num_pages: 135
description: Although most of the action of The Mezzanine occurs on the escalator of an office building, where its narrator is returning to work after buying shoelaces, this startlingly inventive and witty novel takes us farther than most fiction written today. It lends to milk cartons the associative richness of Marcel Proust's madeleines. It names the eight most significant advances in a human life —beginning with shoe-tying. It asks whether the hot air blowers in bathrooms really are more sanitary than towels. And it casts a dazzling light on our relations with the objects and people we usually take for granted.
language: English
title: The Mezzanine
titlecomplete: The Mezzanine
characters: Howie
genres: American, Classics, Humor, Novella, Novels, 20th Century, Literature, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 8538
publisher: Vintage