The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker [FIRST PAPERBACK PRINTING / 1990]
The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
FIRST TRADE PAPERBACK PRINTING [1990] VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES
First vintage contemporaries printing in excellent condition.
Like new with minor shelf wear to cover.
*Minor stain along margin of first page [see last photo.] Otherwise, near mint.
THE MEZZANINE is the remarkable portrait of one young man's day at the office—actually, his lunch hour and, more exactly, his escalator ride back to his office on the mezzanine level, after purchasing shoelaces.
Nicholson Baker's novel is fiction of an astonishing new and original variety. The seemingly small and inconsequential events of the narrator's life—breaking both shoelaces within a day of each other—assume the narrative weight of major discoveries, significant events in a straight-faced comedy of the quotidian. Pushing at the boundaries of supposedly average thoughts—why the spout on the milk carton? is the hot air in the men's room really more sanitary?—the tale uncovers the strange and wonderful parameters of the everyday. Complete with footnotes, lists, and charts, The Mezzanine marks Nicholson Baker's inspired debut as a novelist.