Attention: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction
- ISBN-10
- 0399590234
- ISBN-13
- 9780399590238
- Category
- Literary Collections
- Pages
- 576
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2019-08-06
- Publisher
- Random House Trade Paperbacks
- Author
- Joshua Cohen
Description
"Attention reveals a fresh, vital literary voice as it covers seemingly every imaginable topic relating to modern life."--Entertainment Weekly "Joshua Cohen may be America's greatest living writer."--The Washington Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY WIRED One of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists, Joshua Cohen arrives with his first collection of nonfiction, the culmination of two decades of writing and thought about life in the digital age. In essays, memoir, criticism, diary entries, and letters--many appearing here for the first time--Cohen covers the full depth and breadth of modern life: politics, literature, art, music, travel, the media, and psychology, and subjects as diverse as Google, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, fictional animals, Gustav Mahler, Aretha Franklin, John Zorn, landscape photography, fake Caravaggios, Wikipedia, Gertrude Stein, Edward Snowden, Jonathan Franzen, Olympic women's fencing, Atlantic City casinos, the closing of the Ringling Bros. circus, and Azerbaijan. Throughout ATTENTION, Cohen directs his sharp gaze at home and abroad, calling upon his extraordinary erudition and unrivaled ability to draw connections between seemingly unlike things to show us how to live without fear in a world overflowing with information. In each piece, he projects a quality of thought that is uniquely his, and a voice as witty, profound, and distinct as any in American letters. At this crucial juncture in history, ATTENTION is a guide for the perplexed--a handbook for anyone hoping to bring the wisdom of the past into the culture of the future. Praise for ATTENTION "Dazzling in its scope . . . If curiosity is a writer's greatest innate gift, Joshua Cohen may be America's greatest living writer."--The Washington Post "Cause for celebration and close study . . . [Cohen] will hunt after neglected shards of the past, minor histories, and charge them with an immediacy in the present. . . . He is experimenting with the essay form much more, and more cleverly, than any major American writer today."--The Wall Street Journal "In Attention, Joshua Cohen makes an eclectic argument for how to improve our lives. . . . [He] tackles a surprising range of subjects to underline distraction's role in our fraught predicament and to argue that paying attention could help us get out of it. . . . When it comes to making sense of our times with verve and imagination, few authors are more rewarding."--Financial Times
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
A Concordance to Conrad's Victory
By Todd K. Bender, James W. Parins, Robert J. Dilliganossession:-amā'the “oise: , ś head'ail but lying under her as deadly, ... seemed to undes stand, exactly how to deal with conceited death 's head.
-
Understanding Ingeborg Bachmann: Understanding Modern European and Latin American Literature
By Karen AchbergerSimilarly , Nadja in " Word for Word " is reluctant to call Mr. Frankel by his first name , Ludwig , an act which would signal an acceptance of his appropriateness for her , since Ludwig — like Robert , Ernst , Fritz , Erich , Franz ...
-
Bluegrass Cavalcade
By Thomas D. ClarkEllen went to Mrs. Donahue's house for help and Pius was soon hurrying to St. Lucy to telephone for a doctor. When Pius returned he brought the Carriers who remained all night. Bill and Pius helped the doctor set the bone and bind in ...
-
Anime Wong: Fictions of Performance
By Karen Tei YamashitaThe mother was on Donahue. 60 Minutes did the doc and they'll repeat the news at ten. People dying, people killing, people crying— you can see it all on TV. Reality is really on TV. It's just another way to see— starvation in North ...
-
Byron: The Erotic Liberal
By Jonathan David GrossPhilip P. Wiener . New York : Charles Scribner's Sons , 1973 . Plato . Plato : The Symposium . Trans . and ed . Alexander Nehemas and Paul Woodruff . Indianapolis : Hackett Publishing Company , 1989 . Plummer , Kenneth , ed .
-
Evening Street Review Number 5
By AMANDA ADAMS, ANDREA BATES, CYNTHIA BELMONTWhen the credits started to roll and Carmen, needing her meds and cigarettes, handed Ryan her car keys, Mary Ellen stared in disbelief. “She's giving him her keys!” she thought, eyeing Pepe, trying to catch his attention because he knew ...
-
The Science of Herself
By Karen Joy FowlerHere she debuts a provocative new story written especially for this series.
-
The Lonely Planet Travel Anthology
By Karen Joy Fowler, Alexander McCall Smith, Francine ProseWe make our way slowly into the assembly hall, where 26 identical pillars cut from one rock line the sides. A fat stupa cut of the same rock stands at the innermost part of the hall; 20 feet high, it's shaped like an overturned bowl ...
-
Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context: A Survey of Parallels Between Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Texts
By John H. Walton... 126 , 134 174 , 203 , 211 , 212 , 216 Theodorides , Aristide , 93 Wiseman , D. J. , 50 , 51 , 67 , Thomas , D. Winton , 170 , 84 , 85 , 89 , 93 , 170 , 200 171 , 200 Thompson , R. Campbell , Wolf , Herbert , 126 22 , 47 , 113 Wright ...
-
Selected Letters: Nicholas Hagger's Letters on His 55 Literary and Universalist Works
By Nicholas HaggerEveryone seems to have got something out of the speeches, the Metaphysical Revolution was declared, and Shelley's wind is now scattering “sparks, my words among mankind” (the passage Kathleen Raine quoted). We now hope it translates ...