Duplex - by Mike Nagel (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Mike Nagel is spending too much time in his duplex. Mostly he's hungover. There's a squirrel in the attic, the ceiling's caving in, and he's not sure who to call about it. Not much else seems to happen in Mike Nagel's Duplex, except of course everything happens there: a distinct mind is constantly working over the absurdity, meaninglessness, and mundanity of contemporary life in ways both laugh-out-loud funny and thoughtfully compelling.

Review Quotes

"A miraculous combination of comedy and despair . . . I completely loved the book."

- David Shields, author of Reality Hunger

"I loved hanging out in Mike Nagel's Duplex! It was discombobulating in all the best ways. I look forward to seeing what he does next."

- Amy Fusselman, author of Idiophone

"'Things, I've noticed, are coming apart, ' writes Mike Nagel. And: 'One way homicide detectives can tell a suspect is lying is if their story makes perfect sense.' If you, too, are looking for clues, my fellow detectives, then you should read Duplex: a pandemic-era chronicle in which, as things come apart, Nagel does something more important, more impressive and more difficult than making perfect sense: he tells you the truth."

- J. D. Daniels, author of The Correspondence

"I could write about the wending and winding perfect sentences, the way your brain hypnotically starts thinking a little differently while reading, but instead I just want you to know that I read this book straight through on a cross country flight, letting my body shake a little, chuckling to myself while holding in full-on, out-loud laugher like a dork, a possibly ideal reading experience-in distraction level, activity itself, and the pleasure of starting a perfectly short book in one location and finishing just a few hours later in another."

- Aaron Burch, founding editor of Hobart, HAD, & WAS Quarterly

About the Author

Mike Nagel is the author of Duplex (Autofocus Books, 2022). His essays have appeared in apt, Hobart, Split Lip, Salt Hill, DIAGRAM, and elsewhere around the internet. He lives in Plano, Texas.