Arcade, or How to Write a Novel

First edition. 8vo. 172pp. Red paper backstrip over speckled, tan paper-covered boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Deckled fore-edges.

Adventurous avant-garde novel – interpolating a number of blank pages – in which a crotchety narrator chats voluminously about his childhood, specifically about the arcade he and his family visited at a summer resort. Lish remains a contentious literary figure with legendary editing stints at both Knopf and Esquire, with half his Columbia students swearing by him and the other half swearing at him. "[Lish has the ability] to bend the [short story] form into striking shapes with all the courageous fervour of an alchemist whipping up recipes for gold." –Esquire