THE GANGSTER OF LOVE

New York City, NY: Houghton And Mifflin, 1996. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Houghton And Mifflin, 1996. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 311 pages. The author's second novel. Now considered a contemporary classic. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Jessica Hagedorn's "The Gangster of Love". Her brilliant follow-up to "Dogeaters" (1990). "Playful, inventive. Asks serious questions about family, exile, identity, about the problems of learning to operate in another language" (New York Times Book Review). In a celebrated New Yorker Magazine review, Jessica Hagedorn was praised by the late John Updike, the most influential reviewer/critic in America of his time, as one of the most brilliant writers of her generation. Harold Bloom, the greatest literary critic of oru time, weighed in and wrote that "Hagedorn expresses the conflicts experienced by Asian immigrants caught between cultures. She takes aim at racism in the United States and develops in her dramas the themes of displacement and the search for belonging" (Harold Bloom). An absolute "must-have" title for Jessica Hagedorn collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Jessica Hagedorn. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce signed copy thus. Finalist for the National Book Award in 1990 for "Dogeaters". Voted the "Best Book of The Year" by the Before Columbus Foundation. One of the finest American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER JESSICA HAGEDORN TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0395754127.