Giles Goat-Boy
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Jacket: No dust jacket - paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.
In this sprawling, audacious masterpiece of 20th-century metafiction, John Barth re-envisions the entire universe as a sprawling, bureaucratized university campus. The protagonist, George—a human child raised among goats—embarks on a hero’s journey that is as much a search for identity as it is a farcical navigation of a world divided between the authoritarian "East Campus" and the permissive "West Campus." Believing himself to be the prophesied "Grand Tutor" destined to save his community, George must confront the terrible, all-powerful Wescac computer system in a narrative that brilliantly oscillates between high-concept theological inquiry and slapstick comedy.Giles Goat-Boy stands as a pivotal work of postmodernism, serving as a scathing, multi-layered allegory for the Cold War and the absurdity of mid-century ideological structures. Barth’s signature style—characterized by self-referential "Publisher’s Disclaimers" and nested narratives—invites the reader to question the very nature of authorship and the reliability of the text itself. It is a dense, intellectually stimulating, and notoriously challenging read that remains essential for any serious collector of experimental American literature, capturing the profound disillusionment and creative exuberance of the 1960s.
Author: John Barth
Format: Paperback
Genre: Cold war & espionage
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Jacket: No dust jacket - paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.
In this sprawling, audacious masterpiece of 20th-century metafiction, John Barth re-envisions the entire universe as a sprawling, bureaucratized university campus. The protagonist, George—a human child raised among goats—embarks on a hero’s journey that is as much a search for identity as it is a farcical navigation of a world divided between the authoritarian "East Campus" and the permissive "West Campus." Believing himself to be the prophesied "Grand Tutor" destined to save his community, George must confront the terrible, all-powerful Wescac computer system in a narrative that brilliantly oscillates between high-concept theological inquiry and slapstick comedy.Giles Goat-Boy stands as a pivotal work of postmodernism, serving as a scathing, multi-layered allegory for the Cold War and the absurdity of mid-century ideological structures. Barth’s signature style—characterized by self-referential "Publisher’s Disclaimers" and nested narratives—invites the reader to question the very nature of authorship and the reliability of the text itself. It is a dense, intellectually stimulating, and notoriously challenging read that remains essential for any serious collector of experimental American literature, capturing the profound disillusionment and creative exuberance of the 1960s.