Steps [Paperback]

Jerzy N. Kosinski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1982

A portrayal of men and women both aroused and desensitized by an environment that disdains the individual and seeks control over the imagination.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Kosinski's prose is perfect to his purpose, efficient, detached, lucid as a gem, wholly in command. Steps is a powerful and profoundly disturbing book." —The New York Times

"Céline and Kafka stand behind this accomplished art. . . . Low-keyed, efficient, controlled." —The New York Times Book Review

"By some miracle of training, which recalls the linguistic bravado of Conrad and Nabokov, he is already a master of pungent and disciplined English prose. Simply as a stylist, Kosinski has few equals among American novelists born to the language. And I have also become convinced, after reading Steps, that he is one of the most gifted new figures to appear in our literature for some years." —Irving Howe, Harper's

"Steps is a beautifully written book. It is precise, scrupulous, and poetic. I can think of few writers who are able to so persuasively describe an event, set a scene, communicate an emotion." —Geoffrey Wolff, New Leader.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

From the Inside Flap

A portrayal of men and women both aroused and desensitized by an environment that disdains the individual and seeks control over the imagination. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam Books (Mm) (September 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553233866
• ISBN-13: 978-0553233865
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,802,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece, November 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Steps (Paperback)

Kosinski, or the Kosinski committee or whatever it was (Paul Auster is one of many who claim to have been paid to 'fix up' his early drafts), wrote some psychologically fascinating and beautifully written stuff (The Painted Bird, Steps, and to a lesser extent, Cockpit and The Devil Tree) and some really bad stuff (Pinball, The Hermit of Whatever-it-was-th Street). This is probably the best of them all. Buy it.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good book, awful conversion in ebook, September 18, 2011

By 

micheleorti - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Steps (Paperback)

The book is good, full of twisted scenes and strange dialogues.
What is terrible is the quality of the ebook conversion, probably made with OCR.
A lot of missing full stops, wrong words (i.e. "real" becomes "red"), and even asterisks when there shouldn't be.
You better buy the paperback version...

4.0 out of 5 stars A short, freaky ride, February 16, 2012

By 

jafrank - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steps (Paperback)

Steps is like something a younger, hornier Haruki Murakami might write. You've got these terse, surreal little vignettes that are sort-of-but-not-really linked together, and all of which share this dark, creepily sexual sensibility. A bunch of odd little nothings, though not without their charms. I can't imagine what combination of substances the people who chose the national book award in 1969 must have been smoking/drinking/dropping/snorting when they picked this. Fair warning, there's bestiality in it. Several times