![]() | |
Author | Adrian Jones Pearson |
---|---|
Cover artist | Phil Poole |
Language | English |
Genre | Literary fiction |
Publisher | Cow Eye Press |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardcover) |
Pages | 540 |
ISBN | 978-0-990-91502-7 |
Cow Country (2015) is a novel written under the pseudonym Adrian Jones Pearson and published by Cow Eye Press. It centers on the fortunes of a down-on-his-luck educational administrator at the fictional Cow Eye Community College.
Built around a cattle industry now in decline, the town of Cow Eye Junction is experiencing a severe drought, a demographic incursion, and an ongoing cultural clash as older residents are displaced by a new wave of outsiders moving in. The college, meanwhile, is struggling to maintain its accreditation and to reconcile two rival factions: those who eat meat, and those who will not. Hoping to resolve this situation, the college hires the narrator, Charlie, to serve as Special Projects Coordinator. Struggling to find his place in life as a self-described "habitual divorcee and father of nothing," Charlie is repeatedly drawn into outlandish situations over the course of the novel as he tries to help the college achieve regional accreditation, reconcile a divided faculty, and resurrect the college's annual Christmas party.
The novel drew attention in September 2015 when critic Art Winslow, the longtime Nation books editor, argued in Harper's Magazine that the novel is the work of American author Thomas Pynchon. [1] Nate Jones at Vulture argued against Pynchon's authorship; he contacted Penguin Books directly and was reportedly told: "We are Thomas Pynchon's publisher and this is not a book by Thomas Pynchon." [2] David Marks at Writer's Quarterly drew on certain consistencies to argue that the work is that of short story writer Jacob M. Appel, noting particularly certain thematic similarities between the novel and Appel's Einstein's Beach House , published within six months of Cow Country. [3] Marks observed that the website "cowcountry.com" had previously been registered under the name "J. Appel." Laura Well speculates that the novel is actually a collective work of multiple authors. [4]
On September 12, the Associated Press reported that they had traced the website of the book's publisher, Cow Eye Press, to an author named Anthony Perry. [5] Critic L. Best noted that Anthony Perry is the name of a journalist who, in the past, has written about conspiracy theories regarding Pynchon in various newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. [6] Best also says that "A Perry" is a recurring character in the stories of Jacob Appel. [7] Alex Shepard, writing for the New Republic, presents the best case for identifying the author as A. J. Perry rather than Pynchon. [8]
Initially, the volume was reviewed only on a limited scale. The San Francisco Book Review wrote, "With quirky characters and impossible situations, Cow Country handles drought, institutional lunacy, racism, and romance with deft insight, as well as keen-edged satirical commentary." [9] The Midwest Book Review described it as a "tour de farce." [10] Kirkus called the book "Ambitious in its creation of this kooky world, the book will certainly strike a chord with readers lost in their own wacky arenas of academic bickering." [11]
In March 2017, it was announced that Cow Country was included in the long list for the Yasnaya Polyana Foreign Fiction Award, which is given annually by the estate of Leo Tolstoy. [12]
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, science, and mathematics. For Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon won the 1973 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American novelists.
Patrick O'Brian, born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series. These sea novels are set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centre on the friendship of the English naval captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen Maturin. The 20-novel series, the first of which is Master and Commander, is known for its well-researched and highly detailed portrayal of early 19th-century life, as well as its authentic and evocative language. A partially finished 21st novel in the series was published posthumously containing facing pages of handwriting and typescript.
Gravity's Rainbow is a 1973 novel by the American writer Thomas Pynchon. The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military. In particular, it features the quest undertaken by several characters to uncover the secret of a mysterious device, the Schwarzgerät, which is slated to be installed in a rocket with the serial number "00000".
Vineland is a 1990 novel by Thomas Pynchon, a postmodern fiction set in California, United States in 1984, the year of Ronald Reagan's reelection. Through flashbacks by its characters, who have lived the sixties in their youth, the story accounts for the free spirit of rebellion of that decade, and describes the traits of the "fascistic Nixonian repression" and its War on Drugs that clashed with it; and it articulates the slide and transformation that occurred in U.S. society from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Azar Nafisi is an Iranian-American writer and professor of English literature. Born in Tehran, Iran, she has resided in the United States since 1997 and became a U.S. citizen in 2008.
