The development : nine stories

I find myself inclined to set down for whomever, before my memory goes kaput altogether, some account of our little community, in particular of what Margie and I consider to have been its most interesting hour: the summer of the Peeping Tom. Something has disturbed the comfortably retired denizens of a pristine Florida-style gated community in Chesapeake Bay country. In the dawn of the new millennium and the evening of their lives, these empty nesters discover that their tidy enclave can be as colorful, shocking, and surreal as any of John Barths fictional locales. From the high jinks of a toga party to marital infidelities, a baffling suicide pact, and the sudden, apocalyptic destruction of the short-lived development, Barth brings mordant humor and compassion to the lives of characters we all know well. From one of the most prodigally gifted comic novelists writing in English today ( Newsweek ), The Development is John Barth at his most accessible and sympathetic best. From Publishers Weekly From the iconic Barth come nine darkly comic stories set in a gated community on Maryland's Eastern Shore. In his trademark stylemultiple endings, metaphysical musings, breaking the fourth wallBarth presents a searing indictment of a certain sociological class in the later stages of life, when the worries of advancing age beset characters who are dealing with or anticipating infirmities, burdensome caregiving and wrenching losses. Barth's antic eye for character is undiminished; he fleshes out a spectrum of men and women who run the gamut of professions, political beliefs and financial status, and whose relationships include unwavering marital love, random flirting and adultery. The current(ish) events simmering in the background (the Bush administration's follies, Uganda and Darfur, and several hurricanes) ground the narrative and put the stories into a broader context outside the community's gates. Urbane, discursive and humorous, often bawdy and never sentimental, these stories would be an accessible way for new readers to discover Barth, and his fans, of course, will eat this up. (Oct.) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Comedic metafictionist Barth, an essential voice in American literature, is getting a kick out of writing as an irreverent elder in this merry satire about the smart, moneyed,and demanding retirees living in agated community. It isnt always clear who is telling these linked, seemingly mundane, abruptly catastrophic tales. Is it Tim Manning, whose wife is the first to fall prey to Heron Bay Estates Peeping Tom, the lesbian daughter of the developments unluckiest couple, or George I. Newett? (Did you really?) Sometimes the narration reads like a Desperate Housewives parody. Elsewhere, one can grow cross-eyed over discussions about real-estate assessments, community rules, and last wills and testaments. Set in the Bush II years, Barths sweet if stinging tales tell of long, loving marriages, age and death, the us/them attitude implicit in the communitys gatedness, and environmental degradation. As playful as ever, Barth is notably more lucid and tender here, and like Chesapeake Bay, about which he writes so affectionately, his stories arescintillating on the surface and churning with danger below. --Donna Seaman From one of our most celebrated masters, a touching, comic, deeply humane collection of linked stories about surprising developments in a gated community

"I find myself inclined to set down for whomever, before my memory goes kaput altogether, some account of our little community, in particular of what Margie and I consider to have been its most interesting hour: the summer of the Peeping Tom."

Something has disturbed the comfortably retired denizens of a pristine Florida-style gated community in Chesapeake Bay country. In the dawn of the new millennium and the evening of their lives, these empty nesters discover that their tidy enclave can be as colorful, shocking, and surreal as any of John Barth's fictional locales. From the high jinks of a toga party to marital infidelities, a baffling suicide pact, and the sudden, apocalyptic destruction of the short-lived development, Barth brings mordant humor and compassion to the lives of characters we all know well.

From "one of the most prodigally gifted comic novelists writing in English
today" (Newsweek), The Development is John Barth at his most accessible
and sympathetic best. From the Publisher: From one of our most celebrated masters, a touching, comic, deeply humane collection of linked stories about surprising developments in a gated community. "I find myself inclined to set down for whomever, before my memory goes kaput altogether, some account of our little community, in particular of what Margie and I consider to have been its most interesting hour: the summer of the Peeping Tom." Something has disturbed the comfortably retired denizens of a pristine Florida-style gated community in Chesapeake Bay country. In the dawn of the new millennium and the evening of their lives, these empty nesters discover that their tidy enclave can be as colorful, shocking, and surreal as any of John Barth's fictional locales. From the high jinks of a toga party to marital infidelities, a baffling suicide pact, and the sudden, apocalyptic destruction of the short-lived development, Barth brings mordant humor and compassion to the lives of characters we all know well. From "one of the most prodigally gifted comic novelists writing in English today" (Newsweek), The Development is John Barth at his most accessible and sympathetic best "A merry satire about the smart, moneyed, and demanding retirees living in a gated community ... scintillating on the surface and churning with danger below" (Booklist). "I find myself inclined to set down for whomever, before my memory goes kaput altogether, some account of our little community, in particular of what Margie and I consider to have been its most interesting hour: the summer of the Peeping Tom." Something has disturbed the comfortably retired denizens of a pristine Florida-style gated community in Chesapeake Bay country. In the dawn of the new millennium and the evening of their lives, these empty nesters discover that their tidy enclave can be as colorful, shocking, and surreal as any of John Barth's fictional locales. From the high jinks of a toga party to marital infidelities, a baffling suicide pact, and the sudden, apocalyptic destruction of the short-lived development, Barth brings mordant humor and compassion to the lives of characters we all know well. From "one of the most prodigally gifted comic novelists writing in English today" (Newsweek), The Development is John Barth at his most accessible and sympathetic best