Dean Bakopoulos, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts grant, teaches creative writing and literature at Grinnell College and in the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. His first novel, Please Don't Come Back from the Moon, was a New York Times Notable Book.
My American Unhappiness "shimmers with mischief and offbeat charm.
A dark entertainment infused by a bluesy yearning for a better
America."
-Kirkus Reviews "Bakopoulos writes with great heart and a cold eye,
and his limpid, ironic prose will appeal to those who like the
early work of Martin Amis."
-Library Journal"My American Unhappiness is a smart, funny,
charming novel - an incisive critique of the way we live now, but
aremed, unlike contemporary satire, with a big, generous heart. I
got addicted to the misadventures of Zeke Pappas. I didn't want the
book to end."
-Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply "In Zeke Pappas, Dean
Bakopoulos has invented a man for all rainy seasons - a horny,
heartbroken cousin of Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe, telling a
long, tall tale of anomie in the heartland."
-Tom Piazza, author of City of Refuge
"If the nature of despair, as Kierkegaard wrote, is to be unaware
of itself, then Zeke Pappas is its perfect spokesman: a blithely
deluded nebbish whose epic longings--to document the emptiness at
the center of American life and to win the heart of Sofia Coppola
and/or his local Starbucks barista--propel him into ever more
twisted predicaments. There's no such thing as unhappiness when
you're holding a Dean Bakopoulos novel in your hands."
- Jonathan Miles, author of Dear American Airlines "Vivid as a
searchlight gliding across suburban picture windows, MY AMERICAN
UNHAPPINESS displays its author's saddened comic wisdom, as
apparently self-effacing as it is marvelously inventive and
observant. Dean Bakopoulos is a writer to watch, a novelist to
cherish."
- Peter Straub, author of A Dark Matter "Zeke Pappas, the visionary
behind the American Unhappiness project, is the perfect hero for
our times - an age of J. Crew catalogs and Starbucks lattes, of
political absurdities and almost-fractured families barely holding
themselves together. In telling Zeke's story, Dean Bakopoulos
brings together razor-sharp comic timing, brilliant social
commentary, and big-hearted compassion that embraces the
imperfection of American life. The result is a smart, funny and
exceptionally entertaining book."
-Alix Ohlin, author of Babylon and Other Stories "My American
Unhappiness is a major accomplishment from one of my generation's
finest storytellers, a profoundly funny, moving,
beautifully-detailed, and ultimately hopeful portrait of our
country in a certain moment. Its self-deprecating hero, Zack
Pappas, earnest, kind, and brooding, with wry intelligence and deep
compassion, is indelible. I loved every page of this book. The
torch has been passed -- Dean Bakopoulos is our next great
Midwestern writer."
- Davy Rothbart, The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas: Stories,
founder and editor of Found Magazine, contributor to public
radio'sThis American Life "Dean Bakopoulos in an American prophet
-- who divines the end of optimism in this brilliant new novel that
will choke you with tears and laughter. My American Unhappiness
deserves a hallowed place on the shelf somewhere among Studs
Terkel's Working and Walker Percy's The Moviegoer. "
- Benjamin Percy, The Wilding and Refresh, Refresh --
In Bakopoulos's wan second novel (after Please Don't Come Back from the Moon), Zeke Pappas, the director of a humanities institute in Wisconsin, is conducting an epic survey of American unhappiness, a project he considers his life's work. Misery is a hobby of this self-regarding misanthrope, whose interest in others' sadness can verge on fetishism ("Show me a sad woman, and I will fall in love"). As if to oblige his brooding, fate afflicts him with a relentless barrage of personal tragedies. Zeke, who is already a borderline alcoholic widower caring for his two orphaned nieces, learns that his mother is dying of cancer and that she plans to deny him custody of the girls unless he gets married before she dies. His candidates are a barista, his assistant, his neighbor, and, naturally, Sofia Coppola-though, really, any female will do. Zeke, unfortunately, comes off as more odious than endearing, glib and pompous for all of his slapstick moping, and lacking the depth of character needed to reveal him as anything other than an unpleasant schmuck, which is especially unfortunate considering Bakopoulos's wit and breezy prose. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
My American Unhappiness "shimmers with mischief and
offbeat charm. A dark entertainment infused by a bluesy yearning
for a better America."
-Kirkus Reviews "Bakopoulos writes with great heart and a
cold eye, and his limpid, ironic prose will appeal to those who
like the early work of Martin Amis."
-Library Journal"My American Unhappiness is a
smart, funny, charming novel - an incisive critique of the way we
live now, but aremed, unlike contemporary satire, with a big,
generous heart. I got addicted to the misadventures of Zeke Pappas.
I didn't want the book to end."
-Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply "In Zeke Pappas,
Dean Bakopoulos has invented a man for all rainy seasons - a horny,
heartbroken cousin of Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe, telling a
long, tall tale of anomie in the heartland."
-Tom Piazza, author of City of Refuge
"If the nature of despair, as Kierkegaard wrote, is to be unaware
of itself, then Zeke Pappas is its perfect spokesman: a blithely
deluded nebbish whose epic longings--to document the emptiness at
the center of American life and to win the heart of Sofia Coppola
and/or his local Starbucks barista--propel him into ever more
twisted predicaments. There's no such thing as unhappiness when
you're holding a Dean Bakopoulos novel in your hands."
- Jonathan Miles, author of Dear American Airlines
"Vivid as a searchlight gliding across suburban picture
windows, MY AMERICAN UNHAPPINESS displays its author's saddened
comic wisdom, as apparently self-effacing as it is marvelously
inventive and observant. Dean Bakopoulos is a writer to watch, a
novelist to cherish."
- Peter Straub, author of A Dark Matter "Zeke
Pappas, the visionary behind the American Unhappiness project, is
the perfect hero for our times - an age of J. Crew catalogs and
Starbucks lattes, of political absurdities and almost-fractured
families barely holding themselves together. In telling Zeke's
story, Dean Bakopoulos brings together razor-sharp comic timing,
brilliant social commentary, and big-hearted compassion that
embraces the imperfection of American life. The result is a smart,
funny and exceptionally entertaining book."
-Alix Ohlin, author of Babylon and Other Stories "My
American Unhappiness is a major accomplishment from one of my
generation's finest storytellers, a profoundly funny, moving,
beautifully-detailed, and ultimately hopeful portrait of our
country in a certain moment. Its self-deprecating hero, Zack
Pappas, earnest, kind, and brooding, with wry intelligence and deep
compassion, is indelible. I loved every page of this book. The
torch has been passed -- Dean Bakopoulos is our next great
Midwestern writer."
- Davy Rothbart, The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas:
Stories, founder and editor of Found Magazine,
contributor to public radio'sThis American Life "Dean
Bakopoulos in an American prophet -- who divines the end of
optimism in this brilliant new novel that will choke you with tears
and laughter. My American Unhappiness deserves a hallowed
place on the shelf somewhere among Studs Terkel's Working
and Walker Percy's The Moviegoer. "
- Benjamin Percy, The Wilding and Refresh,
Refresh --
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