Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories Book

From the Pulitzer Prizeâ??winning author hailed by The New Yorker as â??a virtuoso of waking dreamsâ? comes a dazzling new collection of darkly comic stories united by their obsession with obsession. In Dangerous Laughter, Steven Millhauser transports us to unknown universes that uncannily resemble our own.The collection is divided into three parts that fit seamlessly together as a whole. It opens with a bang, as â??Cat â??nâ?? Mouseâ? reimagines the deadly ritual between cartoon rivals in a comedy of dynamite and anvilsâ??a masterly prologue that sets the stage for the alluring, very grown-up twists that follow.Part one, â??Vanishing Acts,â? features stories of risk and escape: a lonely woman disappears without a trace; a high school boy becomes entangled with his best friendâ??s troubled sister; and a group of teenagers play a treacherous game that pushes them deep into â??the kingdom of forbidden things.â?Excess reigns in the vivid, haunting places of Part twoâ??s â??Impossible Architectures,â? where domes enclose whole cities, and a kingâ??s master miniaturist creates objects so tiny that soon his entire world is invisible.Finally, â??Heretical Historiesâ? presents startling alternatives to the remembered past. â??A Precursor of the Cinemaâ? proposes a new, enigmatic form of illusion. And in the astonishing â??The Wizard of West Orangeâ? a famous inventor sets out to simulate the sense of touchâ??but success brings disturbing consequences.Sensual, mysterious, Dangerous Laughter is a mesmerizing journey through brilliantly realized labyrinths of mortal pleasures that stretch the boundaries of the ordinary world to their limitsâ??and occasionally beyond.Read More