Checkpoint
A Novel
Nicholson Baker
Alfred A. Knopf, August 2004
"Compelling . . . a passionate cry from the heart." --USA Today
“Checkpoint is about limits — of presidential power, of law, of discourse, of rationality, and of language itself.” --Boston Phoenix
"Baker's new novel checks its inhibitions at the door . . .
entertaining, edgy and unpredictable." --Las Vegas City Life
"Sly, slender but important . . . Baker excels at writing about those facets of the human experience we prefer to hide." --San Francisco Chronicle
"If one of our supreme chroniclers of mild manners can be roused to such patriotic indignation, democracy yet has a fighting chance." --LA Weekly
"This novel could be a kind of record of our times. . . . Its
goal is to take [the] internal combustion process of hatred and anger
and make it visible--which Baker does brilliantly." --Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
"Checkpoint" comes down unmistakably on the side of civility
and political process, not assassination. But it's the book's inward rage
that sticks with you." --Seattle Times
"A ripped-from-the-headlines docudrama for the printed page, a timely and tense screed for a divided country hurtling toward who knows where." --Associated Press
"An astonishing, uncomfortable conversation. Baker has a real ear for the cadence and wryness of the modern intelligentsia." --Portland Oregonian
"Checkpoint is like a hornet: It’s small, quiet, with a
sinister aspect to its midday peregrinations, and it has a stinger: conscience."
--Toronto Globe and Mail
Margaret
Brentano
Besides Checkpoint, Nicholson Baker has published nine books, available in paperback from Vintage Books.
For more information see the Nicholson Baker Page, maintained by John Walkenbach.
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