A Life In Books: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley
"InA Life In Books, Warren Lehrer has written a profound commentary on this nausea-inducing unique moment in the grand transition from Silly Mind to Machine Mind. Amusingly and smartly enough, he may have helped transition 'the last great American novel' to the first 'great illustrated novel' which is how novels started.A Life In Booksis brilliant, beautiful, delicious for eyes and mind.”Andrei Codrescu, public radio commentator, editorExquisite Corpse, novelist, poet"In Warren Lehrer’s ingenious, one-of-kind novel,A Life In Books: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley, we see all the covers of all 101 books supposedly written by the narrator over the last several decades... A tour-de-force!"Kurt Andersen,Studio 360"For anyone who has ever resisted judging a book by its cover, now's your chance: InA Life In Books, author and graphic design visionary Warren Lehrer crafts a vivid kaleidoscopic odyssey that frames one man's life through not one, but one hundred different books—and book jackets. In this quirky, yet unmistakably modern evocation of the illuminated manuscript, Lehrer's book reminds us that we are what we do. And, for that matter, what we publish."Jessica Helfand, founding editorDesign Observer, graphic designer, writer, educator“A meticulously illustrated chronicle… Lehrer’s 101 cover designs for Mobley’s books are pitch perfect. And like the best film title sequences, which establish moods or introduce plotlines, these fictional covers are vehicles by which Lehrer illuminates Mobley’s tale of success and failure. By no means a portfolio; Lehrer has created a parallel art world”Steven Heller,The Atlantic"A tour de force of graphic design, illustration and writing. Exploiting a wide range of illustration styles to delight the eye, Lehrer offers a funny, thought-provoking and refreshing twist on the graphic novel… Guaranteed to bring a smile."Ken Carbone,The Huffington Post“Warren Lehrer has spent a decade writing and designing a book that is way more than a book. A blend of writing and design, which extends to performance art…A Life in Books: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobleyis a typographical and design tour de force.”Ellen Shapiro,Print Magazine"Warren Lehrer's novelA Life In Booksis a masterpiece of visual storytelling, boldly integrating illustration and typography into its engaging story."David Gutowski,Largehearted Boy“In the era of cookie-cutter books and rubber-stamped stories, Warren Lehrer’sA Life In Booksis fresh, original, idiosyncratic, beautiful, and important.”Rabih Alameddine, novelist and painter, author ofKoolaids, I, the Divine, The Perv, Hakawati“Warren Lehrer is witty, ingenious, sly, serious, a graphic wizard and literary innovator. His crazily ambitious illuminated novel uses art and artifice to test our assumptions about how life is supposed to be in modern America… So much more than a book,A Life In Booksis an experience… at once revealing and mysterious, a commentary on ego, celebrity and American society… It plays like literary jazz: Lehrer’s fingers pumping up and down on the keys, laying down pungent notes, sparkling phrases, lilting tunes about who we are and where we are going.”Dan Bailes,The Vision Thing"A Life in Books: The Rise & Fall of Blue Mobley, a gorgeously produced multi-color “novel,” is a brilliant meditation on the state of publishing in the 21st Century. What is truth? What is fiction? Who is “me,” am I my nom de plume, and how can I turn us into a franchise… or maybe even into two?! By the time you reach page 330 with pictures of Bleu’s Book Lamps, you’ll be laughing through your tears... I can’t think of a better gift."Tsiviah Huttner,Second City Tzivi"In scope, execution and ambition,A Life In Booksis an extraordinary book. Like a monk’s painstaking production of an illuminated manuscript, it took Lehrer seven years to pull off. There’s also a contest, a travelling exhibition with video, and a performance/reading tour… Lehrer’s books are like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”Lucy Sisman,Wword"The coolest book ever."Designers and Books"Stories told with humor, pathos, poetry, drama and the absurd…”Brownstoner Queens"A Life In Booksis unique, incredible, affecting, meticulous, the perfect hide-and-seek game, and honestly, one of those works that seems so obvious and fertile as a structure, it’s hard to believe it hasn’t been done before. Am I gushing? I just love it. This is an important book."Stephen Farrell, design innovator,Vas An Opera In Flatland and Toc: A New Media NovelAwards"A genre-defying night that fuses art and literature, prose and design into a multi-media presentation unlike any other."Skylight Books