Joseph McElroy

Women and Men is Joseph McElroy's sixth novel. Published in 1987, it is 1192 pages long. Somewhat notably, because of its size, the uncorrected proof was issued in two volumes. The size and complexity of the novel have led it to be compared in significance with Ulysses, The Recognitions, and Gravity's Rainbow. The …

A Smuggler's Bible is Joseph McElroy's first novel. David Brooke—who talks of himself in a split-personality manner—narrates a framing tale that consists of him "smuggling" his essence into eight autobiographical manuscripts, although their connection with Brooke is not always clear. Brooke seems to deteriorate, while …

The Letter Left to Me is Joseph McElroy's seventh novel. A letter from father to son is delivered to the son shortly after the father's death. The letter receives wider and wider circulation, and its continued effect on the son's life is described.

Actress in the House is Joseph McElroy's eighth novel. Lawyer Bill Daley follows up an unusual phone call from stage actress Becca Lang by attending her show. Daley is appalled when Becca is slugged rather brutally in what was clearly supposed to have been a stage slap. He stays afterwards, and she moves into his life.

Lookout Cartridge is Joseph McElroy's fourth novel. The narrator, Cartwright, had made with his friend Dagger a fairly pointless art film/documentary using loaned professional equipment, with scenes set in Stonehenge, Hyde Park, and other locations in England, plus one scene in Ajaccio, Corsica. But someone destroyed …

Hind's Kidnap: A Pastoral on Familiar Airs is Joseph McElroy's second novel. Ostensibly it is a mystery concerning a six-year-old unsolved kidnapping, one that the 6'7" protagonist Jack Hind had tried to solve at the time. His marriage falling apart, Hind obsessively follows a treasure hunt of planted clues that lead …