Going to See the Elephant

By Rodes Fishburne
(Gallery Books, Paperback, 9781439194041, 320pp.)

Publication Date: April 19, 2011

Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Hardcover, Hardcover

Categories: Literary, Humorous

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the January 2009 Indie Next List

“Slater Brown arrives in San Francisco with dreams of writing the great American novel. However, fate has different ideas, handing Slater the ability to find great stories and restore a newspaper to its former glory. Throw in a beautiful woman and a mad scientist, and you have a debut novel that's hilarious, unpredictable, and lovely.”

-- Meaghan Leenaarts, Island Bookstore, Corolla, NC

Description

WHAT IF WE TOLD YOU YOU’RE ABOUT TO READ?

“. . . an adventure story, a love story, a story about growing up”? ?

He got the idea for the novel from a ferocious thunderstorm in Alaska that trapped him in a tent for twenty-one days with only a pair of headphones and a Walkman radio

You’ll understand when you read the book…

BECAUSE A SMALL POCKET RADIO TRANSFORMS OUR MAIN CHARACTER FROM THE GREATEST UNKNOWN WRITER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD . . . TO THE MOST POWERFUL NEWSPAPERMAN ON THE WEST COAST.

So is it any wonder the story was selected for the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Notable Books” and the Denver Post’s “Editor’s Pick”? Or for that matter, Amazon’s “Best Books of the Month,” the “Indie Next List,” The Week magazine’s “Must Reads,” and San Francisco magazine’s “Hot List”?

IS IT ROMANTIC, YOU ASK? CLEVER? MAGICAL? IT’S ALL OF THOSE, WE’D SAY. IN FACT . . .

About the Author

Rodes Fishburne has been published in the New Yorker, the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, and Forbes ASAP, where he was the editor of the acclaimed "Big Issue," an annual magazine of literary essays from leading writers and thinkers. He is a member of the Grotto, a San Francisco writers' collective. Going to See the Elephant is his first novel.

Conversation Starters from ReadingGroupChoices.com

1. When we first meet Slater Brown, he is feverishly working on…nothing. What did you make of Slater's burning need to write something without knowing what that something is? Did you interpret this as a sign of youthful foolishness or a natural desire for a talented young man? Did your opinion of Slater's aspirations change throughout the novel?

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