Woke Up Lonely: A Novel

by Fiona Maazel

Overview

"Intricately imagined and timely . . . Maazel is an entertaining writer with a dry, droll sense of humor." —The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice

* Shortlisted for the Believer Book Award *

Fiona Maazel's Woke Up Lonely follows a cult leader, his ex-wife, and the four people he takes hostage. It's about loneliness in America, North Korea, espionage, a city underneath Cincinnati, cloud seeding, and eavesdropping. It's also a big, sweeping love story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781555976729
Publisher:	Graywolf Press
Publication date:	04/01/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Fiona Maazel is the author of Last Last Chance and Woke Up Lonely. She is a winner of the Bard Prize for Fiction and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. She teaches at Brooklyn College, Columbia, New York University, and Princeton. She lives in Brooklyn.

Editorial Reviews

[A] sprawling, intimate novel, which is a perfectly poised screen-capture of hyper-modernity.” —The Believer Book Award, Editors' Shortlist

“Hilarious and heartbreaking.” —NPR

“Brilliantly imagined.” —Vanity Fair

“Maazel's insights are as sound as her imagination is wild.” —Oprah.com, Book of the Week

“The talented Maazel has plenty of imagination.” —USA Today

“[A] whip-smart comic novel.” —Reader's Digest

“Uniformly entertaining . . . It's thrilling to imagine what Fiona Maazel might do next.” —The Boston Globe

“Maazel possesses a formidable imagination and considerable linguistic virtuosity.” —The Chicago Tribune

“[A] fun farce.” —Cosmopolitan

“Woke Up Lonely is another wunderkammer, a deeply felt and wildly original novel that repays the attention it demands, and once read won't soon be forgotten.” —Bookforum

“One of the best pieces of fiction and social satire of the year.” —The Millions

“Maazel takes a cue from Kurt Vonnegut by creating a novel that blends the plot of a dramatic thriller with wacky humor and bits of science fiction.” —BUST

From the Publisher

In this rollicking ride of a novel, Maazel explores a world of family, fame and forgiveness. One of the cures for "waking up lonely" is the Helix, sponsor of a number of services geared to help the legion of people experiencing loneliness in the 21st century. The founder of the Helix is Thurlow "Lo" Dan, whose mission has been to help those who feel companionless, though ironically, he's been feeling forsaken and isolated himself since the breakup of his marriage to Esme and his separation from his daughter, Ida. In one hilarious scene we learn of the Helix's strategy of "speed dating," in which potential partners come together for a few minutes to share a brief piece of who they are (responding to contrived prompts such as "My worst high school moment") in hopes of establishing a more lasting relationship. Despite such artificiality, the Helix has become something of a cult and is now drawing worldwide attention. Esme has been spying on Thurlow and comes up with a recon mission that, to say the least, devolves into a fiasco. In fact, he turns the tables on the motley group of operatives Esme has put together. In a number of touching flashbacks, we learn of the development of Lo and Esme's relationship. The narrative moves readers seamlessly from such unlikely places as the Helix's corporate headquarters in Cincinnati to the bleakness of North Korea. Maazel manages to strike a number of tones here--from poignant (all Lo wants is to get back with wife and daughter) to paranoid--and she's successful at every level.

Kirkus Reviews