book cover of The Papaya King
 

The Papaya King

(2019)
A novel by

 
 
"An eccentric outsider is baffled by contemporary Manhattan in this engrossing second novel" by Adam Pelzman. - Kirkus Reviews

Bobby Walser's tragic childhood has left him a man frozen in time and mired in a world of his own making - one that has little in common with reality. Genteel and old-fashioned, his manners and habits are more suited to an aristocrat from a Chekhov play than to a young man on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Haunted by his failure to live up to the legacy of his great father, Walser's sense of ineffectuality is compounded when he suffers a series of deflating professional setbacks. He's baffled by the people around him, and his only solace is the hope of a romance - conducted via handwritten letters - with a mysterious woman who may not even exist.

As his despair with twenty-first century life reaches a breaking point, Walser bristles at a newly constructed sculpture that represents everything he loathes about these times. Realizing that he has more to care about - and fight for - outside himself, he marches toward a final showdown with this towering symbol of oppressive technology.

"This is another entrancing, deeply memorable offering from Pelzman ... Devilishly sharp social commentary." - Kirkus Reviews


Genre: Literary Fiction

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