Nobody's Home

"New life is breathed into novels and stories which in most cases have been elaborately examined by a succession of earlier critics....Weinstein not only has a masterful command of the texts he deals with, but also of the criticism which has accumulated about them....Nobody's Home is a stimulating, ambitious book which fulfills virtually all one's expectations about how a comparatist should go about assessing a century and a half of American fiction."--Novel "I deeply admire the care and craft inherent in Weinstein's `close-grained analyses'; the author's almost unfashionable optimism is refreshing and, in most cases, tenable and cogent."--Z. Bart Thornton, The Kincaid School "Weinstein reveals something I don't see much in scholarly criticism anymore--his own willingness to be impressed by what he reads. He then studies that impression with all the tools provided by contemporary theory, but the text at hand remains paramount. His readings have that esoteric freedom from dogma that is unfortunately rare these days. I'd recommend him to anyone--graduate or undergraduate."--Nelson Hathcock, Saint Xavier University "A refreshingly clear, insightful, and useful reevaluation of literary works often taught."--Choice "This book is, in one word, splendid. From Hawthorne's `Wakefield' to Don DeLillo's novels this book illuminates everything it touches. Weinstein is simply superb on Hawthorne, Melville, Mark Twain, Anderson, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and Hemingway."--James Cox, Dartmouth College "New life is breathed into novels and stories which in most cases have been elaborately examined by a succession of earlier critics....Weinstein not only has a masterful command of the texts he deals with, but also of the criticism which has accumulated about them....Nobody's Home is a stimulating, ambitious book which fulfills virtually all one's expectations about how a comparatist should go about assessing a century and a half of American fiction."--Novel "I deeply admire the care and craft inherent in Weinstein's `close-grained analyses'; the author's almost unfashionable optimism is refreshing and, in most cases, tenable and cogent."--Z. Bart Thornton, The Kincaid School "Weinstein reveals something I don't see much in scholarly criticism anymore--his own willingness to be impressed by what he reads. He then studies that impression with all the tools provided by contemporary theory, but the text at hand remains paramount. His readings have that esoteric freedom from dogma that is unfortunately rare these days. I'd recommend him to anyone--graduate or undergraduate."--Nelson Hathcock, Saint Xavier University "A refreshingly clear, insightful, and useful reevaluation of literary works often taught."--Choice "This book is, in one word, splendid. From Hawthorne's `Wakefield' to Don DeLillo's novels this book illuminates everything it touches. Weinstein is simply superb on Hawthorne, Melville, Mark Twain, Anderson, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and Hemingway."--James Cox, Dartmouth College "Nobody's Home provides fresh and interesting interpretations of American fiction from Hawthorne to DeLillo, and it is written with clarity and force."--David Minter, Rice University (*don't use in ads) "A coherent account of a major thrust in American literature and life--highlighted by a set of fifteen wonderfully detailed readings, a good many of which are simply the best ever written on these particular texts."--Donald Kartiganer, University of Mississippi