Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for The Threat by Nathaniel Stein - Available

The Threat

by Nathaniel Stein
Pete Cross
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Melvin Levin is a middle-aged man who is dissatisfied with his dull and mediocre life. That is, he was until he received a mysterious death threat in the mail. Terrified at first, Levin soon becomes accustomed to the threat—and then, increasingly, delighted with it, thrilled with his newfound importance as a "threatened man." But as his obsession with maintaining this identity becomes all-consuming, he risks blinding himself to the twin dangers of the threat itself and—perhaps worse—his own deranged mind. At once absurdist, moving, and savagely funny, The Threat is a timeless parable of the comic lengths to which people go to protect the delusions that validate them.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 16, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666654110
      • File size: 149338 KB
      • Duration: 05:11:07

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 20, 2023
      New Yorker contributing humor writer Stein debuts with a darkly funny tale of a man’s unraveling after he receives an unprovoked death threat. Melvin Levin, 41, is focused on gaining a long-awaited promotion at his unspecified corporate office job when he finds an anonymously written letter laced with hilarious misspellings and mixed metaphors (“You’ve worn out my patients for the last time and your through. My fury will rain down on you like a pack of rapid dogs and you’ll be flayed”). To Levin’s surprise, the attention paid to him by “the threatener” inspires newfound confidence. His gait takes on a “hint of urgency, conveyed mainly by a slight hunching forward,” and he adopts a superior attitude when a colleague shares a story of a comparatively inconsequential mugging. After the threatener sends photographs of Levin as proof that he’s being surveilled, Levin is keen to share them with coworkers until he realizes they’re unflattering. As he grows restless with waiting for the threatener to act and annoyed by his coworkers’ banal fixation on things like a retirement party, he finally forces a crisis, which the author resolves with surprising irony. Stein’s diverting story of self-aggrandizement is worth a look.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Pete Cross uses an arch tone and deliberate pacing to deliver this dark satire of contemporary life. Office drone Melvin Levin's existence is flat as a pancake until he receives an anonymous and seemingly unmotivated death threat in the mail. The threat breaks the spell of his drone life and pushes him into a frenzy of paranoia and frustration, but for the first time in a long time he feels truly alive. What did he do to deserve this? Cross's portrayal of the telephone voice of the potential killer adds a dark tone reminiscent of CATCH-22 and A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. For fans of outrageous, biting social commentary wrapped in a white-hot slapstick package. R.O. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading