Smuggler's Bible [Paperback]

Joseph McElroy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1986

A Smuggler's Bible is the novel that launched the career of one of the most daring and original writers of modern fiction. Rick Moody described McElroy as one of the most supple, complex, and insightful writers of American prose . . . a contemporary voice that is surely as important as Pynchon, Gaddis, and DeLillo. Driven by despairs as vexing and persistent as they are comic, David Brooke sets out to project himself into the lives of other people. One may wonder what ties connect the figures who diverse experiences are conjured up by Brooke's uncanny necromancy, what are the sad or bizarre or lunatic strands that draw together characters as disparate as the endearing monster Duke Amerchrome, the controlled Oxonian Harry Tindall, reserved English bookseller Peter St. Johh, and Brooke's own detached father, among others. Gradually there emerges an intricate and fascinating pattern of meaning, at the heart of which lies a single metaphor that in a thousand ways tells us who we are.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joseph McElroy was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1930. He is the author of eight novels, including Hind's Kidnap, Ancient History, Lookout Cartridge, Plus, Women and Men, and The Letter Left to Me, and the forthcoming Actress in the House. He received the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and fellowships from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Ingram Merrill Foundations, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has taught at Columbia, Johns Hopkins, and the City University of New York. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 435 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers (February 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881841463
• ISBN-13: 978-0881841466
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,689,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much Too Neglected, February 16, 2000

By 

"omnipot" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Smuggler's Bible (Paperback)

There are many authors who deserve a larger readership (one thinks of William Gaddis, John Hawkes), but none more so than Joseph McElroy. A Smuggler's Bible fell on deaf ears when it was published in 1966, and because of this is often compared to The Recognitions and Under the Volcano. And the comparisons are valid, to a point: For while Gaddis's and Lowry's novels *have* received a deserved amount of, well, recognition (though it's never enough), McElroy's first novel hasn't. This goes for his entire opus of seven novels, all vastly intelligent, structurally and metaphorically brilliant, and, yes, challenging (and equally rewarding). If, as a reader, you feel you should be treated with respect and not have the novelist lead you by the hand and play you for an idiot, then I highly recommend this and McElroy's other novels. There are few voices as unique as his. Few novelists as concerned with what makes us what we are. And fewer are as capable. To summarize A Smuggler's Bible is a difficult task, but, essentially, an easy one (have I contradicted myself?). David Brooke, on the verge of a breakdown, is attempting to assemble, from eight very different manuscripts, his identity, his place in his friends' lives, as seen through their eyes. And in a variety of styles (the influences are strongly Nabokovian & Joycean), with each single manuscript having more material than many respected novels, the story unfolds, and we too begin piecing together what makes David Brooke David Brooke (and possibly what makes us us). McElroy shows a command of characterization, setting, voice, and metaphor that many a lesser novelist has been praised for. I highly recommend this novel, along with McElroy's Lookout Cartridge (currently out of print and perhaps the single most neglected work of the '70's). Joseph McElroy's are works far, far better than this hastily composed "review." Please read him.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars much too neglected, February 5, 2000

By 

"omnipot" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Smuggler's Bible (Paperback)

There are many authors who deserve a larger readership (one thinks of William Gaddis, John Hawkes, Harry Crews), but none more so than Joseph McElroy. A Smuggler's Bible fell on deaf ears when it was published in 1966, and because of this is often compared to The Recognitions and Under the Volcano. And the comparisons are valid, to a point: For while Gaddis's and Lowry's novels *have* received a deserved amount of, well, recognition (though it's never enough), McElroy's first novel hasn't. This goes for his entire opus of seven novels, all vastly intelligent, structurally and metaphorically brilliant, and, yes, challenging (and equally rewarding). If, as a reader, you feel you should be treated with respect and not have the novelist lead you by the hand and play you for an idiot, then I highly recommend this and McElroy's other novels. There are few voices as unique as his. Few novelists as concerned with what makes us what we are. And fewer are as capable.

To summarize A Smuggler's Bible is a difficult task, but, essentially, an easy one (have I contradicted myself?). David Brooke, on the verge of a breakdown, is attempting to assemble, from eight very different manuscripts, his identity, his place in his friends' lives, as seen through their eyes. And in a variety of styles (the influences are strongly Nabokovian & Joycean), with each single manuscript having more material than many respected novels, the story unfolds, and we too begin piecing together what makes David Brooke David Brooke.

McElroy shows a command of characterization, setting, voice, and metaphor that many a lesser novelist has been praised for. I highly recommend this novel, which demands multiple readings, along with McElroy's Lookout Cartridge (currently out of print and perhaps the single most neglected work of the '70's).

Joseph McElroy's works far, far better than this hastily composed "review." Please read him.