker "satellite lover" (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FLOATER (Hardcover)

Not laugh out loud, elbow in the ribs funny, but very amusing. Hollywood could have a hit making this into a movie. The overarching question of the book, "Is the First Lady pregnant?" is, as Hitchcock would put it, a McGuffin.

Read this book and any reference to x-rated topiary, 3/4rds stockings, and left-handed dentists will have you grinning.