Books by Karl Taro Greenfeld

“I was twenty-three and I had set off for Asia to become a writer, intrigued by lurid tales of booms, busts, drugs, sex, violence, magic. There was a wicked sorcery in Asia, in the economic profligacy of the early nineties, in the way financiers and businessmen took a rapidly wiring and developing continent and looted billions, like a titanic parlor trick converting all that wealth into abandoned office complexes and half-completed shopping malls. . . . I wanted it all—the money, the sex, the drugs. And to this day I believe that if I am honest with myself, despite all I have learned the hard way over the past decade, I would still want it all again, the fucking and the getting loaded and the scheming to get enough money to pay for that life.”In the late 1980s, not long out of college, Karl Taro Greenfeld found himself stranded in New York, a failed writer before his career had even begun. His Jewish-American father angrily cut off support; his Japanese mother suggested he go to Japan to teach English. He did, accepting a job with no more promise than he’d had before. But he stayed in Asia for the next several years, working his way through a series of journalistic posts, watching a culture erupt before his eyes and facing his own demons. Through a series of vividly imagistic stories that range from the rigidly journalistic to the deeply intimate, Standard Deviations recounts Greenfeld’s experiences—both professional and personal—during Asia’s wild ride at the end of the twentieth century. Whether drinking Japanese cough syrup to get high with other Western expatriates, visiting a free-sex ashram in Bombay, or watching a former high school pal self-destruct as an equity analyst in Jakarta, Greenfeld evokes the spirit of a continent in flux at an explosive “bubble” economy’s end—and a man confronting his own identity and aspirations.Raunchy, insightful, eloquent and moving, Standard Deviations is an uncompromising work of cultural observation and self-exploration.

Can relationships exist without language? How should aging parents care for a nonverbal, violent child, and then a grown man who is not self-sufficient? Is there anything that can be done to help an extremely autistic child or adult become a member of mainstream society? This book presents the social history of autism.

Hver morgen, når børnene er fulgt i privatskole, mødes seks fædre på den lokale kaffebar i den eksklusive Tribeca-bydel på Manhattan i New York. Vi følger deres tilfældige og umage venskab, deres koner, børn og elskerinder, mens et portræt tegner sig af en bydel, der forandrer sig, i takt med at nedlagte industribygninger og loftsrum bliver til fashionable lejligheder, og huspriserne stiger og stiger.Triburbia er fortællingen om moderne newyorkere på kanten af finanskrisen. Karl Taro Greenfeld beskriver en bydel ramt af friværdi, gentrificering og bristede illusioner, mens han tørt humoristisk fortæller om seks midaldrende mænd, der efter de fleste standarder er privilegerede, men som endegyldigt har forladt deres ungdom. Nu står de midt i livet, spundet ind i umærkeligt opståede dagligdagsrutiner – med det arbejde, de endte med at få; de koner, de endte med at få; de elskerinder, de endte med at få og de børn, de endte med at få.Triburbia er Karl Taro Greenfelds skønlitterære debut. Han er blevet sammenlignet med forfattere som Jeffery Eugenides, Jonathan Franzen og Tom Rachman."Det er ikke helt grundløst, at Karl Taro Greenfeld er blevet sammenlignet med Jonathan Franzen." - Ekstra Bladet"Greenfeld evner som den beslægtede Jonathan Franzen at spotte den sigende detalje i det moderne storbyliv (…) en begavet, letflydende og kærlig-satirisk hudfletning af det moderne liv, båret af menneskekundskab og sans for den by, hvori han selv bor ..." - Kristeligt Dagblad"Romanen rager et godt stykke op over middelgod med sit usympatiske persongalleri og sine velfortalte historier om en række fædre fra den kreative klasse og deres koner, børn og elskerinder." - Weekendavisen