Escape, Escapism, Escapology

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Escape, Escapism, EscapologyAmerican Novels of the Early Twenty-First Century\nAuthor(s): John Limon\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, United States\nImprint: Bloomsbury Academic\nISBN-13: 9781501391101, 978-1501391101\nSynopsis\nEscape, Escapism, Escapology: American Novels of the Early Twenty-First Century identifies and explores what has emerged as perhaps the central theme of 21st-century American fiction: the desire to escapefrom the commodified present, from directionless history, from moral deathat a time of inescapable globalization. The driving question is how to find an alternative to the world within the world, at a time when utopian and messianic ideals have lost their power to compel belief. John Limon traces the American answer to that question in the writings of some of the most important authors of the last two decadesChabon, Diaz, Foer, Eggers, Donoghue, Groff, Ward, Saunders, and Whitehead, among othersand finds that it always involves the fa.