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The "dazzling, exhilarating" (San Francisco Chronicle) debut novel from the bestselling author of Infinite Jest, available for the first time as an audiobook. At the center of The Broom of the System is the betwitching (and also bewildered) heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio, which sits on the edge of a suburban wasteland-the Great Ohio Desert. Lenore works as a switchboard attendant at a publishing firm, and in addition to her mind-numbing job, she has a few other problems. Her great-grandmother, a one-time student of Wittgenstein, has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau (and boss), editor-in-chief Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous. And her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psychobabble, Auden, and the King James Bible, which may propel him to stardom on a Christian fundamentalist television program. Fiercely intelligent and entertaining, this debut novel from one of the most innovative writers of our generation explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.
Listen to an excerpt from The Broom of the System
“Fans of the late, great David Foster Wallace will delight in narrator Robert Petkoff's wonderful audio version of the author's first novel…. Petkoff's narration is energetic, compelling, and well-paced. He deftly handles Wallace's linguistic gymnastics and entertains with brutally sharp comedic timing. Listeners will particularly appreciate the range of zany and pitch perfect voices Petkoff lends to Wallace's equally kooky cast of characters. Fun, funny, and very highly recommended." —Publishers Weekly |
Also Available in Trade Paperback
