12
the
universit y
of
wisconsin
press
•
F
all
2013
FICTION
“Carl Djerassi can write knowledgeably and wittily not only about scientists,
but also about smart, competitive, obsessive people frommany other walks
of life.”
—David Lodge, author of
Changing Places
and
A Man of Parts
Carl Djerassi crafts a shrewd collection of comedies of manners, exposing the
foibles of elite tribes—business executives, chefs, scientists, professors, musi-
cians, and other clever characters. They spar in battles of one-upmanship using
class, education, gender, or prestige as their weapons, sometimes leaving damaged
bystanders in their wake but sometimes finding their superiority deflated by unex-
pected turns of events.
“One of the pleasures of Carl Djerassi’s witty, richly detailed stories is that they
have the rare merit of letting us look into some special works—art, science—that
are usually closed to writers who are only writers. The pen of the trained observer
is as acute as his eye.”—Diane Johnson, author of
L’Affaire
Carl Djerassi
is the author of the novels
Cantor’s
Dilemma
;
The Bourbaki Gambit
;
Marx, Deceased
;
Menachem’s Seed
; and
NO
, and of plays, essays, poetry,
and short stories that have been published in twenty
languages. Renowned as both a writer and a scientist,
he is emeritus professor of chemistry at Stanford Uni-
versity and recipient of thirty honorary doctorates as
well as many international scientific honors. He lives
in San Francisco, London, and Vienna.
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
SEPTEMBER
LC: 2013010471 PS
168 PP. 5 ½ × 8 ¼
E-BOOK $12.95 T ISBN 978-0-299-29503-5
A trade imprint of the University
of Wisconsin Press
• VISIT
“These stories describe abstract
conflicts, jockeying for prestige,
or social interactions seen as
complexes of negotiation, and the
pleasure they give is akin to that
of being taken through a skillful
game of chess by an explicitly
authoritative commentator.”
—Colin Greenland,
Times Literary
Supplement
Of re l at ed int e re s t
Duncan Fallowell
“A strange and wonderful book. Fallowell
is a marvelous raconteur who seems inca-
pable of writing a dull sentence.”
—James Magruder, author of
Sugarless
Winner of the 2012 PEN / Ackerley
Prize for Memoir
PUBLISHED JUNE 2013
LC: 2012040153 PR 248 PP. 5 ¼ × 7 ½
E-BOOK $16.95 T ISBN 978-0-299-29243-0
Terrace Books
Karen Ostertag
