Eat the Document: A Novel - Softcover

"Stunning...a glittering book that possesses the staccato ferocity of Joan Didion and the historical resonance and razzle-dazzle language of Don DeLillo."-- Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times" "Infused with subtle wit...singularly powerful and provocative...Spiotta has a wonderful ironic sensibility, juxtaposing '70s fervor with '90s expediency."-- "The Boston Globe" "Scintillating...Spiotta creates a mesmerizing portrait of radicalism's decline."-- "The Seattle Times" Spiotta's writing brims with energy and intelligence."-- "The New York Times Book Review" "With only her second book Dana Spiotta has become, I think, a major American writer. The ironic connections she makes between the cultural divide of the early '70s and late '90s are chilling and delicious. This scary and often brilliant novel comes together beautifully in the end -- there's an intense satisfaction of seeing everything link up so movingly and with such warmth, and yet Spiotta is the only female writer I know whose prose reminds me of the cool ambient poetry and steely precision of Don DeLillo, and "Eat the Document is as darkly exact and thrilling as the political novels of Joan Didion." -- Bret Easton Ellis, author of "Lunar Park

Eat the Document is a compelling story of activism, sacrifice and the cost of living a secret. It tells the story of two lovers, passionately committed 1970s anti-war protestors who, as a consequence of choices made back then, have had to erase their pasts, forge new identities and never see each other again. Dana Spiotta illuminates the buried connections between past and present - language, music, technology and activism - with coolness and precision, creating a multi-faceted portrait of three decades in America. `A mesmerising journey: from bomber to motherhood, from American subversive to middle-aged widow . . . Dana Spiotta runs the narrative intrigue with assurance, linking the youth-culture disaffection of the 1970s drop-outs with the dissidence of the 1990s generation. The mental energy in this novel is absorbing. Spiotta expresses its diversity with such nuance that it makes you gasp' Scotland on Sunday `Perceptive and intelligent . . . cool, verbally smart and socially astute' Independent `Her prose has the calm, ghostly precision of a surgical needle . . . A dark, gripping quasi-thriller that, as it digs deep into America's post-war counterculture, challenges as much as it beguiles' Metro `A major American writer . . . the only female writer I know whose prose reminds me of the cool ambient poetry and steely precision of Don DeLillo . . . Eat the Document is as darkly exact and thrilling as the political novels of Joan Didion' Bret Easton Ellis