Description: Lee Konstantinou combines a riveting reading of The Last Samurai with a behind-the-scenes look at Helen DeWitt's fraught experiences with corporate publishing. He shows how interpreting the ambition and richness of DeWitt's work in light of her struggles with literary institutions provides a potent social critique.
Review Quotes: Finally! I have been waiting for years for someone to give The Last Samurai, the most inventive and delightful novel of the twenty-first century, the critical attention it deserves. Lee Konstantinou has done it, and he has done it with amazing insight, clarity, and humor. His book will remain close at hand every time I reread and teach The Last Samurai.--Merve Emre, University of Oxford and contributing writer at the New Yorker