1985 Archives - Page 2 of 2 - The Vintage Contemporaries Bibliography

Kathryn Kramer – A Handbook for Visitors from Outer Space (1985)

Bibliographic Description

85.05.W012: Kramer – A Handbook for Visitors From Outer Space

First Vintage Books Edition, May 1985

176 leaves, pp. [10] 1-4 5-101 102-104 105-197 198-202 203-277 278-280 281-297 298-300 301-329 330-332 333-335 336 [6] [only odd-numbered pages numbered from 5-101, 105-197, 203-277, 281-297, 301-329, 333-335]

Contents: π1a blurbs, π1b “ALSO AVAILABLE IN VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES”, π2a half-title, π2b blank, π3a title, π3b imprint, π4a epigraph, π4b blank, π5a “A Note to the Reader”, π5b blank, 1-336 A Handbook for Visitors from Outer Space: 1 section title “Part One”, 2 blank, 3-5 “The House at the World’s End | (AFTERWORD AND PREFACE)”, 6-21 “On All Fronts”, 22-45 “Seeds of Conflict”, 46-102 “Green Fields and White Rooms”, 103-149 “Apostasy | (Not to Mention Incest)”, 150-198 “Investiture”, 199 section title “Part Two”, 200 blank, 201-219 “Unconfirmed | Troop Movement”, 220-265 “Mutiny”, 266-278 “The Lines Are Drawn”, 279-298 “Flying Home”, 299-330 “The Battle Joins on the | New Jersey Turnpike”, 331-336 “Parade”; χ1a blank, χ1b blank, χ2a about the author, χ2b blank, χ3a blank, χ3b blank.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by David Monteil.

Copies: JDP 1.1 (presumed)

Blurbs

(front cover) A wonderful first novel that dances on the edge of the apocalypse. – front page, The New York Times Book Review
Triumphantly original. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
It’s a fable. It’s a farce. It’s a world situation tragi-comedy and a cartoon family romance. It’s all about the end of the world. Sweet…sad…scary, and how wonderfully well-done. This combination of inspired tenderness and brilliant technique is…characteristic throughout; it reads as if it were written by a very witty angel. – The Sunday Boston Herald
Funny, resonant…precisely expressive language. All the supporting characters are drawn with loving detail and complex stories of their own. – The San Francisco Chronicle
Haunting…For all its kaleidoscopic vision and fragmented structure Kramer’s novel is pleasurable for conventional reasons—the tantalizing enjoyment of surprise, of discovering who knows what about whom. – Newsday
The first novelist juggles big, weighty themes…with remarkable agility and surprising strength…She is an entertainer with both courage and conviction. – The Los Angeles Times
The work of a powerful imagination…a rarity among first novels, a rich multi-layered construct. Kathryn Kramer is a writer to be watched. – The Houston Chronicle

Thomas McGuane – Something to Be Desired (1985)

Bibliographic Description

85.04.W011: McGuane – Something to Be Desired

First Vintage Books Edition, April 1985

96 leaves, pp. [12] 1–2 3-173 [7] [only odd-numbered pages numbered from 3-173]

Contents: π1a blank, π1b blank, π2a blurbs and author photo, π2b “ALSO AVAILABLE IN VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES”, π3a half-title, π3b blank, π4a title, π4b imprint, π5a dedication, π5b blank, π6a epigraph, π6b blank, 1 fly-title, 2 blank, 3-173 Something to Be Desired, χ1b blank, χ2a about the author, χ2b blank, χ3a Vintage Contemporaries order form, χ3b Vintage Contemporaries list, χ4a blank, χ4b blank.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by David Monteil; interior author photo by Paul Dix.

Copies: JDP 1.4

Blurbs

(front cover) McGuane at his passionate and knowledgeable best. – The Chicago Tribune Book World
Gutsy, visionary, harshly beautiful. – Newsday
This is Thomas McGuane’s seventh book and also, I think, his best, a remarkable work of honest colors and fresh phrasings that deliver strong, earned emotional effects. In the world of this novel, which is a physical world brought into high, astonishing relief in almost every sentence, Lucien Taylor, a native son of Montana, embarks on a half-witted, half-unwilling voyage of self-discovery. – Robert Roper, The New York Times Book Review
Probably the season’s best literary offering….McGuane writes as if he invented the medium…tackling life, death, and whatever comes in between….Full of vintage McGuane wit, it is also McGuane’s tightest and most impeccably crafted novel yet. – The Denver Post
This beautiful balance between the comic and the bleak makes Something to Be Desired the newest testimony to McGuane’s huge and humane talents. – The Baltimore Sun
A constant pleasure. – People Magazine

Richard Ford – A Piece of My Heart (1985)

Bibliographical Description

85.04.W010: Ford – A Piece of My Heart

A Piece of | My Heart | RICHARD FORD | Vintage Contemporaries | VINTAGE BOOKS • A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE • NEW YORK

