A young, charismatic African-American pastor disappears from his local parish of Wâ€”, a comfortable bedroomcommunity in suburban New England. In the backlash and impending investigation, no satirical stone is left unturned, especially those within the Caruso household, an ordinary American family hollowed out by their world of convenience and easy moral remedies.

The Faithful Narrative of a Pastor's Disappearance: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Anastas, Benjamin

Literary

Picador

When young, black Reverend Thomas Mosher vanishes, his congregation grapples with the crisis and the theories about his disappearance, from his rumored affair to the white liberal parishioners who might have driven him away.

The Faithful Narrative of a Pastor's Disappearance

United States

Farrar. Straus & Giroux

An Underachiever's Diary

In the mid-1960s, william was the firstborn of identical twin boys. it is the last time in his life he will ever be first in anything.

Underachiever's Diary

HarpPeren

This is the diary of William, a devout underachiever. He lives by the following principles: 1. Alone in an age of increasing competition and diminished possibilities, the underachiever, when faced with doing battle, will forfeit rather than draw blood in the modern arena. He is powerless, and deliberately weak. 2. The underachiever is misanthropic by default. He will use negativity as his greatest weapon, and reserve the right to criticize all that is exalted in both secular and religious society. He lives at a calculated distance from the mainstream, longing secretly to be included, while, at the same time, voicing his contempt for those who play by the rules, that is, achievers of the garden variety, and especially his nemesis, the overachiever. 3. Rather than saying "Yes, yes" to life, the underachiever will say "No, thank you." If pressed, he will turn belligerent. 4. Underachievers are not to be confused with younger, slower brothers of southern presidents, like Billy Carter and Roger Clinton. These gentlemen do the best with whatever genetic leftovers they've been given, while the underachiever is entrusted with a master key to opportunity's home office, and misplaces it. 5. If the underachiever were a mixed drink, he would be a dry martini, one part obscurity (vermouth), three parts unhappiness (gin). --from Underachieving: A Theory (William's college term paper) With his debut novel, An Underachiever's Diary, Benjamin Anastas has written a hymn to the imperfect and created a definitive antihero for the 90s.

The Dial Press

Meet William, a devout underachiever. He enters life as the firstborn of identical twin boys. It is the last time he will beat his overachieving brother Clive, or anyone else for that matter, at anything. This is William’s manifesto for the underachiever. It is the chronicle of a lifetime of failure–part diary and part handbook for self-defeat. At once corrosively funny and surprisingly tender, An Underachiever’s Diary is a classic tale of perverse perseverance.

An Underachiever's Diary: A Novel

Humor & Satire

Dial Press Trade Paperback

When he was three, in the early 1970s, Benjamin Anastas found himself in his mother’s fringe-therapy group in Massachusetts, a sign around his neck: Too Good to Be True. The phrase haunted him through his life, even as he found the literary acclaim he sought after his 1999 novel, An Underachiever’s Diary, had made the smart set take notice.Too Good to Be True is his deeply moving memoir of fathers and sons, crushing debt and infidelity—and the first, cautious steps taken toward piecing a life back together. “It took a long time for me to admit I had failed,” Anastas begins. Broke, his promising literary career evaporated, he’s hounded by debt collectors as he tries to repair a life ripped apart by the spectacular implosion of his marriage, which ended when his pregnant wife left him for another man. Had it all been too good to be true? Anastas’s fierce love for his young son forces him to confront his own childhood, fraught with mental illness and divorce. His father’s disdain for money might have been in line with the ’70s zeitgeist—but what does it mean when you’re dumping change into a Coinstar machine, trying to scrounge enough to buy your son a meal? Charged with rage and despair, humor and hope, this unforgettable book is about losing one’s way and finding it again, and the redemptive power of art.

Too Good to Be True: A Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Little A / New Harvest

BRILLIANCE AUDIO ^

When he was three, in the early 1970s, Benjamin Anastas found himself in his mother’s fringe-therapy group in Massachusetts, a sign around his neck: Too Good to Be True. The phrase haunted him through his life, even as he found the literary acclaim he sought after his 1999 novel, An Underachiever’s Diary, had made the smart set take notice. Too Good to Be True is his deeply moving memoir of fathers and sons, crushing debt and infidelity—and the first, cautious steps taken toward piecing a life back together.
“It took a long time for me to admit I had failed,” Anastas begins. Broke, his promising literary career evaporated, he’s hounded by debt collectors as he tries to repair a life ripped apart by the spectacular implosion of his marriage, which ended when his pregnant wife left him for another man. Had it all been too good to be true? Anastas’s fierce love for his young son forces him to confront his own childhood, fraught with mental illness and divorce. His father’s disdain for money might have been in line with the ’70s zeitgeist—but what does it mean when you’re dumping change into a Coinstar machine, trying to scrounge enough to buy your son a meal? Charged with rage and despair, humor and hope, this unforgettable book is about losing one’s way and finding it again, and the redemptive power of art.

Little A

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Books by Anastas, Benjamin

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Anastas, Benjamin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Faithful Narrative of a Pastor's Disappearance: A Novel

The Faithful Narrative of a Pastor's Disappearance

Underachiever's Diary

An Underachiever's Diary

An Underachiever's Diary: A Novel

Too Good to Be True: A Memoir

Too Good to Be True: A Memoir

Too Good to Be True: A Memoir

Too Good to Be True: A Memoir