Jessie Eisenberg
Fiction Ei834b
Taking its
title from a group of stories that begin the book, Bream
Gives Me Hiccups moves from contemporary L.A. to the dormrooms of
an American college to ancient Pompeii, throwing the reader into a universe of
social misfits, reimagined scenes from history, and ridiculous overreactions.
In one piece, a tense email exchange between a young man and his girlfriend is
taken over by the man’s sister, who is obsessed with the Bosnian genocide (The situation reminds me of a little historical
blip called the Karadordevo agreement); in another, a college
freshman forced to live with a roommate is stunned when one of her ramen
packets goes missing (she didn’t have “one” of my
ramens. She had a chicken ramen); in another piece, Alexander
Graham Bell has teething problems with his invention (I’ve been calling Mabel all day, she doesn’t
pick up! Yes, of course I dialed the right number – 2!).
United by Eisenberg’s gift for humor and character, and grouped into chapters that each open with an illustration by award-winning cartoonist Jean Jullien, the witty pieces collected in Bream Gives Me Hiccups explore the various insanities of the modern world, and mark the arrival of a fantastically funny, self-ironic, and original voice.
United by Eisenberg’s gift for humor and character, and grouped into chapters that each open with an illustration by award-winning cartoonist Jean Jullien, the witty pieces collected in Bream Gives Me Hiccups explore the various insanities of the modern world, and mark the arrival of a fantastically funny, self-ironic, and original voice.
(from publisher)
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