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Lethem, Jonathan : Gun, With Occasional Music: Gumshoe In A Brave New World

Harcourt Brace, New York City, NY, 1994

ISBN 0151364583

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 262 pages. The author's breakthrough debut novel. Now considered a contemporary classic. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only that was largely ignored and eventually destroyed/pulped. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Jonathan Lethem's "Gun, With Occasional Music". His dazzling debut. The novel was belatedly described by Newsweek Magazine as possibly the most spectacular debut of the last decade. Features a brilliantly conceived and flawlessly executed DJ, which has been made to look like a creased, worn, and torn pulp-fiction book. It was so convincingly done that bookstores returned the book, believing that they received very badly damaged and "hurt" copies. The book designer, Michael Koelsch, is one of the best in the business and worked closely with the author (himself an amateur artist). Their work has been called the most brilliant Modern First DJ design of all time. "A tour de force, a blending of speculative and noir fiction that is by turns satirical, witty, tough, and profound" (Lucius Shepard). Lethem has pursued his ransacking of other literary genres and sub-genres in order to re-invent them, give them his own unique twist, and ultimately, create his own singular and oddly moving universe. His inspiration has not flagged with his successive works: Together with "Motherless Brooklyn", his debut novel remains one of his finest achievements. An absolute "must-have" title for Jonathan Lethem collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Jonathan Lethem. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. Lethem's signature on this copy is pure vintage, is very different from, and is sharper than his contemporary "all-over-the-page" scrawl. As such, it is one of his best signatures we have ever seen. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Winner of the Crawford Award for Best Fantasy Novel and the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 1994 for "Gun, With Occasional Music". Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1999 for "Motherless Brooklyn". Selected as one of the "Best Books of The Year" by the New York Times in 2003 for "Fortress of Solitude". Winner of the MacArthur Genius Grant in 2005. One of the most brilliant new voices in American literature. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER JONATHAN LETHEM TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0151364583.

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