Remote [INSCRIBED AND SIGNED]

Shields, David. Remote [INSCRIBED AND SIGNED]. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. First edition.

Octavo (8 1/4 x 5 1/2″). [12], 203, [7]pp. Original decorative dust-jacket over half green cloth and blue & red paper covered boards, with yellow lettering to spine, and black lettering to covers. Title page inscribed and signed by the author.

“In this truly one-of-a-kind book, the author/narrator – a representative, in extremis, of contemporary American obsession with beauty, celebrity, transmitted image – finds himself suspended, fascinated, in the remoteness of our wall-to-wall mediascape. It is a remoteness that both perplexes and enthralls him.

Through dazzling sleight of hand in which the public becomes private and the private becomes public, the entire book-clicking from confession to family-album photograph to family chronicle to sexual fantasy to pseudo-scholarly footnote to reportage to personal essay to stand-up comedy to cultural criticism to literary criticism to film criticism to prose-poem to litany to outtake-becomes both an anatomy of American culture and a searing self-portrait.

David Shields reads his own life – reads our life – as if it were an allegory about remoteness and finds persuasive, hilarious, heartbreaking evidence wherever he goes.” (From the Publishers).

Dust-jacket, binding and interior in very good condition. vg. Hardcover. (41835) $35