For years, David Mamet has given the world gripping drama, hilarious encounters, and unforgettable characters through his plays, films, and novels. Now he brings his trademark style to a whole new genre, with a laugh-out-loud comic collection that provides a clever and postmodern take on the world of superheroes and ordinary life.
The Trials of Roderick Spode ("The Human Ant") follows the bizarre and hilarious adventures of Roderick Spode, an ordinary man who, after a few too many drinks, confuses a photo booth with a booth that gives out special powers, so he now turns into an ant half the time. Follow Roderick as he hangs out with his friend Cocky Cockroach, freelances as a comma, and fights his nemesis: the European Sourdough Rye!
The Trials of Roderick Spode ("The Human Ant") is a brilliantly offbeat and delightfully different offering from one of our greatest living talents.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
One of America's most prestigious writers of plays (Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for Glengarry Glen Ross), screenplays, and novels turns his talents to lightweight whimsy in this series of slight, scribbly glimpses of an accidental superhero who thought he was stepping into a carnival photo booth, but actually was paying to be transformed into an ant half the time. This leads to trials, not adventures. Among other episodes, Roderick uncontrollably becomes an ant when a friend invites him on a picnic, is forced to work as a comma when he can't assist the police, and is transformed into a mutant combination of ant and cow when his fiendish foe European Sourdough Rye laces his drink with bovine growth hormone. The series of misadventures is gently amusing, but it's hard to imagine anyone without Mamet's fame getting the book published—certainly not in hardcover and at this price. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Playwright, film director, and novelist Mamet adds another star to his crown with what certainly looks like a kids’ picture book in format but is assigned the classification and cataloging of a graphic novel. If they like cracked whimsy, aficionados of the latter won’t scorn it. At a carnival, Roderick Spode reels drunkenly into the last attraction he can afford, which he may think is a photo booth but is actually a “transform yourself into an ant half the time” booth—a natural enough mistake, given that the two booths appear side by side. He first transforms when Betty invites him to a picnic. Soon, the police commissioner has a skylight signal for his services (which he doesn’t see because he’s already transformed), and he’s acquired a coats of arms; a sidekick, Cocky Cockroach; and two archfiend foes, Chaos the Turtle and European Sourdough Rye (a slice of bread). His adventures are of a piece with his origins: utterly silly. Hand-lettered and drawn as if Mamet were a poor man’s Roz Chast, satire gets no lighter-weight than this. --Ray Olson
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet.
|
|||
|
Video reviews
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
