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Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World: A novel
 
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Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World: A novel (Paperback)

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3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Entropy, violence and weird fetishism confound citizens and local institutions in this breezy, darkly comic lampoon of civic duty and ambition. Things have gone awry in a small, seaside community somewhere in the American subtropics, and schoolteacher Pete Robinson wants to lead his fellow citizens back to sanity. Unfortunately, he may not remember the way. An expert in the history of torture, he supervises the drawing and quartering of the town's mayor by four automobiles. Meanwhile, the local citizenry is busy surrounding their homes with moats filled with broken glass, bamboo spears and water moccasins; the school has been converted into a factory creating talismans from marine animals; and the public library's duplicate books are being used to detonate claymore mines in Turtle Pond Park ("I do enjoy the way The Riverside Shakespeare rides the wind on a long toss," says one character, while another notes, "For hang time, give me The Complete Poems of Robert Frost any day"). Robinson reopens school in his own basement--with the ulterior motive of promoting himself as a mayoral candidate. If all this seems bewildering, first novelist Antrim presents it, ironically, as a sunny slice of life. His crisp, effective prose and Robinson's odd academic notions echo Don DeLillo's White Noise. There is much to chuckle at, and even a bit to ponder in this imaginative debut. First serial to Harper's and the Paris Review.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Library Journal

Mr. Robinson is a teacher without a school--the result of a taxpayer revolt--who has a fascination with the instruments of the Inquisition. He has a wife who, as a result of an encounter with a New Age anthropologist, has discovered the coelacanth within her--a real problem since it is a buffalo. His neighbors are building moats and booby traps around their property, and Robinson's own choice is a spike-filled trench. Following the dismemberment of the previous mayor for lobbing Stinger missiles into the Botanical Garden, Robinson decides to launch his own political campaign for a better world, using the young students at his proposed home school to spread his message. Antrim's caustic commentary on the breakdown of our sense of community, our grabbing at trendy straws in an attempt to discover our spiritual selves, and the foibles of educational theorists is full of black and bleak humor. While definitely not a mainstream work, this first novel should be seriously considered for its cutting-edge approach. Recommended.
- David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (April 10, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0375725032
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375725036
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #109,195 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Donald Antrim
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.2 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "The perfect neighbor", November 15, 1996
By Robert S Michaels "bobm" (Fairfield, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World: A Novel (Paperback)
This is one of those books that keeps doing its work long after the last word has been read. Antrim makes his art like he observes his life: contradictions galore. Mr. Robinson's loyalty to his wife and to his ideals regarding education don't seem as if they should fit within the general paranoid isolative nature of his community, and yet they do, in a very real way. Mr. Robinson attempts to make a real difference in his community while neighbors build vastly deep moats equipped with lethal spikes to surround their homes. There is a haunting similarity to the entire town's psyche here in this image, and Mr. Robinson is not immune to this. Characters seem to proceed with a wide knowledge of life and its intricacies, yet are unable to make the connections between things: to see how interest can breed obsession, how love can inspire violence. There exists the danger of falling through these cracks and understanding and this is indeed what happens. The novel creeps toward an unsettling climax that you always know in the back of your mind is coming, yet can't quite let yourself believe it to be true. The cliched neighbor response to the latest small town horror on the six o'clock news comes to mind. "He seemed like a nice man. The perfect neighbor. Basically kept to himself." "Elect Mr. Robinson For A Better World" is touching and unsettling in the way that little art is and most life can be. Despite jacketflap trumpeting, few novelists seem willing to be brave enough to address the pockets of darkness that exist in the well-lit homes of the upper middle class. Don't expect the feel good book of the year, but if you're looking for something thought-provoking, this might very well be what you need to read.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A bizarre yet familiar portrayal of suburban life, January 16, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World: A Novel (Paperback)
Antrim takes a small suburban community and removes the authorities which force it to be civilized. The result is a bizarre mixture of barbarism, fad culture and civilized neighbourly rivalry. I found it fascinating, entertaining and darkly funny.

What made it funny was that, despite the extremity to which the aspects of suburban living had been taken, it was all very familiar. The satire is sharp, but Antrim manages to express it as an insider telling a shared joke, rather than as an outsider taking pot-shots at another's culture.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Antrim's second novel, The Hundred Brothers, is also very good, but I think I liked Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World more.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Profound and Original, November 23, 2001
By Kim F. Hill (Rockford, IL. United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Donald Antrim is a wonderful original writer who takes the novel to a new and dark place unlike any book you will ever read. Black humor mixed with painful insights on us all it explores the paradoxical world of insanity and real suburban life in a very funny way.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars You gotta be a moron to enjoy this
You've got to be a moron with no life, and no hope of one, to enjoy this meandering, self-indulgent load of manure. Read more
Published on February 25, 2006 by Roger D. McCook

2.0 out of 5 stars Relentlessly Bleak.
Such unpleasantness! And to what end?

The same old, "Yea, the deepest ring of Hell is Suburbia" nihilism; (the pet musing of all college freshmen away from home for... Read more

Published on October 24, 1999 by haney@bway.net

3.0 out of 5 stars another bull's eye shot at an easy target
Suburban life is barbaric. I think John Updike and a bunch of other guys (and a few women) told us that a long time ago. Mr. Read more
Published on September 10, 1999 by William Chaisson

3.0 out of 5 stars Oh, C'mon... It's No Moby Dick!
I imagine these folks giving "Mr. Robinson" five stars must be friends with Mr. Antrim; it's a good book, but puh-leeeez! Not five-stars-good. Read more
Published on November 29, 1998

4.0 out of 5 stars A dark, compelling,look at suburban life gone wrong.
This book represents a finely detailed vision of the surburban experince gone wrong. A vivid sense of the macabre is employed to develop a rich texture and background for a... Read more
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