Slouching Towards Kalamazoo [Paperback]

Peter De Vries (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1983

It is 1963 in an unnamed town in North Dakota, and Anthony Thrasher is languishing for a second year in eighth grade. Prematurely sophisticated, young Anthony spends too much time reading Joyce, Eliot, and Dylan Thomas but not enough time studying the War of 1812 or obtuse triangles. A tutor is hired, and this "modern Hester Prynne" offers Anthony lessons that ultimately free him from eighth grade and situate her on the cusp of the American sexual revolution. Anthony's restless adolescent voice is perfectly suited to De Vries's blend of erudite wit and silliness—not to mention his fascination with both language and female anatomy—and it propels Slouching Towards Kalamazoo through theological debates and quandaries both dermatological and ethical, while soaring on the De Vriesian hallmark of scrambling conventional wisdom for comic effect.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Anyone who has never read him could perhaps find no better place to start than with [Slouching towards Kalamazoo]. . . . It is vintage De Vries."

(Thomas Meehan New York Times ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Peter De Vries (1910–1993), the man responsible for contributing to the cultural vernacular such witticisms as "Nostalgia ain't what it used to be" and "Deep down, he's shallow," was, according to Kingsley Amis, "the funniest serious writer to be found on either side of the Atlantic." But De Vries's life and work was informed as much by sorrow as by wit, and that dynamic is nowhere better seen than in his classics Slouching Towards Kalamazoo and The Blood of the Lamb. First published in 1982 and 1965, respectively, these novels reemerge with their sharp satire and biting pain undiluted by time.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 241 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown; 1st edition (July 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316181722
• ISBN-13: 978-0316181723
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,486,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutly hilarious; cleverly written, May 6, 2002

By 

SnigletMom "Doggymom" (Monument, CO United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Slouching Towards Kalamazoo (Import) (Paperback)

I just finished this book. I could not put it down. Peter De Vries is a brillaint comic writer. I put him up there with Woody Allen. His characters were so void of common sense yet "book smart". The situation with Tony getting his teacher pregnant in one passionate moment was the funniest thing I ever read. It never struck me as "dirty" or off color. The way the two of them handled the "delicate situation" was side splittingly funny. I have to say that when Tony starting reciting the "chief products of Venezuela" I almost fell on the floor laughing. I was also very taken by his father and the way the author described how he would read from books to his wife and Tony. The expression he would use in his voice could almost be "heard" by me because the author described it so well. My favorite line from the book was in the beginning. Tony's teacher had assigned "The Scarlet letter". The mayor being a "percursor to todays Moral Majority" said,"We're gonna tighten our Bible Belt! "We're gonna show'em we're the buckle of the belt". I live in a very conservative state and it would be something I just might hear and have to giggle. I highly recommend this book. It is a winner.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to make you laugh out loud, January 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Slouching Towards Kalamazoo (Import) (Paperback)

This book kept me laughing out loud all the way through. Even on re-reading, it's still funny. Very witting, very erudite. Great fun for anybody who's a bit on the bookish side. Without giving too much of the plot away -- an affair between an English teacher and a student, and they keep correcting each other's grammar & vocabulary & epigrams during intimate moments. Fun book!

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars allusions and nonsense abound in this glib, wacked-out tale, January 26, 2000

By 

josh sulman (ulalume, north dakota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slouching Towards Kalamazoo (Paperback)

Man, why is this guy out of print? This stuff is great! A truly humorous, satirical novel, this surpasses almost anything written in the last twentyt yuears that I have read in its wit and uncanny shenanigans.