![]() Initial release cover | |
Author | Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite |
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Language | English |
Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
Publication date | 2015 |
Publication place | United States |
Pages | 448 (Hardcover) |
ISBN | 9781476775425 |
War of the Encyclopaedists is a novel by Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite. [1] Published by Charles Scribner's Sons on 19 May 2015, the novel follows two friends, Mickey Montauk, a National Guard officer who is deployed to the Iraq War, and Halifax Corderoy, a graduate student at Boston University. [1] [2] The deployment of Montauk separates the two and they stay in touch via editing a Wikipedia entry. [2]
The plot draws from the two authors' personal experiences, Robinson called the main characters "more despicable versions of us". [1] Kovite fought in Baghdad during the Iraq War between 2004 and 2005 and Robinson is a poet. [3] The authors met in 2005 at a poetry program in Rome, writing of this novel commenced in 2009 and took around 4 years to complete. [1]
Michiko Kakutani writing for The New York Times claimed that while the article can seem "ad hoc and overly stage-managed" with characters crossing paths with "startling ease", it does so in a "intimate" and "breezy" way, concluding with calling the novel "captivating". [2] Ben East of The Observer wrote that while the book accurately portrays both "bohemian academia" and "unpopular military operations", "the narrative itself never quite coheres into a satisfying whole". [4]