The Paul Chowder Chronicles: The Anthologist and Traveling Sprinkler, Two Novels

TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME, BOTH OF NICHOLSON BAKER€S BRILLIANT NOVELS FEATURING BELOVED HERO AND POET PAUL CHOWDER
 
A New York Times notable book and a national bestseller, Nicholson Baker€s The Anthologist introduces his quirkiest and most unforgettable protagonist yet, the €œerudite, unpretentious, and often hilarious€ (The New Yorker) Paul Chowder.

Chowder really needs to write an introduction to his new anthology of verse, Only Rhyme€"it€s the first work his editor has sent him in months€"but he€s having a hard time getting started. Not only is his career floundering, but his girlfriend, Roz, just moved out. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Chowder can€t keep his mind from drifting to the sufferings of the great poets, from Tennyson and Yeats to Roethke, Merwin, to every poet who€s been published in The New Yorker. As he ponders the strange power and musicality of language, and adjusts to his newly single life, Chowder€s introduction slowly but surely begins to take shape.

A wholly entertaining and beguiling love story, and the first novel in the chronicles of Paul Chowder€"which is followed by Traveling Sprinkler in this same volume€"The Anthologist is €œa loving and superbly witty homage to poetryand to life€ (The Boston Globe).