{"product_id":"jack-the-modernist","title":"Jack the Modernist","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eJack the Modernist\u003c\/em\u003e, Robert Glück follows the unraveling of a love affair between Bob and the elusive Jack, a film director whose presence exerts an unusual hold over him. Set in the early 1980s, the novel moves through the intimate, restless world of gay life in San Francisco, where desire, sex, art, friendship, and self-invention are inseparable from the experience of everyday life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBob is fascinated by Jack and increasingly consumed by the relationship. His attempts to understand Jack lead him through bars, bathhouses, telephone conversations, fantasies, memories, and encounters with other men. Rather than presenting the affair as a conventional romance, Glück fragments the narrative into observations, digressions, recollections, and sudden revelations, capturing the unstable nature of desire itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOriginally published in 1985 and long out of print, \u003cem\u003eJack the Modernist\u003c\/em\u003e is an important work of the New Narrative movement, a literary tradition that blurred the boundaries between fiction, autobiography, criticism, and everyday experience. Glück's prose is playful, sensual, self-conscious, and deeply interested in the possibilities of language. The novel's unconventional form becomes a way of examining obsession and the difficulty of turning lived experience into a coherent story.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA cult classic of 1980s gay literature, \u003cem\u003eJack the Modernist\u003c\/em\u003e is both a portrait of a particular literary and queer milieu and an inventive meditation on love, art, sex, and the limits of narrative.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRobert Glück is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor, and artist. He was a co-founder, with Bruce Boone, of the New Narrative movement in San Francisco during the late 1970s. His fiction frequently combines autobiography, literary experimentation, criticism, and reflections on art and sexuality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGlück is the author of \u003cem\u003eMargery Kempe\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eAbout Ed\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eElements\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDenny Smith\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eCommunal Nude\u003c\/em\u003e. He has also worked as an editor and teacher and served as director of the Poetry Center at San Francisco State University. \u003cem\u003eJack the Modernist\u003c\/em\u003e was his first novel and has become one of the defining works associated with New Narrative.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRob Halpern provides the introduction to this NYRB Classics edition. He is a poet, writer, and professor of creative writing whose work has engaged extensively with New Narrative and experimental literary traditions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNew York Review Books Classics\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOctober 28, 2025\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePaperback\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e176\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSubjects\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLiterary Fiction; LGBTQ+ Fiction; Gay Literature; New Narrative; Postmodern Fiction; American Literature; San Francisco; Art and Literature; Sexuality; Desire; Love; Experimental Fiction\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e9781681379715\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Old Post Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45397569601718,"sku":"9781681379715","price":22.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0731\/2264\/4150\/files\/9781681379715.jpg?v=1788275980","url":"https:\/\/oldpostbookshop.com\/products\/jack-the-modernist","provider":"Old Post Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}