From the Pulitzer Prizeโwinning author of Martin Dresslerโhailed by The New Yorker as โa virtuoso of waking dreamsโโcomes a dazzling collection of darkly comic stories united by their obsession with obsession.
"Remarkable ... Not just brilliant but prescient." โThe New York Times Book Review
In Dangerous Laughter, Steven Millhauser transports us to unknown universes that uncannily resemble our own.
The collection is divided into three parts that fit seamlessly together as a whole. It opens with a bang, as โCat โnโ Mouseโ reimagines the deadly ritual between cartoon rivals in a comedy of dynamite and anvilsโa masterly prologue that sets the stage for the alluring, very grown-up twists that follow.
Part one, โVanishing Acts,โ features stories of risk and escape: a lonely woman disappears without a trace; a high school boy becomes entangled with his best friendโs troubled sister; and a group of teenagers play a treacherous game that pushes them deep into โthe kingdom of forbidden things.โ
Excess reigns in the vivid, haunting places of Part twoโs โImpossible Architectures,โ where domes enclose whole cities, and a kingโs master miniaturist creates objects so tiny that soon his entire world is invisible.
Finally, โHeretical Historiesโ presents startling alternatives to the remembered past. โA Precursor of the Cinemaโ proposes a new, enigmatic form of illusion. And in the astonishing โThe Wizard of West Orangeโ a famous inventor sets out to simulate the sense of touchโbut success brings disturbing consequences.
Sensual, mysterious, Dangerous Laughter is a mesmerizing journey through brilliantly realized labyrinths of mortal pleasures that stretch the boundaries of the ordinary world to their limitsโand occasionally beyond.