Nicholson Baker

The obsessive detail

by Keith Taylor

posted 2/1/2003

Nicholson Baker has carved out a unique place for himself in American letters: he is our master of the obsessive detail. All of his novels spin out from a microscopic look at a small, often mundane action. It should come as no surprise that the two that deal with sexuality, Vox and The Fermata, are the most widely known, but they are simply a variation on a pattern Baker has used in

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