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Evan Dara

The Easy Chain Paperback – August 8, 2008

by Evan Dara (Author)

5 ratings

4.3 on Goodreads

121 ratings

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--So what’s the book about?
--It about this British guy who goes to The University of Chicago—?
--Nah. And it really isn’t about his getting this, like, social illness—
--The one where… Come on: it’s impossible to become allergic to lying—
--Exactly – the book isn’t about that at all…

Print length

474 pages
Language

English
Publication date

August 8, 2008
Dimensions

6 x 1.19 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0980226600
ISBN-13

978-0980226607
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“It’s good to know that writers like Dara exist, capable of bravely carrying the flame… [with this] very intricately crafted and grandly conceived novel.” —The Review of Contemporary Fiction

“One of the best novels of the decade… The magic of his writing and what he accomplishes through it is…manifested in how mesmerizing, hypnotic and just plain readable Evan Dara is.” —The Quarterly Conversation

“If there is any literary justice [The Easy Chain] will appear sometime around 2050 in a New York Review of Books Classics edition with a forward by the aging Dave Eggers.” —Conversational Reading

“This masterpiece left us drooling for days on end. We couldn’t put it down.”—Lowdown Magazine (Germany/UK)

“Recalls David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest: both books offer a jigsaw puzzle of different styles, and construct a remarkably clever and complex plot.”—Stephen J. Burn, American Book Review

“Just brilliant…a testament to [Dara’s] incredible skill.” —Triple R Radio (Melbourne, Australia)

“Uncommon and outstanding. As surely as there will always be an avant-garde, Dara will be there and whatever new guard emerges, they will be sure to have read his books.” —The Front Table

About the Author

One of the most exciting American novelists writing today. --The Times Literary Supplement

Dara's novels are astonishing -- challenging, funny, groundbreaking, stylish, brave. They are big contemporary novels where ambition and execution are both huge and come together perfectly. --Conversational Reading

In the audacity of [their] invention...Dara’s novels are arguably the most radically disruptive books in American fiction since, say, Gilbert Sorrentino in a work like Mulligan Stew (1979). --The Reading Experience

Dara is the best-kept secret in all of contemporary American literature... For all of their formal innovation, Dara's novels are both exceptionally funny and surprisingly warm and human... Anyone who reads either book will discover perhaps the most interesting author writing in English today. --Triple R Radio (Melbourne, Australia)

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Aurora, Incorporated; First Edition (August 8, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 474 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0980226600
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0980226607
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.19 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,311,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #54,635 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
5 ratings

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Jeff (a.c.n.g.b.)

eas- remarkably but who's reading it? He has a magical w-

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 2, 2008

Verified Purchase

This is not your grandpa's favorite book. It is one of mine. Does that help?

It's social without implying a cause. It's personal without giving you much of a glimpse of the main character. It's detached while staying constantly fresh and vital. It's breaking massive narrative rules while giving the impression that there was really no other way.

The book has no chapter breaks. It does sort of have a three part structure but i'm not sure that will matter to the kinds of minds that end up enjoying this book.

I can't really analyze this puppy, but I can say that Dara is a master at this craft. I found myself constantly wanting to read whole paragraphs out-oud. I still don't know what he did to make me care about the events in this story so much, but he did. By the end of the novel I was engrossed in the story. I just don't know why. yet. doesn't matter.

I don't recommend this book to anybody who is turned off by unconventional writing. Anybody else though, have at it!

15 people found this helpful

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Cable Guy

Could not get into this book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 10, 2019

Verified Purchase

I read the 1st 100 pages or so and it seemed pretty cool. but then I was lost. I then flipped through the book and found where there are quite a few pages that are just blank, or have just a few words. I'm sure this is meant for an artistic interpretation, but I couldn't get into it.

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Jonny R. Keen

I really enjoyed reading Dara's novel "The Lost Scrapbook" and have found ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 20, 2015

Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed reading Dara's novel "The Lost Scrapbook" and have found this novel "The Easy Chain" to be another gem.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Jeff Downing

The second novel from my favorite living novelist...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 8, 2017

This marvelous and bewitching book contains some of the best prose of this millennium, along with savage stretches that test the mettle of even the most gifted readers. Like its predecessor, The Lost Scrapbook (which is one of the five best American novels of the past 25 years), The Easy Chain reveals new facets with each reading, while blurring or obfuscating some of the elements that you picked up in the past, forcing you to reexamine the evidence and reorient yourself as you go. Some sentences sew two voices together without a stitch, or with a splash of typographical shrapnel, while descriptions of characters and events are often narrated by multiple members of a breathless chorus, unnamed and largely unreliable.

The story follows Lincoln Selwyn, a wayward young man from Amsterdam, with East Anglian roots, who decides to attend the University of Chicago because of its rigorous curriculum. However, in the wake of a mysterious illness, he meteorically rises to the Second City's highest social strata, wheeling and dealing with effortless charm and blinding charisma, while seducing nearly everyone who is trapped by the gaze of his blue eyes. He becomes a source of tabloid fascination amongst the city's "promosexuals," yet, as the novel progresses, the black hole at its center widens, which feeds even more speculation from the chattering classes. Who is this guy? And what happened to him?

It's a spellbinding, challenging, and entertaining book by an author who, despite his pseudonymity, fits right alongside other modern masters such as William Gass, David Foster Wallace, Richard Powers, Thomas Pynchon, and William Gaddis. Evan Dara has a gift for summoning voices which allows him to skewer and satirize the sociocultural components which drive the hype economy, while presaging the Trumpocene era we're currently living in.

One person found this helpful

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