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"The second book in R.M. Koster's highly acclaimed Tinieblas trilogy (following The Prince), The Dissertation is the story of--and a story by--Camilo Fuertes. To fulfill his Ph.D. requirement, Fuertes decides to write about his father, the martyred president of Tinieblas, a country in Latin America. We follow Leon as he winds his twisted path through delinquency, learning, bravery, and incest to the presidency. At once a powerful vision of Latin American history and a brilliant parody of the show more academic form--complete with endnotes!--The Dissertation is an essential postmodern novel in the tradition of Vonnegut, Barth and Nabokov, ready to be embraced by a new generation of readers"-- show lessTags
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I read this book (a gift from my best friend) while I was writing my own dissertation in psychology. It was my first foray into "magical realism." It provided much-need perspective and escape. Wildly original. Outrageously, laugh-out-loud-snorting funny.
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Significant works of postmodern fiction
86 works; 25 members
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8 Works 307 Members
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- Epigraph
- I hold with León Fuertes (see Chapter 17): "A careful fake is better than the truth." Hence, I write fiction. This book is fiction. I made it up. I began inventing the Republic of Tinieblas a few years ago in another work of... (show all) fiction. I have invented more of it here. I have also invented a "next world," an "afterlife." It and Tinieblas have the same kind of reality. If the reader of this note is interested exclusively in the so-called "real world", I advise him not to spend time or money on The Dissertation but to invest instead in a ride on the New York Rapid Transit System or some similar experience. The "real world" is a sloppy actuality. The Dissertation is a careful fake.
- Blurbers
- Burgess, Anthony
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- Members
- 97
- Popularity
- 330,683
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.45)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 3
