by Sam Lipsyte
First published 2002
Steve receives devastating news from two doctors he calls the Philosopher and the Mechanic. He's dying of something completely unprecedented. They've named his condition Goldfarb-Blackstone Preparatory Extinction Syndrome, though it has no physical symptoms anyone can identify. Steve is an ordinary middle-aged advertising executive, divorced and struggling as a father, who creates slogans like "Reality Is for Those Who Dream." His mysterious illness becomes a media sensation. When his doctors are revealed as frauds, Steve's death sentence remains unchanged. He flees to an upstate recovery center run by Heinrich of Newark, a sinister caregiver. From there his journey leads to the desert, where a cult-like media empire plans to capitalize on his death. Steve faces his fate while navigating a world obsessed with both mortality and marketing.
Genres: fiction, satire, literary-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Newark, Upstate
Period: Contemporary
256 pages · Paperback · Broadway
Content warnings: terminal-illness