Donald Antrim

In a world marked by full-scale neighborhood wars in the local park and lawns encircled by trenches, civic-minded schoolteacher Pete Robinson finds himself increasingly obsessed with his darkly powerful wife, Meredith. A first novel. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World

'A dark, suburban fantasy ... richly funny, even whimsical, and bizarrely familiar.' - The New Yorker. Having accidentally inspired the local suburbanites to draw and quarter the town's blood-thirsty Mayor, Pete Robinson -civic-minded schoolteacher and enthusiastic historian of the Medieval Inquisition -embarks on a tenuous election campaign. But his sleepy town has entered a period of crisis; the local park is littered with landmines, the neighbours are building deadly moats around their homes, and his beautiful wife, Meredith, has discovered dark and powerful talents within herself, which threaten to transfigure their once serene lives forever. In amongst this chaos, can Mr Robinson satisfy the terrible will of the people? By turns funny and phantasmagorical, fiercely intelligent and imaginative, Donald Antrim's first novel of suburban civics turned macabre is a new American classic.

Elect Mr Robinson for a Better World

Gary Homewood

Re-read this for the first time since it's early 90s release.
An amateur historian of medieval torture techniques recounts his American middle class suburbs inexplicable descent into chaos and bizarre violence and his attempts at home schooling. Hilarious comedic set pieces, well paced and satirically observed, unhinged and shocking all at the same time. Utterly brilliant. Would make a great and probably polarising book club recommendation.

Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World

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