David Perlstein: 7 books

SAN CAF casts a ribald, satirical eye on Latin American leftist politics and American corporate greed. Security consultant Bobby Gatling anticipates a working vacation in the Central American nation of San Cristo. But revolutionaries challenge a government controlled by Bobbys client, Mobys Inc.,...

What drives a 13-year-old trapeze artist to run away from the circus? Marco Spolini seeks freedom from an overbearing father, critical stepmother and smothering uncle. A journey of discovery takes him from New York to Los Angeles across a 1980 America beset by economic and political frustration. Accompanied...

SLICK! skewers Middle East politics and American foreign policy with a barbed humor that will leave you wondering whether to laugh or crywhen youre not holding your breath. This satiric novel dissects Moqtar, a Persian Gulf sultanate guided by a Berkeley MBA with grandiose economic plans. Moqtar faces...

Brute Greenbaum faces challenges beyond those of ordinary 12-year-olds. Faded hearing. Dimming eyesight. Bad hips. A penchant for farting. They're normal for an English Bulldog equivalent to a human centenarian and pursued by the Malach HaMavetthe Angel of Death. But they're only the beginning. A...

The Odd Plight of Adonis Licht Perception and reality collide in a dark, witty fable combining a reversal of Franz Kafkas The Metamorphosis with overtones of Jerzy Kosinskis Being There. Adonis Licht, a nondescript museum art curator, is a loner whose closest friend is a mute bag lady shrouded in...

An astronaut turning eighty suffers a disturbing encounter. A hard-charging lawyer levitates. Satan makes a cruel wager with God. America bans stand-up comedy. Thus begins a journey toward self-discovery, concluding with four childhood friends taking a road trip fifty years after the last time they...

A new collection on carnival hokum and magical thinking in post-apocalypse America—brought to you by The Baffler. There's never been a better time to be outside the consensus—and if you don't believe it, then peer into these genre-defining essays from The Baffler, the magazine that's been...