The New Austerities

First published in 1994, Tito Perdue's The New Austerities returns from Standard American Publishing.

"The New Austerities continues Tito Perdue's saga of his alter ego: librophile, insomniac, and misanthrope Lee Pefley. The book begins with Lee and his wife Judy, now in middle age, living in New York City, where they have had their fill of crime, decadence, and alienation. So with their life's savings, a pistol, and a large collection of classical music and pilfered books, Lee and Judy depart New York bound for Lee's ancestral home in Alabama, which promises a more human existence for the trivial price of a few I-told-you-sos. The New Austerities is a surreal, sardonic journey through the cultural wasteland and political chaos of post-modern America, but it proves that with a certain amount of luck - and a modicum of ruthlessness and guile - you can go home again. The New Austerities is by turns poetic and droll, surreal and deeply moving."