All About H. Hatterr by G.V. Desani

First further revised printing of All About H. Hatterr from 1970

First published in England in 1948, Pakistani author G.V. Desani's only novel remains a strange, whimsical masterpiece following the title character's journey toward spiritual mastery and enlightenment. Hatterr, an Anglo-Malay living in Calcutta, seeks out seven different Sages in seven cities of the Far East to obtain their wisdom in various areas of living. Each section begins with Hatterr recounting the Sage's "instruction," then the "presumption" about the instruction, and concludes with Hatterr's "life-encounter" about the lesson wherein some hilarity and absurdities ensue. All About H. Hatterr has been praised by literary luminaries like Anthony Burgess (who wrote the introduction for this edition), Saul Bellow, and T.S. Eliot, all of whom regard Desani's only novel as an amazing comic and linguistic feat—which it definitely is. Desani's novel is filled with bizarre and unique slang, hilarious dialogue, and excellent wordplay that makes fun of anything close to a spiritual quest. The Sages, various tricksters, and other travelers Hatterr encounters are particularly ridiculous, and are some of the book's funniest moments. With excellent jacket design by Catherine Smolich for this edition published by FSG, All About H. Hatterr is a great, entertaining book that has somehow fallen through a lot of cracks, but definitely deserves to be read.

Rear cover with photograph of author G.V. Desani

The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud

Later printing of The Magic Barrel published by FSG in 1967

Bernard Malamud's collection of 13 short stories pictured above won the National Book Award in 1959, his first of two, and solidified his presence as a major emerging American writer. Writing largely about Judaism and its people, The Magic Barrel collects some of Malamud's finest short stories from the beginning of his writing career, some published as early as 1950. Malamud came to be considered a master of the short story, publicly praised by many of his colleagues, and now has a short story award named after him given out by the PEN foundation. The eponymous story from this collection is about a young rabbi named Leo Finkle about to begin his congregation, who is in search of a bride in order to get a bigger flock. Finkle sees a marriage coordinator, who gives him pictures of potential brides, except the one he likes most is the coordinator's daughter and comedy ensues. This later edition, which is virtually identical to the first edition, has amazing jacket design by Milton Glaser, the famous designer who made the I ♥ NY logo among many other things. Pictured below is Malamud's simple, script signature on the front endpaper.

Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson

First edition of Tree of Smoke published by FSG in 2007

I'll start by saying that Tree of Smoke is one of my favorite books; it tells the sprawling tales of Skip Sands and the Houston brothers, among others, during and partially after the Vietnam war. Focused largely around the CIA's involvement in the war during its formative years, Tree of Smoke is told from many intertwining points of view, including Vietnamese intelligence officers, German assassins, and world-weary Colonels. Johnson's novel even has a complete, masterful recreation of the Tet offensive that is insanely gripping. Readers of his other work will remember the Houston brothers from his first novel Angels, which takes place later in time during the 1980's. Johnson's novel isn't particularly weird or rare, having won the National Book Award for 2007 and being a bestseller, but it is awesome, as is my copy he signed pictured below. This first edition hardcover also features great jacket art and design done by Susan Mitchell, which is increasingly rare these days. I strongly recommend picking up a copy especially seeing as they're not in short supply.

 

An inscription made out to me on the title page—note that he initially misspelled my name so there's an e with a dot over it