In paperback for the first time, the much-beloved satirical novel the New York Times praised as “both a treatise and a romp”
Glyph
A Novel
- “Everett’s mischievous satire. . . . [has] sendups of everything from semiotics to military intelligence, deconstruction and cognitive psychology.”—The New York Times Book Review
Baby Ralph has ways to pass the time in his crib—but they don’t include staring at a mobile. Aided by his mother, he reads voraciously: “All of Swift, all of Sterne, Invisible Man, Baldwin, Joyce, Balzac, Auden, Roethke,” along with a generous helping of philosophy, semiotics, and trashy thrillers. He’s also fond of writing poems and stories (in crayon). But Ralph has limits. He’s mute by choice and can’t drive, so in his own estimation he’s not a genius. Unfortunately for him, everyone else disagrees. His psychiatrist kidnaps him for testing, and once his brilliance is quantified (IQ: 475), a Pentagon officer also abducts him. Diabolically funny and lacerating in its critique of poststructuralism, Glyph has the feverish plot of a thriller and the philosophical depth of a text by Roland Barthes.
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Praise
- “A mischievous and very funny satire on poststructuralist thought and literary ‘theory.’ . . . Sarcastic, gleeful, irrepressibly energetic.”—The Guardian
- “Grabbing academia where it hurts the most, by its swollen, unintelligible poststructuralist theories, the prolific Everett uses a most unlikely foil: a genius baby. . . . A smart, rollicking sendup.”—Kirkus Reviews
- “I suspect it will be some months before I have to stop saying that Glyph is the smartest and funniest novel I’ve read this century.”—LA Weekly
