Rudolph Wurlitzer, American Novelist and Screenwriter

This study gives a novel-by-novel analysis of Wurlitzer's works, relating his fiction to the writings of the Beats, Beckett, and other influences. Each of his novels centers around a literal or metaphorical West where the cultural bearings of the protagonists are brought under pressure, returning again and again to issues of cultural breakdown and isolation. A separate chapter is devoted to his work for the cinema and the strong continuity between his `road movies' and his fiction. This is the first critical study of Wurlitzer's work and has been prepared with the help of the novelist himself.