Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World : A Novel

"A dark, suburban fantasy . . . richly funny, even whimsical, and bizarrely familiar." —The New Yorker

In the seaside community of Donald Antrim's Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, the citizens are restless. The mayor has fired stinger missiles into the Botanical Garden reflecting pool, and his public execution was a messy affair. As these hawkish suburbanites fortify their houses with deadly moats and land mines, a former third-grade teacher named Pete Robinson steps forward with a tenuous bid to replace the mayor. But can anyone satisfy the terrible will of the people? By turns funny and phantasmagorical, fiercely intelligent and imaginative, Donald Antrim's story of suburban civics turned macabre is a new American classic.

“Entertaining and mischievously imagined . . . Antrim is a wonderful, truly original comic writer.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“A slice of sulfurous whimsy… You are draw in because of the depth of human feeling that Antrim smuggles in… almost below the radar level.” —The New York Times

“The author's surreal vision is both imaginative and wholly his own . . . A striking literary discovery.” —The Boston Globe