Nicholson Baker has published six novels - A Box of Matches, The Mezzanine, Room Temperature, Vox, The Fermata, and The Everlasting Story of Nory - and three works of non-fiction, U and I, The Size of Thoughts, and Double Fold. He lives in Maine with his wife and two children.
For a musician, the term fermata means the prolongation of a particular note beyond the time indicated in the score. For Arno Strine it is a period during which he remains active while the rest of the world is paused and insentient. Strine discovered his powers of ``chronomaly'' as early as the fourth grade, and since that time he has used them mainly to undress static women and pursue very private sexual delights. Now writing his autobiography, Strine confronts problems of linear narration much like those of Tristram Shandy. As in his last novel, Vox ( LJ 11/15/91), Baker provides sexually explicit scenarios but displays characters who remain isolated and distant. Readers who are not overwhelmed by graphic episodes of inventive sex should appreciate Baker's witty comedy and his unconventional exploration of the nature of time.-- Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Tech . Univ., Cookeville
Baker's ingenious fifth novel, about a 35-year-old temp worker who stops time to act out elaborate sexual fantasies, was a PW bestseller. (Jan.)
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