Edward Payson Whittemore was an American novelist, the author of five novels written between 1974 and 1987, including the highly praised series Jerusalem Quartet. He had started his career as a case officer in the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Operations between 1958 and 1967.
Postmodern literature is a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and which often thematizes both historical and political issues. This style of experimental literature emerged strongly in the United States in the 1960s through the writings of authors such as Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis, Philip K. Dick, Kathy Acker, and John Barth. Postmodernists often challenge authorities, which has been seen as a symptom of the fact that this style of literature first emerged in the context of political tendencies in the 1960s. This inspiration is, among other things, seen through how postmodern literature is highly self-reflexive about the political issues it speaks to.
Jay Parini is an American writer and academic. He is known for novels, poetry, biography, screenplays and criticism. He has published novels about Leo Tolstoy, Walter Benjamin, Paul the Apostle, and Herman Melville.
Don Winslow is an American author best known for his crime novels including Savages, The Force and the Cartel Trilogy.
Laila Lalami is a Moroccan-American novelist, essayist, and professor. After earning her licence ès lettres degree in Morocco, she received a fellowship to study in the United Kingdom (UK), where she earned an MA in linguistics.
Epoch is a triannual American literary magazine founded in 1947 and published by Cornell University. It has published well-known authors and award-winning work including stories reprinted in The Best American Short Stories series and poems later included in The Best American Poetry series. It publishes fiction, poetry, essays, graphic art, and sometimes cartoons and screenplays, but no literary criticism or book reviews.
You Bright and Risen Angels is a 1987 novel by William T. Vollmann, detailing a fictional war between insects and the forces of modern civilization. Vollmann described the book, his first, as "an allegory in part", inspired by his experiences with the mujahedeen in Afghanistan. The novel is subtitled "A Cartoon." It is illustrated by the author.
Edgardo Vega Yunqué was a Puerto Rican novelist and short story writer, who also used the pen name Ed Vega.
Richard Thomas is an American author. His focus is on neo-noir, new weird, and speculative fiction, typically including elements of violence, mental instability, breaks in reality, unreliable narrators, and tragedies. His work is rich in setting and sensory details—often called maximalism. His writing has also been called transgressive and grotesque. In recent years, his dark fiction has added more hope, leaning into hopepunk. He was Editor-in-Chief at both Dark House Press (2012-2016) and Gamut Magazine (2017-2019).
Matt Gallagher is an American author, veteran of the Iraq War and war correspondent. Gallagher has written on a variety of subjects, mainly contemporary war fiction and non-fiction. He first became known for his war memoir Kaboom (2010), which tells of his and his scout platoon's experiences during the Iraq War.
The bibliography of the American novelist Thomas Pynchon includes both fiction and nonfiction works.
Liana Burgess was an Italian translator and literary agent who was the second wife of English writer Anthony Burgess. Burgess and Macellari had embarked on an affair while Burgess was married to his first wife, and Macellari gave birth to a son nine months after their meeting. The couple became tax exiles in the late 1960s, living in Malta and Italy, and spent several years in the United States. They finally settled in Monaco. Macellari played an important role in Burgess's later literary career, negotiating film rights and acting as his European literary agent, and translating his novels.
Alexandria Constantinova Szeman is an American author of literary fiction, poetry, true crime, memoir, and nonfiction. Her poetry and first three books were originally published under the pseudonym Sherri Szeman.
Dan Blum is an American author. His most recent book is The Feet Say Run, a literary novel set in World War II. The novel tells the tale of Hans Jaeger in Nazi Germany, the Jewish girl he loved, and his years fighting with the Wehrmacht.
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is the debut novel by Vietnamese American poet Ocean Vuong, published by Penguin Press on June 4, 2019. An epistolary novel, it is written in the form of a letter from a Vietnamese American son to his illiterate mother. It was a finalist for the 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction.