Dana Spiotta, whom Michiko Kakutani called "wonderfully observant and
wonderfully gifted... with an uncanny feel for the absurdities and sadness of
contemporary life" (The New York Times), has written a bold and
moving novel about a fugitive radical from the 1970s who has lived in hiding for
twenty-five years. Eat the Document is a hugely compelling story of
activism, sacrifice, and the cost of living a secret.
In the heyday of the seventies underground, Bobby
DeSoto and Mary Whittaker- passionate, idealistic, and in love - design a series
of radical protests against the Vietnam War. When one action goes wrong, the
course of their lives is forever changed. The two must erase their past, forge
new identities, and never see one another again.
Now it is the 1990s. Mary lives in the suburbs with her
fifteen-year-old son who spends hours immersed in the music of his mother's
generation. She has no idea where Bobby is, whether he is alive or dead.
Shifting between the protests in the 1970s and the con
sequences of those choices in the 1990s, Dana Spiotta deftly explores the
connection between the two eras -- their language, technology, music, and
activism. Character-driven and brilliant, Eating the Document is an
important and revelatory novel about the culture and consequence of rebellion,
with particular resonance now.
(read reviews of Dana Spiotta's novels here)
“A terrific novel, which reads like a diary or a thriller. To Spiotta, words
are controlled substances, and they make the text shimmer and vibrate.” – Laurie
Stone, Chicago Tribune
“Infused with subtle wit . . . singularly powerful and provocative. . .
Spiotta has a wonderful ironic sensibility, juxtaposing ‘70s fervor with ‘90s
expediency.” – Caroline Leavitt, Boston Globe
“Spiotta’s writing brims with energy and intelligence.” –Julia Scheeres, The
New York Times Book Review
“Scintillating
. . . Spiotta creates a mesmerizing portrait of radicalism’s decline.” – John
Freeman, The Seattle Times
“A powerful and disturbing book.” – Joanne Collings, Bookpage
“The novel is a marvel of time travel.”-Greil Marcus, ARTFORUM, “Best book
of 2006”
“Eat the Document brilliantly contrasts nascent and mature postmodernity
through the lens of culture/counterculture. [Spiotta] is the literary heir of
Don DeLillo.” – Sarah Cypher, The Sunday Oregonian
“Spiotta calculates every word, character, and story line to illuminate the
many faces of rebellion. Her book explores protests, bombings, underground
filmmaking, and computer hacking, finding the personal and political
ramifications of each.” –Ross Simonini, Seattle Weekly
“Eat the Document reveals its darkness and weirdness slowly. The corrosive
nature of secrecy is there, as is the eerie ease of self-invention. Spiotta
ultimately expresses a deep ambivalence to American culture and its affection
for starting over, its ‘freedom from memory and history and accounting.”—Anna
Godberson, Esquire online
“A keenly observant and caustically funny tale . . . Spiotta succinctly and
dramatically sizes up today’s chillingly cynical corporate kingdom.” – Donna
Seaman, Booklist
“A forthright and fascinating look at American counterculture.” – Christine
DeZelar-Tiedman, Library Journal
“Gripping and compelling” – Pages magazine
"Spiotta's crisscrossing of times and narrators creates a remarkable
tension....In all of this, Spiotta manages to create a very natural story: It is
believable, uneasy, mildly violent, lovesick and beautifully written."—Laura
Leffler James, Cincinnati City Beat
“Eat the Document raises complicated issues with economical prose and
significant insight, while penetrating its characters’ inner lives with empathy
and understanding.” –Richard Gaughran, Daily-News Record
“Fiction as documentary, a coruscating, heartrending fable of struggle and
loss.” –Kirkus
"Spiotta has written a very American novel about dissent, which becomes more
valuable but also more dangerous and unwelcome in times of war, and the ethical
lines one cannot cross without, as Caroline says, becoming the thing you wish to
escape." –John Hammond, San Antonio Express-News
“Eat the Document is a good yarn. Spiotta is an irresistible satirist and
