{"product_id":"speedboat-with-an-introduction-by-hilton-als-9781399627528","title":"Speedboat: With an introduction by Hilton Als","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA novel unlike anything that came before it that changed all that came after it - a cult classic for readers of Maggie Nelson, Jenny Offill, Ben Lerner and Anne Carson\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen \u003ci\u003eSpeedboat\u003c\/i\u003e burst on the scene in the late '70s it was like nothing readers had encountered before.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt seemed to disregard the rules of the novel, but it wore its unconventionality with ease. Reading it was a pleasure of a new, unexpected kind.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAbove all, there was its voice, ambivalent, curious, wry, the voice of Jen Fain, a journalist negotiating the fraught landscape of contemporary urban America. Party guests, taxi drivers, brownstone dwellers, professors, journalists, presidents, and debutantes fill these dispatches from the world as Jen finds it.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA touchstone over the years for writers as different as David Foster Wallace and Elizabeth Hardwick, \u003ci\u003eSpeedboat\u003c\/i\u003e returns to enthral a new generation of readers.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eWith an introduction by Hilton Als\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ch4\u003eDetails\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN13: 9781399627528\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNumber of Pages: 192\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEdition: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication Date: 23 Jun 2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublisher: Orion Publishing Co\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication City, Country: London, United Kingdom\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDimensions (cm): 19.6(H)x12.6(L)x1.8(W)180\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWeight (gm): 180\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h4\u003eRENATA ADLER was born in Milan and raised in Connecticut. She received a B.A. from Bryn Mawr, an M.A. from Harvard, a D.d E.S from the Sorbonne, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and an LL.D. (honorary) from Georgetown. Adler became a staff writer at the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e in 1963 and, except for a year as the chief film critic of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, remained at the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e for the next four decades. She has written six works of non-fiction, and the novels SPEEDBOAT (1976; winner of the Ernest Hemingway Award for Best First Novel) and PITCH DARK (1983).\u003ch4\u003eReviews\u003c\/h4\u003eOne of the more penetrating and oddly hypnotizing books I know; reading it is like being in a snowstorm. ...If all you get from SPEEDBOAT is a shudder of pleasure and self-recognition, you are probably not reading deeply enough. Welcome Back, Renata Adler -- Meghan O'Rourke, THE NEW YORKER\u003cbr\u003eI was in love and then I wasn't, and sometime during the drifting gray interim I was told by a bookseller friend to read SPEEDBOAT, a novel that had long been out of print but was absolutely, he insisted, worth the trouble of the search. ... My friend was correct, as booksellers usually are; it was as though the novel had outstretched arms and I fell in -- Anna Weiner, PARIS REVIEW\u003cbr\u003eAdler is page by page, line by line, and without interruption, brilliant -- Miranda Popkey, NEW YORK OBSERVER\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSPEEDBOAT \u003c\/i\u003eis dazzling ...line for line and sentence for sentence, it seems to me thrilling. ... observant, funny, urban -- Matthew Spektor, THE BELIEVER\u003cbr\u003eThe kind of book you buy multiple copies of to push on friends, the kind you dog-ear and mark up until it could line a hamster cage. It will literally knock your socks off. Read it -- CHICAGO TRIBUNE\u003cbr\u003eI can't think of a living stylist I admire more than Renata Adler -- Elif Batuman\u003cbr\u003eA brilliant series of glimpses into the special oddities and new terrors of contemporary life-abrupt, painful, and altogether splendid -- Donald Barthelme","brand":"Renata Adler","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48926775050457,"sku":"9781399627528","price":22.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0502\/9530\/8441\/files\/9781399627528.jpg?v=1783736158","url":"https:\/\/www.arielbooks.com.au\/products\/speedboat-with-an-introduction-by-hilton-als-9781399627528","provider":"Ariel","version":"1.0","type":"link"}