-- First paperback edition.-- Assembled out of a catalogue of literary styles and a chorus of comic voices, Gilbert Sorrentino's parodic and picaresque Pastoral takes his hero musician Serge "Blue" Gavotte on a journey across the country in search of the Perfect Musical Phrase. Blue Pastoral is a relentless Swiftian satire of American culture and the way it uses and abuses language.-- A recipient of numerous grants and awards including the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, two Guggenheim Fellowships, two NEA Fellowships and a Lannan Literary Award, Sorrentino is the author of thirteen novels as well as books of poetry and criticism.-- First published by North Point (1983).