num_pages: 467
description: Published when Wallace was just twenty-four years old, The Broom of the System stunned critics and marked the emergence of an extraordinary new talent. At the center of this outlandishly funny, fiercely intelligent novel is the bewitching heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio. Lenore’s great-grandmother has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau, and boss, Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous, and her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psycho-babble, Auden, and the King James Bible. Ingenious and entertaining, this debut from one of the most innovative writers of his generation brilliantly explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.
language: English
title: The Broom of the System
titlecomplete: The Broom of the System
characters: Dr. Jay Curtis, Norman Bombardini, Clarice Beadsman, Andy (Wang-Dang) Lang, Stonecipher LaVache Beadsman, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman, Candy Mandible, Rick Vigorous, John Beadsman, Vlad The Impaler (TBODS), Mr. Bloemker, Melinda (Mindy) Metalman, Stonecipher Beadsman III, Patrice LaVache Beadsman
genres: American, Americana, Philosophy, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, The United States Of America, Fiction, Contemporary, Humor
ratings_count: 22166
places: Ohio, The United States of America, Cleveland, Ohio
publisher: Penguin Books