Passionate Spectator

by Eric Kraft

Overview

In the ninth volume of his memoirs, Peter Leroy, summoned for jury duty, allows his mind to wander, and slips into the mind of Matthew Barber, who finds himself in the cardiac catheter lab in a Boston hospital, where he allows his mind to wander, and slips into the mind of Bertram W. Beath, who checks into a hotel in Miami's South Beach and into a life as an erotic opportunist and passionate spectator of beauty and human folly.

"Middle age, mortality, and the meaning of life: all are examined with the lightest touch imaginable."
Kirkus Reviews

"Ebullient, canny, and entertaining."
Donna Seaman, Booklist

"As devious as a Möbius strip, turning in on itself, doubling back through events that have already occurred, and generally subverting our Newtonian world view."
David Kirby, St. Petersburg Times

"A personal journey that is mundane in detail yet mythic in scope . . . a gamboling reflection on the ways in which memory shapes supposedly objective history . . . colorful, incisive prose and off-kilter wit."
Steve Smith, Time Out New York

Nothing less than an assessment of each person's place in the universe . . . as a spectator who gives shape to life simply by watching and remembering."
Jim Ridley, Nashville Scene

When Peter Leroy buys a copy of Creative Self-Promotion for Taxidermists from a street bum, he unwittingly sets in motion an odyssey from truth to fiction to truth in a novel that is much less confusing and more revealing than these few words might indicate."
Dallas Morning News

Product Details

BN ID:	2940162797203
Publisher:	The Babbington Press
Publication date:	01/16/2020
Series:	The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Eric Kraft grew up in Babylon, New York, on the South Shore of Long Island, where he was for a time co-­owner and co-­captain of a clam boat, which sank. He met or invented the character Peter Leroy while dozing over a German lesson during his first year at Harvard. The following year, he married his muse, Madeline Can­ning; they have two sons. After earning a Master’s Degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Kraft taught school in the Boston area for a while, moonlighting as a rock music critic for the Boston Phoenix. Since then, he has spent a part of every day writing the voluminous work of fiction that he calls The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy. It has re­ceived widespread critical acclaim in the United States and interna­tionally. Three of the volumes were named New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Kraft has been the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts; was, briefly, chairman of PEN New England; and has been awarded the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature.

Editorial Reviews

Riotous fun. . . . Another perfect book by an author with few faults whose works . . . are, among other qualities, great intellectual fun. . . . Those readers who enjoy stretching their minds and admire dazzling craftsmanship and virtuosity from an author who writes like no other will find this and the other books by Kraft a welcome and essential addition to their libraries.

The Compulsive Reader - Bob Williams

Kraft continues the charming and mischievously intellectual adventures of the eccentric writer Peter Leroy . . . in the newest installment in a long-running series relishable for its clever literary allusions (from Proust to Twain), shrewd philosophical satire, and faith in love and loyalty.

Booklist - Donna Seaman

Eric Kraft's new novel is not only funny and smart but also as devious as a Mobius strip, turning in on itself, doubling back through events that have already occurred, and generally subverting our Newtonian world view. . . . Because he is a master of both bitter satire and narrative playfulness, I see Eric Kraft as the love child of Evelyn Waugh and John Barth.

St. Petersburg Times - David Kirby

Whatever he does as a novelist, Eric Kraft will always have my gratitude for one thing: creating what may be the happiest and least neurotic sex in American literature. . . . At stake in Passionate Spectator, and the Peter Leroy books as a whole, is nothing less than an assessment of each person's place in the universe.

Nashville Scene - Jim Ridley

Middle age, mortality, and the meaning of life: all are examined with the lightest touch imaginable in this [ninth] in Kraft's ongoing chronicles. . . . More of the same, and may it go on forever.

Kirkus Reviews