Degas at the Gas Station: Essays (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781478033035)

In his latest collection, Thomas Beller trains his piercing literary eye on how a single, seismic event indelibly shapes the trajectory of the common and mundane experiences of one's life. Weaving together a charming set of autobiographical stories, Beller interrogates the randomness and contingencies that separate sadness from joy, death from life. His father escaped the Nazis, only to die in America from cancer when Beller was nine years old. Beller measures how this loss impacted his life as the father of two young children and became both a catalyst for understanding an ever-present sorrow. At the same time, ordinary moments--from retrieving an iPod from the subway tracks to encountering the police at a Kinks concert to observing his young tutued ballerina daughter at a gas station--lead to instances of penetrating insight, self-deprecation, and humor. Degas at the Gas Station presents an endearing and bracingly honest portrait of the author as an ever-curious observer of the mysteries and profundities of everyday life.

Author: Thomas Beller
ISBN-10: 1478033037
ISBN-13: 9781478033035
Publisher: Duke University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/04/2025
Pages: 280
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.98lbs

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2025