taut storyteller.” – Gina Mallet, The National Post (Canada)
"I like the way Dana Spiotta tinges reality with a dazzling now-you-see-it,
now-you-don't quality. She uses her prose like a strobe light to give you
enough of a freeze-frame on what's happening to make you stop and wonder whether
you might be implicated in this curious, perhaps dangerous dance." -- Ann
Beattie, author of Follies
“Fantastic . . . It blew me away.” – Katha Pollitt, author of Virginity or
Death! And Other Social and Political Issues of Our Times
"Such smart and delicious satire, yet so true and good to its characters
too. More, please." -- Stewart O’Nan, author of The Good Wife
"With only her second book Dana Spiotta has become, I think, a major
American writer. The ironic connections she makes between the cultural divide of
the early 70s and late 90s are chilling and delicious. This scary and often
brilliant novel comes together beautifully in the end--there's an intense
satisfaction of seeing everything link up so movingly and with such warmth, and
yet Spiotta is the only female writer I know whose prose reminds me of the cool
ambient poetry and steely precision of Don DeLillo, and Eat the Document is as
darkly exact and thrilling as the political novels of Joan Didion." --
Bret Easton Ellis, author of Lunar Park
“Stunning . . . a glittering book that possesses the staccato ferocity of
Joan Didion and the historical resonance and razzle-dazzle language of Don
DeLillo. . . . Ms. Spiotta has a keen ear and even keener eye for the
absurdities and disjunctions of American life, and this novel showcases those
gifts in spades. . . . A symphonic portrait of three decades of American life.”
–Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"A symphonic portrait of three decades of American life, an era
bookended by the radicalism of the Weather Underground and the anarchist
protests of the millennium, by the leftist manifestos of the 1960's and the 90's
willful commodification of the counterculture." Michiko Kakutani, The
New York Times.
"Spiotta elucidates the vast gulf between the alternative cultures of
the '70s and '90s, as well as the elements that bind them. Fiction as
documentary, a coruscating, heartrending fable of struggle and loss."
-- Kirkus Reviews
"With only her second book Dana Spiotta has become, I think, a major
American writer. The ironic connections she makes between the cultural divide of
the early 70s and late 90s are chilling and delicious. This scary and often
brilliant novel comes together beautifully in the end--there's an intense
satisfaction of seeing everything link up so movingly and with such warmth, and
yet Spiotta is the only female writer I know whose prose reminds me of the cool
ambient poetry and steely precision of Don DeLillo, and Eat the Document is as
darkly exact and thrilling as the political novels of Joan Didion."
-- Bret Easton
Ellis, author of Lunar Park
"Like a set of Russian dolls nesting in each other other, Spiotta's
newest
fiction finds the country in the family in a single human heart. Eat the
document -- but read it first." --
Mark Costello, author of Big If
"I like the way Dana Spiotta tinges reality with a dazzling
now-you-see-it, now-you-don't quality. She uses her prose like a strobe light to
give you enough of a freeze-frame on what's happening to make you stop and
wonder whether you might be implicated in this curious, perhaps dangerous
dance." -- Ann
Beattie, author of Follies: New Stories
"Such smart and delicious satire, yet so true and good to its
characters too. More, please." --
Stewart O'Nan, author of The Good Wife
Purchase Eat
the Document a novel by Dana Spiotta. Also available from Amazon here
.
Author Dana Spiotta's novels are available from Powell's
Books or Amazon.
© 2007 by Dana Spiotta, all rights reserved.
Dana Spiotta, whom Michiko Kakutani called "wonderfully observant and
wonderfully gifted... with an uncanny feel for the absurdities and sadness of
contemporary life" (The New York Times), has written a bold and
moving novel about a fugitive radical from the 1970s who has lived in hiding for
twenty-five years. Eat the Document is a hugely compelling story of
activism, sacrifice, and the cost of living a secret.