FREE: The Development, by John Barth

The listing, The Development, by John Barth has ended.

Hardcover, Brand New
5 Out of 5 Stars:A playful flirtation with the Grim Reaper
Amazon Review By R. M. Peterson 10/29/2008
THE DEVELOPMENT is a collection of nine short stories that are connected (sufficiently so that it is fair to regard the book as a novel) by setting, characters, and plot developments. The setting is a planned community on Maryland's Eastern Shore, whose residents are upper-middle class WASPs (with a few Catholics and Jews) living the later or last chapters of their lives, most of whom understandably are pre-occupied with the various manifestations of decrepitude and with death. Yet the novel is by no means a downer. It is so infused with Barth's typical good humor and gentle irony, his linguistic playfulness, and his clever digressions into "meta-fiction" that it becomes an entertainment. THE DEVELOPMENT also features Barth's typical fascination with, and telescoping examination of, matters of history/time and geography/space. In this regard, the last paragraph is particularly noteworthy, and poignant, bearing as it does hints of the author's valediction.

Sad to think that this might well be the last work from Barth, who now is 78 (although in a sense, as Barth I think would concur, what is sad about the inevitable?). THE DEVELOPMENT may not be a major work of American fiction, on the plane of "The Sot-Weed Factor" or "Lost in the Funhouse", but it still is worthwhile. As odd as it might seem to say about a work that constantly flirts with the Grim Reaper, I thoroughly enjoyed THE DEVELOPMENT.