A box of matches : a novel

The Resource A box of matches : a novel
Label
A box of matches : a novel
Title remainder
a novel
Statement of responsibility
Nicholson Baker
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
One man's simple, colloquial meditations on his past, his family, and his life's daily minutia are the substance of Nicholson Baker's A Box of Matches. Feeling that life is passing him by, Emmett, a middle-aged medical textbook editor, decides to wake up early each day to sit by a fire in his country house and record his thoughts in a diary. "Good morning," Emmett begins, "it's January and its 4:17 a.m., and I'm going to sit here in the dark." From this vantage point, Emmett reflects stream-of-consciousness style on whatever occurs to him, no matter how mundane: his recent trip to Home Depot, how he met his wife, the habits of the family duck. Routines, such as how he makes his morning coffee in the dark or picks up his underwear with his toes, are described with childlike reverence and directness. For many, life is made up of such apparent trivialities, and that only by pausing to appreciate them can anyone gain any lasting satisfaction. Baker emphasizes this through the moments of understated wisdom and joy that Emmett derives from ordinary occurrences, such as the daylight through the window: "a simple light that goes everywhere but with no heat, aware that it is taken for granted and content to be so."
Cataloging source
TEFOD
Dewey number
813/.54
Index
no index present
LC call number
PS3552.A4325
LC item number
B69 2003eb
Literary form
fiction
Nature of contents
dictionaries

Context

Context of A box of matches : a novel

Work of

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