The Narcissism of Small Differences
5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
A hilarious and poignant novel about growing up, buying in, selling out, and the death of irony.
"The Narcissism of Small Differences is one of [Zadoorian's] best. He has become an essential chronicler of the life in Detroit at the beginning of our century."
--Stateside, Michigan Public Radio
#1 Bestseller (Fiction/Paperback) at Book Soup!
One of Detour Detroit’s 25 Notable Detroit and Michigan Books from 2020
"Like Zadoorian's earlier novels--The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit, The Leisure Seeker and Beautiful Music--this new novel brims with wit, passion and soul."
--The Millions, one of The Millions' Most Anticipated Books of 2020
"If the very idea of irony were to die during the coronavirus, how would one bury it? A new book by Ferndale writer Michael Zadoorian might provide an answer."
--Lansing City Pulse
"A quirky, original novel...Zadoorian deftly captures the flavor and eccentricities of life in Detroit."
--Lansing State Journal
"Metro Detroit has been the setting of all four of Zadoorian's novels so far, and Narcissism...continues a career-long exploration of a place the Detroit native says has only become more 'wondrous' to him with age."
--SEEN Magazine
"Landing somewhere between a pithy Joyce Carol Oates and Hunter S. Thompson's insightful revelations on American pop culture zeitgeist, Zadoorian beautifully weaves his native city and its inhabitants into a thoughtful story."
--House of Tabu
"A quite wondrous, thoroughly entertaining and delightfully enthralling journey through a Detroit of 11 years ago that is, without a shadow of a doubt, a must read for any Detroit natives."
--Exclusive Magazine
"[Zadoorian's] message--that as we get older, it's okay to reimagine our lives and maybe even sell out a little, as long as we stay true to our authentic selves--is earnest. And a side plot that takes Joe through some grand theaters of yesteryear, now dangerously decrepit, provides moments of genuine poignancy."
--Booklist
Joe Keen and Ana Urbanek have been a couple for a long time, with all the requisite lulls and temptations, yet they remain unmarried and without children, contrary to their Midwestern values (and parents' wishes). Now on the cusp of forty, they are both working at jobs that they're not even sure they believe in anymore, but with significantly varying returns. Ana is successful, Joe is floundering--both in limbo, caught somewhere between mainstream and alternative culture, sincerity and irony, achievement and arrested development.
Set against the backdrop of bottomed-out 2009 Detroit, a once-great American city now in transition, part decaying and part striving to be reborn, The Narcissism of Small Differences is the story of an aging creative class, doomed to ask the questions: Is it possible to outgrow irony? Does not having children make you one? Is there even such a thing as selling out anymore?
More than a comedy of manners, The Narcissism of Small Differences is a comedy of compromise: the financial compromises we make to feed ourselves; the moral compromises that justify our questionable actions; the everyday compromises we all make just to survive in the world. Yet it's also about the consequences of those compromises--and the people we become because of them--in our quest for a life that is our own and no one else's.
Michael Zadoorian
Michael Zadoorian is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Second Hand.
Read more from Michael Zadoorian
The Leisure Seeker: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeautiful Music: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Narcissism of Small Differences: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Narcissism of Small Differences
Related ebooks
Secrets We Keep Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bloodliner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Killer Within Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dead Weight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMurder in the Mist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wasp of St. Judith's Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDead Fall (The Quantico Files Book #2) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rent Boy Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5No Lease on Life Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Keeping Up with the Deadlanders Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGun for Hire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Diary of Audrey Malone Frayer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFemme Fatale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYesterday In Black: Tom Miller, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn the Name of Glori: The Redemption Series, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsParticipation Trophy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBroken Souls Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMr. In-Between Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Jottings: Flights of Fancy from Our Betty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories in the White Room Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Killing Death Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCast Thy Bread Upon the Waters: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmile So Red and Other Tales of Madness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWinter Scene Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCutthroat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMidnight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dying Poem Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Slow Poison: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Executor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Literary Fiction For You
The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Thinking of Ending Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nigerwife: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anna Karenina: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Woman in the Room: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen's Gambit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Narcissism of Small Differences
9 ratings0 reviews