Letters to Wendy's [Paperback]

Joe Wenderoth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 27, 2000

Letters to Wendy’s is an outrageous, tragic, genre-bending novel written over the course of a year on comment cards from the fast-food chain restaurant Wendy’s. Through the letters, the book traces a year in the life and thoughts of an unnamed narrator obsessed not only by Biggies and Frosties, but also by consumerism, pornography, and mortality.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

What kind of person is inspired by a fast-food restaurant? If this new book is any indication, it's one who is by turns worshipful, disturbing and just plain weird. Conceived as a series of comment cards to a local Wendy's, this unconventional fiction chronicles the life (or lack thereof) of an unnamed narrator who spends his days drinking oversize sodas and contemplating the meaning of the fast-food icon. In his more lucid moments, the narrator imagines Wendy's as a cradle-to-grave institution, supplying IV nourishment for a person's last days in the form of "liquid fries." He also posits that Wendy's would serve well as a site for state-sponsored executions, providing both the correct quality of light and an abundance of refreshments. He's just as likely, however, to devolve into soft-porn daydreams involving the counter help and prepackaged foods. About the narrator himself, we learn very littleAno name, no profession, no home address: just an Everyman as fast-food customer. In its best moments, the book delivers some insights into the social mores of people thrown together in a public place of business, people who share the same space and general eating habits but are unwilling to share much else. In short snippets, the narrative can be intriguing; excerpts have appeared on the Web site Nerve.com. But there's no plot to speak of, and spending time with this voyeuristic stranger quickly grows both creepy and tedious. (Dec. 15) FYI: Letters to Wendy's is Verse Press's debut publication. The press will devote itself to releasing innovative works in all genres by poets (Wenderoth is the author of two poetry collections, Disfortune and It Is if I Speak).
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A perverse, sometimes pretty, obscene and confounding collection of one page meditative missives... trimmed with lunatic fringe. -- Rolling Stone

Charting the narrator's daily routine .... the work reveals an obsession with sexuality, isolation and consumerism run amok. -- Valley Advocate, February 8th, 2001

I couldn't have loved this book any more than I did. So good. -- kottke.org, April 2, 2001

Letters to Wendy's, believe it or not, is a work of genius. -- Philadelphia Weekly, February 8th, 2001

Likely to be known... as the most apt, able, and adventurous ars poetica produced for and by Generation X. -- John D'Agata, Boston Review

These postmodern koans work, in part, because they conjure images so incongruous in the context of a Wendy's visit. -- Feed Magazine, feedmag.com, February 8th, 2001

Wenderoth's first book of fiction ... offers a poetic figure uniquely in tune with what is simultaneously perverse and glorious. -- Rain Taxi, April 2001

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Wave Books; 1st edition (November 27, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970367201
• ISBN-13: 978-0970367204
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like Nabokov Eating at Wendy's, January 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Letters to Wendy's (Paperback)

This is a brilliantly paced book of hilarious, sad, beautiful and perverted prose poems. It's like Nabokov in that it is simultaneously perverted and erudite. I read almost all of it on the subway this morning and relished the others reading over my shoulder as I read about Frosties, Porn in the morning, Foucault, and spanking Wendy.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars little wendy, April 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Letters to Wendy's (Paperback)

Well, okay, it's great to suddenly hear Wenderoth lust after an American Icon/logo (and she gets spanked!). "Letters" is interesting in parts, but by page 150 one starts to feel a sense of diminishing returns while reading this book. How many clever--albeit slightly twisted--aphorisms in a row can one continue to be as hungry for, after all, as, say one of those big double cheeseburgers with the dual square patties. This book lacks the formal variety of Wenderoth's books of poems. Wenderoth is not, as a writer, always best served by forced brevity. And in "Letters" he seems so intent on shocking the reader and it just feels mildly arrogant. I wouldn't dissuade anyone from buying this book, but I prefer the poems full of large breaths and diamond honed crystalizations in Wenderoth's first two groundbreaking books.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shocking and Brilliant, February 6, 2001

By 

Jared Dublin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters to Wendy's (Paperback)

Wenderoth has found a new form for poetry--the customer comment card--and filled a series of them with more desire and truth than any restaurant could safely want to know. Imagine the phrase "How can I help you?" finding no compromise. A stunning and dangerous book.