By Stanley Elkin
Introduction by Rick Moody
ISBN: 9781628976083
Publication Date: 7/1/2025
Brimming with Elkin's comic brilliance and singular wordplay, The Magic Kingdom tells the story of Eddy Bale, who, determined to learn from the ghastly experience of his son's long, drawn-out death, decides to give seven terminally ill children a dream vacation before they die.
Abandoned by his wife and devastated by the death of his twelve-year old son, Eddy Bale becomes obsessed with the plight of terminally ill children and develops a plan to provide a last hurrah dream vacation for seven children who will never grow-up.
Eddy and his four dysfunctional chaperones journey to the entertainment capital of America—Disney World. Once they arrive, a series of absurdities characteristic of an Elkin novel—including a freak snowstorm and a run-in with a vengeful Mickey Mouse—transform Eddy's idealistic wish into a fantastic nightmare.
Reviews
“In his previous work, Mr. Elkin's language is always a surprise and a joy. A teen-age hooligan speaks like Hamlet in Push, the Bully, a liquor store owner speaks convincingly from the grave in The Living End. Mr. Elkin tortures language the way fate usually tortures his characters, but Mr. Elkin is kinder than fate and more fruitful. He squeezes out new meanings.”—Max Apple, NYT
“In this most unlikely, most hopeful of novels, Elkin shows how desire does not quit the body just because of a diagnosis. He shows his disabled characters as sick and dying, sure, but also complicated and funny and very much alive. [...] With his full-throated, language-drunk voice, the maximalist Elkin makes a profound case for disabled “quality of life,” in all its flawed and overflowing humanity.” —Brian Trapp, The Cincinnati Review
“As always, Mr. Elkin plays the crazy music of his prose and takes off at the hint of a theme on his soaring funky riffs and jazzy blue notes. Not only among Elkin’s best works of fiction, but a comedy that cuts so many ways that it leaves us bleeding with laughter.” —Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, NYT
“Once again Elkin reigns inimitably over his domain, a wonderful world where affirmation cavorts with pain and death, and where the disease in comic vision’s pratfalls are given its healthy due.” —Library Journal
“An extraordinary artist in language.” —Robert M. Adams, NYRB
“Audaciously conceived characters,the slightest of dialogue,sophisticatedwit alliedto generosity of spirit, and writing that comes at the reader with hurricaneforce—these are what make Elkin’s magical mystery tour such a splendid work offiction.” —Newsday
Biographical Information
Stanley Elkin (1930-1995) was an award-winning author of novels, short stories, and essays. Born in the Bronx, Elkin received his BA and PhD from the University of Illinois and in 1960 became a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis where he taught until his death. His critically acclaimed works include the National Book Critics Circle Award-winners George Mills (1982) and Mrs. Ted Bliss (1995), as well as the National Book Award finalists The Dick Gibson Show (1972), Searches and Seizures (1974), and The MacGuffin(1991). His book of novellas, Van Gogh's Room at Arles, was a finalist for the PEN Faulkner Award. Many of his novels are available or forthcoming in new editions from Dalkey Archive Press.
Rick Moody is the author of six novels, including The Ice Storm; three collections of short stories, including Demonology; and three works of non-fiction. He writes regularly about music for Salmagundi magazine and teaches at Tufts University, in the greater Boston/Cambridge area.