In store now! The Recognitions by William Gaddis
Sadly maligned on release in 1955, William Gaddis’ The Recognitions has only grown in reputation since, becoming widely regarded as one of the greatest American novels ever written. Positioned somewhere between James Joyce and Thomas Pynchon, Gaddis’ debut novel finds Gwyon, a talented but struggling artist, making a Faustian deal with an art collector: forge ‘new’ works by ‘old masters’, and he’ll be rich forever. But as he ascends through the upper echelons of society, questions of talent, authenticity, and faith begin to plague Gwyon.
Featuring an enormous cast of characters and their interlocking stories, The Recognitions is an hilarious, madcap, deeply moving exploration of why we make art in the first place, and what it means to do so. Featuring some of the funniest lines of dialogue, and the most fully realised protagonists ever to grace American letters, The Recognitions is a novel of boundless ambition and talent. To be placed alongside Moby-Dick, Ulysses, and Ducks, Newburyport.
Keep up with news from NYRB here @nyrbclassics
Order your copy today directly through October Books or buy online through our bookshop store and we’ll get a commission on your purchase.
The Recognitions by William Gaddis
Paperback £27.00
The Recognitions is a masterwork about art and forgery, and the increasingly thin line between the counterfeit and the fake. Gaddis anticipates by almost half a century the crisis of reality that we currently face, where the real and the virtual are combining in alarming ways, and the sources of legitimacy and power are often obscure to us.
Order your copy today directly from October Books or buy online through our bookshop store and we’ll get commission on your purchase.
We are open:
Monday - Saturday
10am - 5.30 pm
We are back open six days a week, with the whole store open for browsing. We will still of course be taking customer orders and you will still be able to buy food and cleaning products online through our online store.
We are able to be open 6 days a week again because of your consideration and care whilst in the shop. Though things are opening up, covid cases are still high and a lot of our staff have only received one jab. So we are asking customers to continue to leave that extra space, sanitise their hands and pull on their mask. We really appreciate it.
