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Title: A Disorder Peculiar to the Country

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Ken Kalfus

Narrator: James Boles

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-15-07

Publisher: Audio Evolution

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 30 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

She misses her flight and he's late for work, but on that grim day, in a devastated city, among millions seized by fear and grief, each thinks the other is dead, and each is secretly, shamefully, gloriously happy. As their bitter divorce is further complicated by anthrax scares, suicide bombs, foreign wars, and the stock-market collapse, they suffer, in ways unexpectedly personal and increasingly ludicrous, the many strange ravages of our time.

In this astonishing black comedy, Kalfus suggests how our nation's public calamities have encroached upon our most private illusions.

Critic Reviews:

"My inner idealist hopes Kalfus' novel joins the ranks of Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 on the required reading lists." (Philadelphia Magazine)

"Kalfus' new novel [is] like a fever dream of recent events....Through the interbleeding of public and private story lines and his lampooning approach, Kalfus [is] freeing the way we think about September 11....If hyperbole can be weaponized anywhere in literature, it is here." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Members Reviews:

Divorce: 9/11 Style

Kalfus weaves a darkly hilarious tale of a dying marriage set post 9/11 against the backdrop of Ground Zero. I enjoyed the deliberate reading by James Boles, which sometimes added to the author's wry humor. The story of Marshall and Joyce's divorce strives for analogy, to depict a microcosm of the paranoid, intolerant, inept, and violent new order of the reawoken world. In many ways it succeeds, and in one scene in which a loosey-goosey house party morphs into an eerily creepy parody evocative of the terrible high jinks uncovered at Abu Graib Prison, it is jarringly affective. I recommend this audio book to any fans of say George Saunders, T. C. Boyle, et. al., who enjoy a hearty laugh at the expense of some serious material.

stunning surprise

This is a stunning book. I purchased it on the blurb alone, knowing virtually nothing about the author. It is a very poignant, messy tale of a couple in disarray, in the middle of a great divorce, and a country that is about to be torn apart by terrorism. The manner in which the author melds these two themes and makes us care for his characters, who sometimes do despicable things, is nothing short of brilliant.

not funny

This book is classed as a black comedy due to laziness in the book-blurb industry--a vestigial reference to the tragedy-tragicomedy-comedy spectrum that no longer scans for today's book-jacket shopper.

Any book with unique or singular situations that make you uncomfortable becomes a black comedy, and 'hilarious' ends up in its reviews and blurbs.

Does it find its audience? Personally I shop in this genre for a laugh. Are there readers who look here for dark, depressing books that will reinforce their sense that life is hard and useless? I doubt it.

I am writing this not to knock the book, but to provide fair warning to black-comedy fans. There are far too many books lumped into the black comedy genre, that are not funny at all, but with more care in promotion, would find a willing and appreciative audience. This is such a book.

This is a masterful book for people who enjoy the intake of profoundly numbing grief and disappointment in your fellow-man.