First Vintage Books Edition, April 1985

152 leaves, pp. [6] 1-2 3-4 5-63 64-66 67-134 135-136 137-158 159-160 161-186 187-188 189-201 202-204 205-253 254-256 257-297 [1]

Contents: π1a blurbs and author photo, π1b “ALSO AVAILABLE IN VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES”, π2a title, π2b imprint, π3a dedication, π3b blank, 1-297 A Piece of My Heart: 1-2 “Prologue”, 3-64 “PART I | Robard Hewes”, 65-134 “PART II | Sam Newel”, 135-158 “PART III | Robard Hewes”, 159-186 “PART IV | Sam Newel”, 187-202 “PART V | Robard Hewes”, 203-254 “PART VI | Sam Newel”, 255-295 “PART VII | Robard Hewes”, 296-297 “Epilogue”; χ1b about the author.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by David Monteil; interior author photo by Marion Ettlinger.

Copies: JDP 1.2 (presumed)

Blurbs

(front cover) Its power is mysterious and unmistakable…the beginning of a career that could turn out to be extraordinary. – Walter Clemons, Newsweek
A Piece of My Heart is the story of two men in flight—one pursuing a woman, the other pursuing his heart. Drawn by chance and mystery to an uncharted island in the Mississippi River, these men see their hopes and lives become imperiled in this small, fierce world where their ultimate, violent destiny is neither in the least redeeming nor escapable.
Ford is a masterful writer. – Raymond Carver, The Chicago Tribune Book World
Superb…brutally real and at the same time haunting…one of those rare surprises that come along every few years. – Jim Harrison
This is one of those books that hit you hard…a story filled with breathing characters and genius-crafted dialogue between moments of consummate description….I can’t be unbiased. I’m mad for this book. – Elizabeth Ashton, The Houston Chronicle
Without intruding on the very real momentum of his many characters, Ford has lifted his story into the realm of fable. – The Village Voice
A signal work of nativist fiction…this book may be a classic of the genre, first novel or tenth….Ford is a superb storyteller who can relate a vignette of pure horror or a comedy of rustic manners with equal brilliance. – The National Review

Frederick Exley – A Fan’s Notes (1985)

Bibliographic Description

85.04.W009: Exley – A Fan’s Notes

First Vintage Books Edition, April 1985

200 leaves, pp. [14] 1-385 [1]

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by David Monteil; interior author photo by Mark Jury.

Copies: JDP 1.1 (presumed)

Blurbs

(front cover) A singularly moving, entertaining, funny book. – The New York Times
A Fan’s Notes is strong, beautiful, American, one of a kind. – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Exley has the Fitzgerald-like gift to wrap up the aching vision of beauty (usually in a young girl), the funnily maladroit failure to possess that beauty, and the overwhelming despair that follows the entire process, all in a single tone of narrative accuracy whose authentic sweetness is the measure of its truth-telling….A welcome reminder of what the basic business of literature and of living really is. All fans of art and life should read it. – Jack Kroll, Newsweek
Writers of every kind of aesthetic and cultural persuasion talk about it with one another, and press it on their friends to read….When I urge A Fan’s Notes on a friend who asks what is it about? or what is it like? I say read it, just read it. – Geoffrey Wolff, The Los Angeles Times
This is the horrible and hilarious account of a long failure, but a failure which turns into success: the success that this book is. A Fan’s Notes is one man’s life, written with brilliance and insight. No one should have had Exley’s life, and no one who has read it can ever forget it. – James Dickey
The best novel written in the English language since The Great Gatsby. – Mike McGrady, Newsday

Anita Brookner – The Debut (1985)

Bibliographic Description

85.03.W008: Brookner – The Debut

First Vintage Books Edition, March 1985

96 leaves, pp. 1-6 7-192

Contents: 1 blurbs and author photo, 2 “ALSO AVAILABLE IN VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES”, 3 title, 4 imprint, 5 fly-title, 6 blank, 7-192 The Debut.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by David Monteil; interior author photo by Jerry Bauer.

Copies: JDP 1.1 (presumed)

Blurbs

(front cover) Deft, lively, and quite touching. – Mary Gordon
Since childhood Ruth Weiss has been escaping from life into books, and from the hothouse attentions of her tyrannical and eccentric parents into the gentler warmth of lovers and friends. Now Dr. Weiss, at forty, a quiet scholar devoted to the study of Balzac, is convinced that her life has been ruined by literature, and that once again she must make a new start in life.
Precise and haunting….Brookner is a master at creating miniaturist portraits of attenuated lives. – The New York Times
An almost flawless novel. – People
Sly, detached humor has caused Brookner to be compared to Barbara Pym, but her vision is darker and more complex….Brookner’s ambitions exceed those of Pym’s genteel novels of manners and place her outside the genre, to which her writing, with its delicate shadings of character, otherwise seem suited. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Anita Brookner is a stunning writer. – Edna O’Brien
Elegant, bittersweet…and very funny. If you read one book this year, this had better be it. – Fay Weldon