The Dick Gibson Show (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) [Paperback]

Stanley Elkin (Author), Chirs Lehmann (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1998 | Series: American Literature (Dalkey Archive)

Look who's on the "Dick Gibson Radio Show": Arnold the Memory Expert ("I've memorized the entire West Coast shoreline - except for cloud cover and fog banks"). Bernie Perk, the burning pharmacist. Henry Harper, the nine-year old orphan millionaire, terrified of being adopted. The woman whose life revolves around pierced lobes. An evil hypnotist. Swindlers. Con-men. And Dick Gibson himself. Anticipating talk radio and its crazed hosts, Stanley Elkin creates a brilliant comic world held together by American manias and maniacs in all their forms, and a character who perfectly understands what Americans want and gives it to them.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

"Most of Elkin's prose is alive, with its wealth of detail and specifically American metaphors, and the surreal elements in the narrative are tightly controlled," said LJ's reviewer of this odd novel (LJ 6/1/71), which concerns the host and guests of a late-night radio call-in show. Though no doubt tame compared to the daily insanity of the Jerry Springer show, this remains "compulsively readable."
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A divine exploiter of the idiocies and intricacies of our language. -- John Irving

A hero of American letters, a great artist, a stylist without peer. -- Tim O'Brien

Elkin is one of America's great tragicomic geniuses. -- Robert Coover

In The Dick Gibson Show [Elkin] turns that friend of midnight drivers, the trivial and dreary all-night talk show, into a fast, loud circus of bickering and outrageous consciously Chaucerian tales. . . . It's raw energy that Elkin loves. . . . He's Ahab smashing through the mask with jokes. Grizzly reality is his straight man. -- John Gardner

This is Elkin's third novel and his best--a funny, melancholy, frightening, scabrous, absolutely American compendium that may turn out to be our classics about radio. -- Joseph McElroy, New York Times Book Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 335 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press; 1st Dalkey Archive ed edition (December 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564781984
• ISBN-13: 978-1564781987
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,501,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stanley Elkin (1930-1995) was an award-winning author of novels, short stories, and essays. Born in the Bronx, Elkin received his BA and PhD from the University of Illinois and in 1960 became a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis where he taught until his death. His critically acclaimed works include the National Book Critics Circle Award-winners George Mills (1982) and Mrs. Ted Bliss (1995), as well as the National Book Award finalists The Dick Gibson Show (1972), Searches & Seizures (1974), and The MacGuffin (1991). His book of novellas, Van Gogh's Room at Arles, was a finalist for the PEN Faulkner Award.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sidesplitting masterpiece, April 13, 1999

By 

James Biques "bixx7" (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dick Gibson Show (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) (Paperback)

The neglect accorded this brilliant novel is criminal. I'll put it simply: you will *never*, repeat *never* read a funnier book. Not only is it crammed with gags that would make the Farrelly Bros. blush, it is also a genuine transcript of the human need to communicate. Just wait till you meet Bernie Perk....BUY THIS BOOK NOW!!!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Master At The Top of His Game, February 23, 2003

By 

louienapoli "louieb" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Dick Gibson Show (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) (Paperback)

Elkin is not an easy read, but he's funny, brilliant, dazzling and dizzying, the kind of writer that might emerge if Proust were cloned with I.B. Singer, or maybe Damon Runyon. This book shows him at the top of his game. His sheer energy and love of language blasts through on every page. Forget about plot. Elkin is to writing what Cirque du Soleil is to entertainment. If you like well-plotted books that will leave you with a moral or a memorable story, Elkin may not be for you. If you like language for language's sake and appreciate sentences sculpted by a lingual Michelangelo and marvelous displays of craft, try this book. Elkin is a limited writer and an acquired taste, but within his limitations he was the best. I know of no other writer who could, for example, write a novel about terminally ill children (The Magic Kingdom) and make it funny and moving without ever getting anywhere near sentimentality or the kind of somber earnestness you'd expect. If you like this book, try Magic Kingdom and also Criers and Kibbitzers, a short story collection of his.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars His imagination was outrageous..., December 21, 1999

By 

martha woodworth - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dick Gibson Show (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) (Paperback)

This is not quite Mrs. Ted Bliss but in some respects it is probably better. I don't know - I loved them both, but being a woman perhaps liked Mrs. Ted better. Still - Stanley Elkin is a man with a jumpin' mind! The twists and turns of this novel are magnificent - and what I love most is that his writing is not predictable. You keep reading just to see what new trick he'll pull.