Stephenson's first novel is now back in print. With a plot that meanders through academic catch-22s; massive, sonic stereo wars; neon-worshiping cults; and a campus-wide civil war, this scathing send-up of American college life presages the rise and fall of one of the most imaginative novelists writing today.
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Stephenson's first novel is now back in print. With a plot that meanders through academic catch-22s; massive, sonic stereo wars; neon-worshiping cults; and a campus-wide civil war, this scathing send-up of American college life presages the rise and fall of one of the most imaginative novelists writing today.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. Size: 7x5x0; Looks unread with original price sticker remnants to front cover. Trade paperback. September 1984 stated first edition. E24 Please email for photos.
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Seller's Description:
Fine with no dust jacket. 0394723627. First edition. A trade-size paperback original. About fine in pictorial printed wrappers. (Remainder mark at bottom edge. ) Author's FIRST book.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Signed by author. VG. 307 p. 1st edition trade paperback original from Vintage, 1984. SIGNED BY NEAL STEPHENSON! On the lower end of VERY GOOD. The author's 1st book.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good- Trade PB. 8vo. Published by Vintage Paperback, New York. 1984. 307 pgs. First Edition/First Printing. Wrappers lightly worn with some light shelfwear to the extremities present. Book is free of ownership marks. Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid. The New York Times Book Review called Neal Stephenson's most recent novel "electrifying" and "hilarious". But if you want to know Stephenson was doing twenty years before he wrote the epic Cryptonomicon, it's back-to-school time. Back to The Big U, that is, a hilarious send-up of American college life starring after years our of print, The Big U is required reading for anyone interested in the early work of this singular writer. Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American author and game designer known for his works of speculative fiction. The Big U (1984) is Neal Stephenson's first published novel, a satire of campus life. The story chronicles the disillusionment of a number of young intellectuals as they encounter the realities of the higher education establishment parodied in the story. Over time their lives and sanity disintegrate in different ways through a series of escalating events that culminates with a full scale civil war raging on the campus of American Megaversity. EB; 8vo 8"-9" tall; 307 pages.
Neal Stephenson once said that "The Big U" was his least favorite novel he'd written. I don't know why. Aside from the fact that next to his other novels TBU is the width of a sliver by comparison, the story arc, characterization and writing are fantastic. An absurdist rendering of the intricate microcosom of college life, TBU happily wavers between farfetched and close to home. Smart, funny, thoughtful, ridiculous and at times panicky and anxiety-producing, Stephenson's first novel is well worth the read despite what the author himself may think of it.
