In the Future Perfect

First edition. Crown 8vo. Pp. [xii], 113. Teal cloth boards, lettered in black to spine. Dust jacket design by Gertrude Huston, with a photograph by Eva Rubinstein. First printing of the simultaneous casebound issue of Abish's second collection of short stories. Some of the material was originally published in Fiction, Fiction International, New Directions in Prose and Poetry, Statements 2, and Transatlantic Review.

Employing deadpan humour, the seven stories included here subvert familiar realities by reflecting on the nature of language itself rather than plotline or narrative voice. Abish's early works like Minds Meet (1975), and Alphabetical Africa (1974), earned him a just reputation as a playful and trenchant experimental writer. He was awarded the 1981 PEN/Faulkner prize for his second novel, How German Is It/Wie Deutsch ist es (1980), and a MacArthur "genius" grant in 1987.