The Sentence

(Other book format)

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Description

The Sentence is wholly unique: a graphic novel told in the form of a sentence diagram. A single 6732-word sentence, diagrammed in full.

Set in a parallel-universe United States in which the government has recently been overthrown by a military coup, the story is narrated by a lonely young grammar professor, Riley, who is suddenly branded a traitor by the new regime. Bewildered by the charges, and fearing a death sentence, Riley manages to flee to an anarchist commune in the wilderness. After a lifetime of feeling alienated, of desperately longing for friendship, Riley is astonished to be accepted and loved by the anarchiststo come to love the anarchists in return. But when the anarchists reveal a plot to assassinate the authoritarian dictator of the country, Riley is forced to choose whether to support the plotto return to the capital and help the anarchists bomb the headquartersor to lose their newfound family forever.

Reviews

Praise for Matthew Baker and Why Visit America

"Satirical and comedic... The premises of the stories in Why Visit America are increasingly inventive and clever, often featuring some sort of reversal to our current social order, offering up allegorical commentary on who we are as Americans."
The New York Times

"Baker never takes the easy way out. He doesnt brandish sharp swords at American capitalism or consumer excess or fears that masquerade as politics. Neither does he construct straw men, then ask the reader to applaud when he lights them on fire."
The Washington Post

"Imaginative. . . .Satirical and deeply humane, these poignant stories expose the moral bankruptcy at the rotten core of the American social contract."
Esquire

"Inventive. . . . Baker pairs his propensity for play with broad societal critiques. . . . In the vein of a writer like Donald Barthelme, Baker is both witty and big-hearted."
The A.V. Club

"Baker has a sharp eye for Americana, both faded and glossy. . . .Quickly moving from the naturalist to the surreal, the erotic, and the experimental, the diversity of styles, locales, and characters in this collection is a testament to Bakers range. . . In form and concept, these stories recall those by the great fabulists Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, and Shirley Jackson."
Guernica

"Striking... In Bakers stories we see an aspirational America: a country wrought with anger and longing and fear and hate but also one where you cant let go of the feeling that we are hurtling toward some greater reconciliation... Bakers writing is beyond satisfying."
The Rumpus

This book is a collection of thirteen short stories that span the width and breadth of America, tackling its despairs, its hopes, its triumphs, and its failures with an eloquence and insight that frankly should be illegal for how good it is.
Lightspeed Magazine

"The genre is 'literary fiction', the overriding theme funhouse-mirror visions of the titular countrys quirks and obsessions. . . .This is a first-rate writer.
Nightmare Magazine

"Bold, captivating, and deeply relevant, Bakers imaginative stories offer approachable, optimistic perspectives on morally ambiguous topics facing Americans, including what it means to be one nation."
Booklist, starred review

"The mundane details of everyday life are tweaked in subtle but surprising, fantastical ways. . . This is a smart, imaginative, and thoughtful collection."
Publishers Weekly

Author Bio

Named one of Varietys 10 Storytellers To Watch,Matthew Bakeris the author of the story collectionsWhy Visit AmericaandHybrid Creatures and the childrens novel Key Of X, originally published as If You Find This. Digital experiments include the temporal fiction Ephemeral, the interlinked novel Untold, the randomized novel Verses, and the intentionally posthumous Afterthought, along with the cyber zine Code Lit.