A Floating Life: A Novel

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Description

Following a harrowing job interview in a steam room, a nameless narrator leaves his youthful dreams behind. He finds himself at a party talking to a woman he doesn't know, who proves to be his wife. Soon separated from her but still living in the same apartment, he is threatened by a litigious dachshund and saddled with a stubborn case of erectile

Reviews

"The climax resolves all satisfyingly and surprisingly. The elements of the picaresque and magic realism, blended with quirky, surreal humor, should appeal to readers with a taste for the literary and the strange.
Booklist

Odd, offbeat, and strangely shimmering.
Kirkus Reviews

"[Crawford's] refreshing style brings surprise and fun back into fiction.
New York Journal of Books

Tad Crawford is an utterly fearless writer who will and does go wherever his wonderfully anarchic imagination takes him.
Howard Frank Mosher, author of A Stranger in the Kingdom

Through this fantastical saga of privation, like Odysseuss voyage with homecoming, like Dantes tour without a guide or a Beatrice, Crawfords narrator recounts his amazing adventures in a mesmerizing diction of long-suffering cool.
Nelson W. Aldrich Jr., author of Old Money

By turns charming and ominous, whimsical and philosophical, A Floating Life is a multilayered shape-shifting miracle of a first novel.
Melvin Jules Bukiet, author of Strange Fire

Equal parts science fiction, magic realism, and hard-boiled detective story, A Floating Life is a dizzying journey . . . a seamless, spellbinding narrative in the lineage of Borges, Castaeda, and Philip K. Dick.
Kenneth Goldsmith, author of I'll Be Your Mirror and Uncreative Writing

A haunting, unusual, sui generis, and wonderfully sustained novel that also manages to be hilarious. I loved it.
Nick Lyons, author of Spring Creek
"The climax resolves all satisfyingly and surprisingly. The elements of the picaresque and magic realism, blended with quirky, surreal humor, should appeal to readers with a taste for the literary and the strange.
Booklist

Odd, offbeat, and strangely shimmering.
Kirkus Reviews

"[Crawford's] refreshing style brings surprise and fun back into fiction.
New York Journal of Books

Tad Crawford is an utterly fearless writer who will and does go wherever his wonderfully anarchic imagination takes him.
Howard Frank Mosher, author of A Stranger in the Kingdom

Through this fantastical saga of privation, like Odysseuss voyage with homecoming, like Dantes tour without a guide or a Beatrice, Crawfords narrator recounts his amazing adventures in a mesmerizing diction of long-suffering cool.
Nelson W. Aldrich Jr., author of Old Money

By turns charming and ominous, whimsical and philosophical, A Floating Life is a multilayered shape-shifting miracle of a first novel.
Melvin Jules Bukiet, author of Strange Fire

Equal parts science fiction, magic realism, and hard-boiled detective story, A Floating Life is a dizzying journey . . . a seamless, spellbinding narrative in the lineage of Borges, Castaeda, and Philip K. Dick.
Kenneth Goldsmith, author of I'll Be Your Mirror and Uncreative Writing

A haunting, unusual, sui generis, and wonderfully sustained novel that also manages to be hilarious. I loved it.
Nick Lyons, author of Spring Creek

Author Bio

Tad Crawford's stories and articles have appeared in venues such as Art in America, the Caf Irreal, Confrontation, Communication Arts, Family Circle, Glamour, Guernica, the Nation, and Writers Digest. He is the author of many nonfiction books, chiefly on the business lives of artists and writers, and has been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts award. The founder and publisher of Allworth Press, he lives in New York City.