334 by Thomas M. Disch
If Dickens had written sci-fi he might have created a book as passionate and lacerating as Disch's visionary portrait of the underbelly of 21st-century New York. Poisonously funny, piercingly authentic, 334 is a masterpiece of social realism disguised as science fiction.
334 by Thomas M. Disch
4th trade paperback printing
Condition: Near fine, very light edge and corner wear. Softcover.
Publishing Info: Vintage, New York
ISBN: 9780375705441
If Charles Dickens has written speculative fiction, he might have created a novel as intricate, passionate, and lacerating as Thomas M. Disch's visionary portrait of the underbelly of 21st-century New York City. The residents of the public housing project at 334 East 11th Street live in a world of rationed babies and sanctioned drug addiction. Real food is displayed in museums and hospital attendants moonlight as body-snatchers.
Nimbly hopscotching backward and forward in time, Disch charts the shifting relationships between this world's inheritors: an aging matriarch who falls in love with her young social worker; a widow seeking comfort from the spirit of her dead husband; a privileged preteen choreographing the perfectly gratuitous murder. Poisonously funny, piercingly authentic, 334 is a masterpiece of social realism disguised as science fiction.
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Strange Horizons interview with Disch
NPR interview and obituary
