{"title":"Ed Park","description":"Ed Park is the author of the novels Same Bed Different Dreams, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, was named a Top Ten Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly and was a New York Times Notable Book; and Personal Days, a finalist for the PEN\/Hemingway Award. His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney's,  Vice, Harvard Review, and other periodicals and anthologies, and he writes regularly for The New York Review of Books, Harper's, The Atlantic, Bookforum, and elsewhere. Ed was a founding editor of The Believer and the former literary editor of The Voice Literary Supplement, and has also worked in publishing. Born in Buffalo, he lives in Manhattan with his family, and currently teaches writing at Princeton University.","products":[{"product_id":"an-oral-history-of-atlantis-stories-hardcover","title":"An Oral History of Atlantis: Stories - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eGilt-edged stories that slice clean through the mundanity of modern life, from the author of \u003ci\u003eSame Bed Different Dreams, \u003c\/i\u003e a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Ed Park is one of the funniest writers working today, and among the most humane.\"--Kaveh Akbar, author of \u003ci\u003eMartyr!\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \"Machine City\" a college student's chance role in a friend's movie blurs the line between his character and his true self. (Is he a robot?) In \"Slide to Unlock\" a man comes to terms with his life via the passwords he struggles to remember in extremis. (What's his mom's name backward?) And in \"Weird Menace\" a director and faded movie star gab about science fiction, bad costume choices, and lost loves on a commentary track for a B-film from the '80s that neither remembers all that well. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn Ed Park's utterly original collection, \u003ci\u003eAn Oral History of Atlantis, \u003c\/i\u003echaracters bemoan their fleeting youth, focus on their breathing, meet cute, break up, write book reviews, translate ancient glyphs, bid on stuff online, whale watch, and once in a while find solace in the sublime. Throughout, Park deploys his trademark wit to create a world both strikingly recognizable and delightfully other. Spanning a quarter century, these sixteen stories tell the absurd truth about our lives. They capture the moment when the present becomes the past--and are proof positive that Ed Park is one of the most imaginative and insightful writers working today.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50102870376671,"sku":"9780812998993","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/yoIA6HJ1tx9780812998993.webp?v=1781087511"},{"product_id":"same-bed-different-dreams-paperback","title":"Same Bed Different Dreams - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePULITZER PRIZE FINALIST - A wild, sweeping novel that imagines an alternate secret history of Korea and the traces it leaves on the present--loaded with assassins and mad poets, RPGs and slasher films, pop bands and the perils of social media \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Your view of twentieth-century history will be enlarged and altered. . . . A \u003ci\u003eGravity's Rainbow\u003c\/i\u003e for another war, an unfinished war.\" --Jonathan Lethem, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Fortress of Solitude\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE \u003ci\u003eLOS ANGELES TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eBOOK PRIZE\u003c\/b\u003e - ONE OF \u003ci\u003ePUBLISHERS WEEKLY\u003c\/i\u003e'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR - \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW \u003c\/i\u003eEDITORS\u003cb\u003e'\u003c\/b\u003e CHOICE \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, \u003c\/i\u003eChicago Public Library, \u003ci\u003ePolygon, Kirkus Reviews \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1919, far-flung patriots establish the Korean Provisional Government to protest the Japanese occupation of their country. This government-in-exile proves mostly symbolic, though, and after Japan's defeat in World War II, the KPG dissolves and civil war erupts, resulting in the tragic North-South split that remains today. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut what if the KPG still existed--now working toward a unified Korea, secretly pulling levers to further its aims? \u003ci\u003eSame Bed Different Dreams \u003c\/i\u003eweaves together three distinct narrative voices with an archive of mysterious images, and twists reality like a kaleidoscope. Korean history, American pop culture, and our tech-fraught lives come together in this extraordinary and unforgettable novel. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSoon Sheen, a former writer now employed by the tech behemoth GLOAT, comes into possession of an unfinished book seemingly authored by the KPG. The manuscript is a riveting revisionist history, connecting famous names and obscure bit players to the KPG's grand project--everyone from Syngman Rhee and architect-poet Yi Sang to Jack London and Marilyn Monroe. \u003ci\u003eM*A*S*H\u003c\/i\u003e is in here, too, as are the Moonies and a history of violence extending from the assassination of President McKinley to the Reagan-era downing of a passenger plane that puts the world on the brink of war. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom the acclaimed author of \u003ci\u003ePersonal Days, Same Bed Different Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e is a raucously funny feat of imagination and a thrilling meld of history and fiction that pulls readers into another dimension--one in which utopia is possible.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50103803379935,"sku":"9780812988321","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/q8psxe_80g9780812988321.webp?v=1781097659"},{"product_id":"personal-days-paperback","title":"Personal Days - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn an unnamed New York-based company, the employees are getting restless as everything around them unravels. There's Pru, the former grad student turned spreadsheet drone; Laars, the hysteric whose work anxiety stalks him in his tooth-grinding dreams; and Jack II, who distributes unwanted backrubs-aka \"jackrubs\"-to his co-workers. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOn a Sunday, one of them is called at home. And the Firings begin.\u003cbr\u003eRich with Orwellian doublespeak, filled with sabotage and romance, this astonishing literary debut is at once a comic delight and a narrative tour de force. It's a novel for anyone who has ever worked in an office and wondered: \"Where does the time go? Where does the life go? And whose banana is in the fridge?\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePraise for PERSONAL DAYS\u003cbr\u003e\"Witty and appealing...Anyone who has ever groaned to hear 'impact' used as a verb will cheer as Park skewers the avatars of corporate speak, hellbent on debasing the language....Park has written what one of his characters calls 'a layoff narrative' for our times. As the economy continues its free fall, Park's book may serve as a handy guide for navigating unemployment and uncertainty. Does anyone who isn't a journalist think there can't be two books on the same subject at the same time? We need as many as we can get right now.\" --\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Never have the minutiae of office life been so lovingly cataloged and collated.\" --\"Three First Novels that Just Might Last,\" --\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTime\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA \"comic and creepy d but...Park transforms the banal into the eerie, rendering ominous the familiar request \"Does anyone want anything from the outside world?\" \u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"The modern corporate office is to Ed Park's debut novel \u003ci\u003ePersonal Days\u003c\/i\u003e what World War II was to Joseph Heller's \u003ci\u003eCatch-22\u003c\/i\u003e--a theater of absurdity and injustice so profound as to defy all reason....Park may be in line to fill the shoes left by Kurt Vonnegut and other satirists par excellence.\"\u003cb\u003e--Samantha Dunn, \u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In \u003ci\u003ePersonal Days\u003c\/i\u003e Ed Park has crafted a sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, but always adroit novel about office life...Sharp and lovely language.\" \u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eNewsweek\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A warm and winning fiction debut.\" \u003cb\u003e-- \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"I laughed until they put me in a mental hospital. But \u003ci\u003ePersonal Days\u003c\/i\u003e is so much more than satire. Underneath Park's masterly portrait of wasted workaday lives is a pulsating heart, and an odd, buoyant hope.\" \u003cb\u003e-- Gary Shteyngart, author of \u003ci\u003eAbsurdistan \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The funniest book I've read about the way we work now.\" \u003cb\u003e-William Poundstone, author of \u003ci\u003eFortune's Formula\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ed Park joins Andy Warhol and Don DeLillo as a master of the deadpan vernacular.\" \u003cb\u003e--Helen DeWitt, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Last Samurai\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50104223269087,"sku":"9780812978575","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/B0ddm2NU5r9780812978575.webp?v=1781104443"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/ed-park.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}