Movieola

John Domini has two short story collections and three novels in print, as well as one book of collected essays and criticism. He's published fiction in Paris Review and Ploughshares, non-fiction in GQ and The New York Times, and won a poetry prize from Meridian. Grants include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. The New York Times praised his work as "dreamlike... grabs hold of both reader and character," and Alan Cheuse, of NPR, described it as "witty and biting." He has taught at Harvard, Northwestern and elsewhere and makes his home in Des Moines.

"A concise and intelligent assessment of the state of modern storytelling." --The Millions "Released just in time for summer blockbuster season, [Movieola!] turns the movie industry's elevator pitch idioms inside-out with acrobatic humor." --Brooklyn Rail "The linked stories in John Domini's Movieola! riff on the storylines of various movie types. The result? Part parody, part meditation." --Chicago Tribune "Thoroughly entertaining." --Vanity Fair "A collection of fragmentary stories linked by the author's feverishly exuberant riffs on the world of moviemaking." --The Rumpus "Movieola is for fans of Calvino -- and of the film director's art." --BBC "A concise and intelligent assessment of the state of modern storytelling... Movieola! is not aptly described as a gathering together of fun tales. Rather, it's a concise and intelligent assessment of the state of modern storytelling, and its joy -- it's edge-of-your-seat, cliff-hanger thrill -- stems from what it offers by way of philosophical critique." - The Millions "If you've had it with the movies, John Domini in Movieola! will tell you, friskily, why." --Padgett Powell "Reading John Domini is always the smartest kind of fun - and beneath the brainy humor, the delicious wordplay, and the wry observations, there's a warm beating heart and a giddy excitement for our most egalitarian art form. Everyone who loves movies will love this book." --Amber Sparks "Like Coover's A Night at the Movies, Movieola! demonstrates a lover's attentiveness to the mannerisms and conventions of film. What Domini sneaks into the theater under his jacket, however, is a slyly disruptive deployment of the language of Hollywood insiderdom and wannabe insiderdom -- the parody is unstinting, but the souls of the characters are never neglected. Two thumbs up!" --Chris Sorrentino "A remarkable, droll meditation on film; in particular, on film genre; more particularly still, on how all great works of art either invent a genre or dissolve one." --David Shields