Speedboat by Renata Adler

A novel of fractured vignettes, Speedboat is a barrage of aphoristic non sequiturs that, when assembled as a whole, form a sharp critique of the neuroses of urban life in the 1970s. At once deadpan and anxious, the narrative—constantly weaving and doubling-back—is barbed, smart, and very funny. Yet, for all its fragmentation, Speedboat is also powerfully lyrical—the prose just never seems to stumble. It’s wonderfully disjointed poetry.