The Mayor's Tongue [Paperback]

Nathaniel Rich (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 7, 2009

One of the most original, dazzling, and critically acclaimed debut novels this year.

In this debut novel, hailed by Stephen King as ?terrifying, touching, and wildly funny,? the stories of two strangers, Eugene Brentani and Mr. Schmitz, interweave. What unfolds is a bold reinvention of storytelling in which Eugene, a devotee of the reclusive and monstrous author, Constance Eakins, and Mr. Schmitz, who has been receiving ominous letters from an old friend, embark from New York for Italy, where the line between imagination and reality begins to blur and stories take on a life of their own.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Two parallel missing person searches hurtle from New York to Italy in Paris Review editor Rich's surreal debut. Eugene Brentani, avoiding his lonely father and Sutton Place upbringing just after college, ends up in far Northern Manhattan working for Abraham Chisholm, the biographer of Connie Eakins—the author on whom Eugene wrote his college thesis. Abraham's lovely daughter, Sonia, goes missing in Italy while searching for the presumed-dead Eakins; Eugene, who met Sonia in New York and fell instantly in love with her, jumps at the opportunity to retrieve her. Once in Milan, Eugene finds danger lurking around every corner. Alternating chapters tell of elderly New York widower Mr. Schmitz (as he's called throughout), whose friend Rutherford has left for Italy, and whose letters from there are troubling. Mr. Schmitz sets off for Milan, partially to help Rutherford reclaim the Italy the two men knew as WWII soldiers. Rich seems as interested in exploring different forms of miscommunication as in developing character and plot, and the two central mysteries, both centering on books and story-telling, have a distinctly Borgesian flavor to them. Rich is an impressive stylist, but this debut's whole ends up less than the sum of its disparate parts, which a surprise ending fails to unify. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"I read The Mayor's Tongue with ever-increasing delight, rooting with all my heart for the young protagonist on his near-mythic quest. This is an elegantly-structured, brilliantly-told novel, by turns terrifying, touching, and wildly funny, and always generous and magical... a brave book, a novel brimming with brio." -- Stephen King "The Mayor's Tongue reminds me of Peter Carey's early work- the highest possible praise. It presents a young writer of deep ambition and imagination working with a kind of unnerving maturity." -- Colum McCann "Ambitious, intelligent, hallucinatory, and, most importantly: heartfelt. Here is a young writer who is not afraid to give literature a kick in the pants." -- Gary Shteyngart "A magical realist city-break that goes awry" -- Thomas Marks Literary Review "This is a novel with a big brain and a cheeky wink by an author who could well become one of the defining writers of his generation" The Sunday Telegraph --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade; Reprint edition (April 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159448368X
• ISBN-13: 978-1594483684
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #386,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nathaniel Rich is the author of two novels: ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW and THE MAYOR'S TONGUE. His essays and short fiction have appeared in: Harper's, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, McSweeney's, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and The Paris Review. In 2005 he published a work of film criticism, SAN FRANCISCO NOIR: THE CITY IN FILM NOIR FROM 1940 TO THE PRESENT, which Martin Scorsese called "a fascinating work of criticism disguised as a guided tour around a great city." Rich lives in New Orleans.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow is this a weird book April 23, 2008

By Orlando Zepeda

Format:Hardcover

I picked up this book along with Keith Gessen's book (about with the less said the better) based on an LA Times story about young New York literary editors and their brand new novels. From the story I was expecting a book in the sort of early Roth or Bellow vein of brilliant if self-indulgent navel-gazing (for that, see Gessen) - but it turns out this is the craziest novel I've read since reading Calvino and Borges in college. It starts out with a post-collegiate guy in New York kind of annoyingly trying to find himself through manual labor, working as a mover, but as soon as you realize his moving partner is some kind of mad Dominican shape-shifter, the book just cuts loose into a quasi-surreal quest around the world in pursuit of a demagogic writer (who seemed to be based on Norman Mailer or Ernest Hemingway, but with a good does of Pynchon & Salinger mystery about him). It becomes this really delightful, sometimes melancholy novel about desperate love and literary obsession and really, really trying to communicate. All of which are things I feel like I know a little too much about - and seeing them treated so well and so creatively here got me more excited about a new writer than I have been for a long time. Weird or not, though I like weird.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, Moving, Inventive, Weird April 22, 2008

By Mark Keshishian

Format:Hardcover

I first became aware of Nathaniel Rich when I read his brilliant piece on Pier Paolo Pasolini in the New York Review of Books (9/27/2007). It's the only piece the NYRB has ever published on Pasolini, and that said something important to me. The NYRB doesn't mess around. So I kept my eye out for him after that, and he rarely, if ever, disapointed. A great piece on Will Self in the New York Times Book Review comes to mind, as well as some great interviews -- with J.T. Leroy and Stephen King -- in the Paris Review. And if you like film noir, as I do, his book on San Francisco Noir is a gem. But with this book, the Mayor's Tongue, he takes his talent to a new level. This kid Rich -- what is he, 25? 26? -- writes like a man twice his age. When he takes you up the cliffs of northern Italy, your palms will get sweaty. And when he riffs his way through the history of the insurance business in Hartford, seemingly ad-libbing his way back to the early 19th century, you will laugh your head off and wonder: is this stuff true? Or is he making this up? Or both? This book is funny and moving and crazy and inventive and weird, weird in the good way, the way that keeps you up at night wondering what all his fantastic characters -- dozens of them! -- are doing right now, where they're hiding, who they're sleeping with. I'll never forget Mr. Schmitz. Mr. Schmitz will stay with me forever.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 stars, kind of bizarre but interesting November 18, 2009

By 1morechapter.com

Format:Paperback

Eugene is a mover in New York City whose favorite author is Constance Eakins. While doing a job one day, he runs into a biographer of Eakins who also happens to have a beautiful daughter, Sonia. Everyone else in the world believes Eakins is dead -- that he just disappeared in Italy quite a few years back and never showed up again. He's legally declared dead by the Italian authorities. Sonia's father, the biographer, demands that it isn't so -- that his daughter speaks to Eakins regularly. But, no one has heard from her after her latest trip to Italy. Eugene decides to look for Sonia.

Meanwhile in a parallel story, an elderly Mr. Schmitz, also a New Yorker, is grieving the loss of his friend Rutherford who has just moved to Italy. He receives lucid letters from Rutherford at first, but then they become more and more incomprehensible. Schmitz also decides to take off for Italy to look for his friend.

This was a bizarre story that was unique enough to keep me reading and wanting to find out more. The book has quite a few fantasy elements too, and that was unexpected, but it certainly added to the story. It's definitely a different book.

This is Nathaniel Rich's first novel.