TOXICOLOGY

New York City, NY: Viking/Penguin Books, 2011. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/As New Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Viking/Penguin Books, 2011. Hardcover. As New/As New. First Edition/First Printing. 225 pages. The author's fourth novel. One of Jessica Hagedorn's finest achievements. 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 "Toxicology". Her most ambitious novel since "Dogeaters". "Keenly alert to the mesh of pop culture and life, audacious, multi-talented Hagedorn investigates New York's art and film mystique in an edgy, speedy tale that launches with the shocking death of a Heath Ledger-like actor. Out of jump cuts and close-ups, Hagedorn has composed a jazzy, stingingly smart tragicomedy of toxic substances, hate, and delusions; hustle and creativity; obsession and passion" (Booklist). 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 our 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". 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. Her signature is clean, flowing, and elegant. 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 0670022578.