Subject Steve

Meet Steve (not his real name) a Special Case in truth a Terminal Case and the eponymous antihero of Sam Lipsyte''s first novel. Steve has been informed by two doctors that he is dying of a condition of unquestioned fatality with no discernible physical cause. Eager for fame and to brand the new plague they dub it Goldfarb-Blackstone Preparatory Extinction Syndrome or PREXIS for short. Turns out though Steve''s just dying of boredom. The Subject Steve is a dazzling debut―by turns manic ebullient and exquisitely deadpan―Sam Lipsyte is in company with the master American satirists.