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A bitterly comic novel of middle-aged angst and middle-class American life in the 1960s, by the acclaimed author of Little Big ManIt is the late sixties in suburbia, and Carlo Reinhart's life is a mess. He's fat, broke, middle aged, and unemployed. His anarchist son hates him, and his wife has taken a younger lover and thrown Carlo out of the house. In fact, the only one who doesn't consider him contemptible and ridiculous seems to be Carlo's adoring, overweight daughter, who is almost as show more pathetic as he is. Even his affair with a twenty-two-year-old nymphomaniac is strangely unsatisfying.
Then, just as he's reaching his lowest point, the self-styled Ultimate Human Irrelevancy is offered a golden opportunity to grab a piece of the American Dream, thanks to the reappearance of his old school chum Bob Sweet. Bob, who has a gift for success, is inviting Reinhart to get in on the ground floor of his latest venture: cryonics. But while Carlo loves the taste of the good life that his friend has suddenly provided, he's not quite certain whether Sweet wants him as a partner . . . or as a human popsicle.
The third novel in Thomas Berger's acclaimed Carlo Reinhart Series, Vital Parts is a stingingly hilarious swipe at twentieth-century culture and mores. Unrestrained and unapologetic, it is a tour de force from a master satirist that stands alongside Joseph Heller's Catch-22, John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, and the novels of Kurt Vonnegut as a trenchant and funny comment on American life.
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28+ Works 4,323 Members
Thomas Berger was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on July 20, 1924. During World War II, he enlisted in the Army and served in England and Germany as part of the Medical Corps. He received a baccalaureate degree with honors from the University of Cincinnati in 1948 and pursued graduate work in English at Columbia University until 1951. He worked as a show more librarian at the Tamiment Institute and Library in New York and as a summary writer for The New York Times Index. His first novel, Crazy in Berlin, was published in 1958. He wrote numerous books during his lifetime including Killing Time, Who Is Teddy Villanova?, Adventures of the Artificial Woman, Sneaky People, The Houseguest, Meeting Evil, Suspects, Best Friends, and The Feud. Several of his novels were adapted into films including Little Big Man starring Dustin Hoffman and Neighbors starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. He died on July 13, 2014 at the age of 89. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Is abridged in
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1970
- People/Characters
- Carlo Reinhart
- Dedication
- To my friend and publisher,
Richard W. Baron - First words
- Reinhart unwrapped himself from the terry-cloth robe and hung it on the back of the bathroom door by means of the embroidered label (Biggie's, for a lot o' guy, trademark of a mail-order house specializing in the needs of the... (show all) outsized), so obliterating the fun-house image of his gross nudity in the full-length mirror thereupon.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Reinhart reflected on this interesting question while he dialed the number.
- Original language
- English
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 108
- Popularity
- 299,397
- Rating
- (3.35)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 12
- ASINs
- 9
