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Bech at Bay: A Quasi-Novel
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Bibliographic Detail
Publisher Random House Large Print
Publication date October 1, 1998
Pages 291
Binding Paperback
Edition Large print
Book category Adult Fiction
ISBN-13 9780375704178
ISBN-10 0375704175
Dimensions 0.75 by 5.25 by 8.75 in.
Weight 0.80 lbs.
Availability§ Publisher Out of Stock Indefinitely
Original list price $23.00
Other format details large print
§As reported by publisher
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Summaries and Reviews
Summary
Septuagenarian Jewish-American writer Henry Bech, the hero of Bech: A Book and Bech Is Back, confronts new challenges in his life, including a much-coveted Nobel Prize, an honor that stuns him. (General Fiction).
Amazon.com description: Product Description: Make it easy on yourself!  Read John Updike in Large Print

* All Random House Large Print titles are published in a 16-point typeface

Henry Bech, the moderately well known Jewish-American writer who served as the hero of John Updike's previous Bech: A Book (1970) and Bech Is Back (1982), has become older but scarcely wiser. In these five new chapters from his life, he is still at bay, pursued by the hounds of desire and anxiety, of unbridled criticism and publicity in a literary world ever more cheerfully crass. He fights intimations of annihilation in still-Communist Czechoslovakia, while promiscuously consorting with dissidents, apparatchiks, and Midwestern Republicans. Next, he succumbs to the temptations of power by accepting the presidency of a quaint and cosseted honorary body patterned on the Académie Française. Then, the reader finds him on trial in California and on a criminal rampage in a gothic Gotham, abetted by a nubile sidekick called Robin. Lastly, our septuagenarian veteran of the literary wars is rewarded with a coveted medal, stunning him into a well-deserved silence. It's not easy being Henry Bech in the post-Gutenbergian world, but somebody has to do it, and he brings to the task an indomitable mixture of grit and ennui.

Editions
Hardcover
Book cover for 9780375403682
 
from Alfred a Knopf Inc (October 1, 1998)
9780375403682 | details & prices | 240 pages | 5.50 × 8.75 × 1.25 in. | 0.85 lbs | List price $23.00
About: Septuagenarian Jewish American writer Henry Bech confronts new challenges in his life, including a much-coveted Nobel Prize, an honor that stuns him
Paperback
Book cover for 9780375704178 Book cover for 9780449004043 Book cover for 9780783802640
 
Reprint edition from Random House Inc (October 1, 1999)
9780449004043 | details & prices | 241 pages | 5.00 × 7.75 × 0.50 in. | 0.50 lbs | List price $16.00
About: Septuagenarian Jewish American writer Henry Bech confronts new challenges in his life, including a much-coveted Nobel Prize, an honor that stuns him
Large print edition from G K Hall & Co (March 1, 1999)
9780783802640 | details & prices | 6.25 × 9.25 × 1.00 in. | 0.95 lbs | List price $24.00
The price comparison is for this edition
Large print edition from Random House Large Print (October 1, 1998)
9780375704178 | details & prices | 291 pages | 5.25 × 8.75 × 0.75 in. | 0.80 lbs | List price $23.00
About: Septuagenarian Jewish American writer Henry Bech confronts new challenges in his life, including a much-coveted Nobel Prize, an honor that stuns him

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