Fiction. At a prestigious university in Michigan circa 1980, the perplexing poems by Roger Ackroyd have won him a cult following. But who is Roger Ackroyd? Just about the only person on campus not asking that question is Edward Moses, Ackroyd's secret creator. Instead, Edward is flunking his girlfriend's psych class, fighting with his family, and suffering from writer's block. Enter a rival artist pretending to be Roger Ackroyd. In his last week of college, Edward's obsession with exposing the poser threatens to reveal his own true identity. A hilarious campus novel in the tradition of Evelyn Waugh and Kingsley Amis, this debut novel skewers the nature of youth, friendship, and ambition, while making us feel for the lovable but hapless Edward. "Walking a tightrope between the abject and the comic, MISERY BOY offers the hapless misadventures of Edward Moses, a committed secret writer, a committed and not-so-secret drunk, as everything falls to shambles around him. Vibrant and repellent and very funny, MISERY BOY is a razor-sharp debut."--Brian Evenson "'If you were smart you ignored compliments...Somebody complimented your cooking...and you never boiled another potato in your life. With every compliment came a wish for a different, more optimal you.' So writes Rose Servis in MISERY BOY, making me hesitate to compliment her at all. I don't want to change her or influence what she will write next--certain to be as astute and poignant and funny as this. (That is not a compliment, just a fact!)"--Diana Wagman "MISERY BOY is that timeliest of anachronisms; a picaresque novel of the recent past that speaks to our own time with the sort of delirious candor only misfits can muster. Comparisons to Ottessa Moshfegh will be inevitable, but Servis forges a defiantly original path, creating in Eddie Moses a protagonist whose masochistic pursuit of personal artistic purity is both maddening and hilarious--part Henry Fool, part Holden Caulfield, with a dash of Josef K for that enigmatic, existential thrill. Imagine a mumblecore movie written by Thomas Bernhard and you'll be getting close to the finely tuned misanthropic glee of this delightful book. An incredible debut from an emerging writer of immense talent."--Seth Blake "With a prose style that is graceful, innovative and comic, Rose Servis pays homage to, and satirizes Agatha Christie and T.S. Eliot through her brilliant but often befuddled and self-destructive college student protagonist, Edward Moses aka Roger Ackroyd. Servis' Edward is a worthy descendent of J.P. Donleavy's Sebastian Dangerfield from the classic novel The Ginger Man."--Bruce Bauman "Blistering satire from a bold new voice!"--Susan Henderson

Important American periodical dating back to 1850.

This book reveals the strain of a moment in American cultural history that led several remarkable writers -- Emerson, Warner, and Melville -- to render loss in innovative ways. These three key writers rejected Calvinist and sentimental models of bereavement, creating instead the compensations of a mature American literature.

Following a couple of tragic events, Matthew is propelled into a whole new world. While attending his new school, Matthew comes to know the secrets that Daedree, an annoying girl from his former high school, has locked away. Matthew also meets Amber, a beautiful enigmatic girl who leads him to Mr. Xoner's classroom. While there, he learns the art of dreamscaping. Matthew will come to know of the Sandman, who is after a special element called Magineum. Neck deep in skinwalkers, sandsleepers, zombies, soul feeders, ghosts, dream-world criminals known as "night terrors" and more, Matthew learns he is in over his head. Matthew must not only solve the mysteries surrounding those tragic events, but he will also have to protect the Magineum with his life and find a way to be with the one girl of his dreams. Filled with secrecy, mystery and a forbidden tangle of young love, this new life will lead Matthew to unbelievable characters with the most extraordinary abilities he could never have imagined.

For Misery, things just keep getting worse. No matter how much money he makes and success he sees, he consistently finds himself surrounded by darkness. Thankfully, Isla enters his life and becomes the light he needs to make his way through. As things get better for him, Isla’s life gets shaken in the most unexpected way. Chaos has only one goal – to be a better father than his father. Though Carmen isn’t his first pick for the mother of his child, he’s devoted to doing all he can to make sure his baby has the family he never did. When Carmen becomes his main priority, business and personal relationships suffer – including the one he’s trying to build with Fiona. What happens when the most lethal man in the streets is cornered by the woman he hurt? Gunner finds himself staring down the barrel of a gun. His gun. Being held by the person he least expected to ever come for him. In seconds, everyone in the room becomes victim to April’s need to avenge her shattered heart. Will Gunner be able to make his way out alive, or will he become the first man on April’s payback list? Misery, Chaos, and Gunner all get a taste of the rewards and risks of loving a good woman. There is one goal in this riveting two-part series, all three men must ask themselves... can a bad boy truly love a good woman the way she needs to be loved?