ABOUT THIS BOOK

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 BIOGRAPHY

Thomas Beller is a long time contributor to the New Yorker and the author of several books including Lost in the Game: A Book about Basketball, also published by Duke University Press; J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist; and The Sleep-Over Artist. A 2024-25 Guggenheim fellow, he is a founding editor of Open City Magazine and Books and Mrbellersneighborhood.com, and Professor and Director of creative writing at Tulane University.

REVIEWS

“Thomas Beller writes with wit, irony, skepticism, and brio. Degas at the Gas Station is one of the finest collections of personal essays I have seen in a long while.”
-- Phillip Lopate, author of My Affair with Art House Cinema: Essays and Reviews

“The true power of this excellent collection comes through Thomas Beller’s ability to dig down into the ordinary and commonplace for new and revelatory insight. A master of the small moment, Beller is one of the strongest personal essayists in contemporary literature.”
-- Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, author of American Estrangement: Stories

“This is a treasure trove of glimmering pieces on fatherhood and youth, odd jobs and urban life. The essay lives every time Thomas Beller picks up the pen.”
-- Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams: A Novel

"Beller’s lucid writing makes even the ordinary magical. The result is a penetrating meditation on the human condition."
-- Publishers Weekly

"Few essayists write about their families with the verve and insight that Thomas Beller brings to his stories about his parents, wife, and two children, among others, and in his latest book he unpacks the wonders and riddles of being a son, a husband, and, especially, a father."
-- Jim Kelly Air Mail

"A collection of autobiographical essays that poignantly explores the author’s life—from the loss of his father at a young age to now being a father of two college-age children to the everyday observations and adventures life throws his way—through a discerning and descriptive lens filtered through a bittersweet emotional mix of humor, nostalgia, wonder, joy, and an undercurrent of sadness."
-- Brad Thomas Parsons Last Call

"Wry and insightful. . . . Beller’s writing is smart, witty, and contemplative, offering observations that will resonate far beyond his particular experiences to give readers a fresh perspective on their own lives."

-- Yelizaveta P. Renfro Washington Independent Review of Books

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Bad News Bears

Breaking Away

Manet/Degas

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